After making my first assemblage piece two years ago, I started throwing everything I would normally throw into a junk drawer into a box in my craft room. Inspired by such members as @geekgirl and @sheepblue, I told myself that I would make another when the box got full. Well, the box got full!
I started by casually laying out what was in the box.
I painted an 8x10 canvas and then started gluing on the pieces. I started with the broken half of a small embroidery hoop as my focal point. Ditched the spoon. I started with the larger pieces and then just filled in with random beads, screws, springs, seed beads, pen caps, broken jewelry.
If you run out of things, you can fill in with washers, pop can tops, screw topsā¦I even used some of my old wooden skewers that I use to poke holes into my glue bottles.
After I was happy with the layout, I sprayed the whole thing with glossy black paint. Then, I dry brushed some metallic blue paint over the entire thing, wiped some of it down with a baby wipe.
If you need more stuff, you can go back in and glue on more. You can also repaint or remove paint. This is a very forgiving project!
I really love how this came out! Itās amazing how much itās transformed when covered with the black paint. Iāve been working on cleaning and organizing, and gathering up a lot of bits and bobs and tossing them in a box with the intention of creating an assemblage piece for my classroom. I donāt have enough pieces just yet, but I have a feeling that Iāll have a decent collection of stuff in a few months. Might have to raid my desk drawers for some of those items that I āheld onto for the dayā for my students that they never claimed. Some of them have been in the desk for many years, now!
AIMR
(Linda -2024 Choose Projects that You Want to Do :us:)
13
I pick up stuff when I am walking on the beach as well. A lot of crap washes up but most of the stuff is from humans that think the beach is their own personal landfill. Bottle caps are everywhereā¦earbuds, broken sunglasses, etc. I wonāt pick up stuff off the street but I feel like the sand and water has sanitized most of the junk I find on the beach. I do find shells as well but they are organic and will eventually disintegrateā¦metal and plastic work well for these assemblages!
You should do it and then show it to your kidsā¦with a lesson on how long some things last!
Excellent idea! I hadnāt thought to create a lesson around it! Now, Iāll need to be a little more intentional about hunting for things. And, I hadnāt thought about the gross factor of street items, so thanks for that reminder, too. I have a bunch of Pez dispensers and Happy Meal toys that are destined for the canvas. I have some metal objects, but now I think I might create one solely out of plastic pieces to really hammer the message home. Iām pretty confident I can accumulate plenty without much difficulty, sadly.
AIMR
(Linda -2024 Choose Projects that You Want to Do :us:)
15
There are some truly fabulous artists that create huge pieces of work using everything made of plasticā¦toothbrushes, medicine bottles, candy dispensers (Pez, Tictacsā¦)ā¦you will definitely have plenty to work withā¦you could set up a canvas for the kids to glue on their own discarded plastics and make it a group effortā¦they will quickly realize how much stuff we discardā¦
You made me just think about a class of kids. Could you ask the kids to bring their parentās junk drawer stuff and pray that no one brings condoms? LOL
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AIMR
(Linda -2024 Choose Projects that You Want to Do :us:)
18
I think this is an excellent project for kids. You can teach them a lesson about waste, the environment, etc. It is amazing what gets discarded.
You could give them an assignment to rethink every single thing they throw out daily and start a collection of the smaller items, like caps, string, broken pencils, pen caps, jewelry, etc. Give them a mission to find things in a workshop or garageā¦etc.
Oh ooooooooooo Beware ye children of crafters, lol.
You could also introduce the art of making journals. Iāve been thinking for a while to make a junk food journal. Iām worried about attracting bugs but Iām going to ask the vendor for fresh papers???
CONGRATULATIONS! Your beautiful craft is one of this weekās Featured Projects! 