An Interesting Effect with Paint

I brayered some acrylic over the collaged papers, and before it was completely dry I used an eyedropper to write with white India ink across the page. The paint (I believe it is Behr Wall paint) kind of swam up to the surface of the ink. I like the effect--almost marbled looking.

Page isn't done, but thought I'd share!

Space Saving Storage for Paint

I've been frustrated with my bottles of craft paints--seemed like they were always getting buried on my table under papers and books.  I hated wasting time searching for the right bottle, and after some thought I made this to hang on the wall and store my bottles of craft paint.

I started with some pieces of those wire cube sets that they sell at Target and WalMart:

 

Two whole pieces made the front and the back, and then I used my trusty hacksaw to cut the side from one panel.

 

You can see in this closeup that there is a one-grid-wide strip running down the side:

I held it together with zip ties (love those things!), strung wire from the top, and hung it from two Gorilla hooks. I used the connectors that came with the set for the back, so that the whole thing would be a little bit removed from the wall.  That way, there are two squares holding each bottle.

Craft paints fit in nicely, but my one-ounce bottles of Golden fluid acrylics fit perfectly, since the shoulder of the bottle catches the front grid. 

It's been up for a couple of weeks now, and I love it.  I can see the paint color from the dabs of paint on each cap, so it's easy to find the right color, and it's vertical storage, which saves space--love it!

How To Build An Inexpensive Easel

Yesterday I decided to figure out a way to build an easel for myself without spending lots of money. I sat at the kitchen table for awhile, sketching ideas, wandered out into the garage and shed to see what wood scraps were lying around, and finally (I think) figured it out. I've been using the easel for two days now and really like it.This isn't a fancy easel, mind you, but it works--hold my canvases upright so I can paint without hanging onto the canvas.

To build this, I first screwed together a square of four wood pieces.

Next I held up my vertical long board to see what angle I wanted it to rest at. I measured (roughly) from the board to the bottom of the back of the box, and cut a board that length. The idea was that I would make a triangle (and, since I used to teach geometry, I'll point out that because of the Side-Side-Side Theorem of Triangle congruence, there's only one way this triangle can go together. I know you needed to know that). After I cut that piece, I marked where the brace would rest on the back of the long board, and then glued and screwed in a piece of wood there.




Below, you can see how I took a big piece of cardboard and taped down my substrate--this way I can work on four pieces at a time!