Passing on the Fun
So, if you’ve read your latest copy of The Polymer Arts all the way through, you may have noticed the cool looking material in the ad on the inside back page. Tavoos is new art material being tested and produced for the mixed media artist and other markets. The company reached out to me a couple months ago about testing and designing something with their material and after a perusal of their website, I immediately wrote Christi Friesen (because colorful and shiny makes one think of her!), and Christi and I have been playing with the stuff ever since.
Of course, we are two pretty darn busy people, and there is a lot to test with a new material, but we sure have been having fun. You can see some of Christi’s first pieces created with this unusual iridescent film in the ad. Here you see some of my trials with it. The top left is simply gluing the material onto a black polymer background with some Sage-style embellishing. To the right is a test tile on the adhesion properties of Tavoos and polymer. As it turns out, you can cure the Tavoos with polymer, but it warps and, depending on the heat and whether it is weighted down, it will kind of pull in on itself, which creates the pretty ripple effect. However, the materials also meld at over 250F, so I was able to attach it to polymer and polymer to Tavoos simply by curing it.
The third image came from an idea first tested by Lisa Lambright, owner of The Great Create and I Love 2 Craft (and the manufacturer and distributor of the Friesen and Pavelka product lines) that I tried playing with. If you lay a heat proof stamp (like the Lisa Pavelka stamps and texture sheets) on the Tavoos while it’s in the oven, it etches the Tavoos film.
We are still trying to figure out all that this material can do and how to use it with polymer, so there is still a ton of exploration to do. If you are interested in playing with this fun stuff and perhaps seeing your work on their website or in the next ad, jump over to their website at www.tavoosarts.com. Send any finished pieces and thoughts over to us here at connect@thepolymerarts.com. Time for a little exploring!
Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners:
Wow very cool looking stuff. I just went and checked out their site and it looks like a firm plastic is that right Sage? It actually looks a little like Irise Film which I’ve only played around with a little but also has lots of possibilities with polymer clay. Might have to get me some I think!!! Can’t wait to get my magazine now.