2005-07-26, 17:10(+00), Rod:
[...]
But what is toile de verre without any verre? What do they use instead?

Well, that one's not called "toile de verre". "toile textilisée
à peindre" (textile-type canvas to be painted). It's made of (in
French) /polyester/, /celulose/, /résine/ and /charges/ (?).

It's not woven contrary to the /glass canvas/. Note that there's
also "voil de verre" which is thinner and not woven (and flat).

I was also concerned about the health issues - and surprised to see it so
widely available (except here in the UK).

Actually, I can't find anywhere where it's mentionned it's
dangerous. Competitors may play with the fact that glass fibre
wool is know to be dangerous. Actually, we've got bare glass
wool in the building roof space. There's a dust of it flying all
around the roof space and probably infiltrating through the
holes in the ceiling. So a painted (3 times is recommanded which
makes it expensive, especially when you consider you need a lot
of special glue as well) glass canvas is nothing when compared
to glass fibre wool.

regards,
Stéphane