I started writing this post months ago and just haven’t had time recently for my blog. Of course, I haven’t stopped doing things, so the next few posts will be catching up.
For Earth Day, our local art gallery had a call for Eco Art. This is the project that I created. Ryan referred to it as “Magazine Sushi”.
It started as a thing for Connor and I to do together. At first, he liked it and would sit with me after school and talk about his day while rolling magazines. It didn’t last too long. Strangely, I found this to be very relaxing. It is a little time consuming for the size of rolls (compared to how fast it is rolling straws of magazines), but it looks cool and I am liked the way it turned out.
cut to same width
Anyway, this is something that anyone can do, it just requires old magazines or catalogs, Elmer’s Glue, a paper cutter, tweezers and A LOT of time.
I started by collecting colorful pages from magazines.
I used my paper cutter to cut them into the same size width.
I found that choosing colors that were bright were best and liked grouping them together with similar shades of the same color or two contrasting colors.
folded strips
Then, I folded each piece in half, lengthwise, making a sharp fold.
I put a thin strip of glue on the inside of two to three. (Just the ones I would be rolling) Not too much, but some least at the ends. This helped them to stiffen a little when dried and for the ends of the strips to stick together.
Starting the strips took a few times until I got a balance between “tight enough to look good” and “loose enough to slide off the tweezers”. Grasping the end of a strip, wind around about half way through the strip.
Put a thin line of glue on the rest of the strip and slide it off the tweezers, holding it between your thumb and index finger.
Continue to wind tightly, keeping the folded edge neat and level.
I found that the first strip worked best, if I didn’t put glue on the strip until I wound it for the first half.
I apologize for the poor pictures. Taking a photo with your cell phone when both hands are covered in glue and in use is tricky!
To start the second strip, just add a drop of glue to the edge, hold it to the roll where the last strip finished, wrap around once and put a thin strip of glue on the strip. Continue to wrap tightly, as before.
After 2 or 3 strips, I would turn them over and let them dry before adding new strips, especially in the beginning. When I made larger spirals, I would add a thin layer of glue to the back side to help stiffen them up.
Eventually, I had a nice assortment of colored spirals and sizes.
To make this a true recycled project, I found a piece of wood from my kitchen cabinets up in the attic. I prepped and painted the wood black.
Then I played with arranging the spirals and glued them on with liquid nails. When the project was dried, I sealed it with acrylic sealer.
Something fun and satisfying about creating something from basically nothing. Here is the finished piece:
And an update on my 365 project:
The third and fourth 36 are finished.
