shrinky dinks and a new smallness
I'm so glad that I took a break in painting for a few hours this weekend to mess around with some of the materials I had piling up around me at my drawing table. First, I made a house out of a matchbox (which is, for whatever reason, one of my favorite little objects, though I don't think I've found a good use yet for all the ones that I've saved):
It was fun to troubleshoot how to get all the pieces to work together (esp the peak of the roof, where the actual matchbox ends and it's just craft paper). The shingles are chopped-up paint chips (another material I love & can't find a good use for) that were mod-podged into a bit of a sheen. Those little curtains are tissue paper and the windows are actually cut open.
The plan is to make some tiny scenes on illustration board to put inside the matchbox, perhaps like a little dollhouse. (yes, totally useless, but just the sort of tiny silliness that I love to have around and look at every now and then.)
Once I finished the house, I decided to make a ghost for the house out of shrinky-dinks, a sheet of which I have had laying around but had never used yet. Much to my happy surprise, it was a load of fun to make, and gave me the opportunity to make even SMALLER characters than normal. I love it.
One ghost led to a cast of characters, naturally...
Right now they all live in the matchbox, for lack of a better keeping place. I would like to put them in my makeshift wunderkammer, but sometimes I knock into it, and needless to say if they fall off into the couch or somewhere like that they are tiny enough to be lost forever.
I made that radish for my SO, who didn't recognize it as one because, of course, being German he likes the long white kind rather than the squatty American ones. Oh well, have a fish instead.
I'll update on my silly crafts exploits when I finish the interior scenes of the house. In the meantime, the house lives in a little corner of my kitchen.
(It should be little surprise that every corner of my apt is knick-knacked. I'm very tidy, but... I cultivate visual distractions, let's say. I can't seem to help it.)
Wow, this is an awesome post and the house and it's ghosts look great!
Posted by: Blake Himsl Hunter | February 12, 2008 at 10:49
shrinky dinks rule!
well done, i think this has the potential to make a great number of people very happy!
-g
Posted by: dafpunk | February 12, 2008 at 16:26
thanks, guys!!
Posted by: Allison Sommers | February 15, 2008 at 11:40
I'm squarely in the group of "People Made Happy by Impossibly Tiny Things" .... my god woman, just when I thought it couldn't get any smaller or cuter...
Also inspiring me to use that modeling wood next to my desk....for no good reason at all, thanks!
Posted by: Raylene | February 21, 2008 at 10:05
The detail in those wee folk is impressive. What prey tell are shrinky dinks? Acetate? It looks soft.
Posted by: gavin | February 21, 2008 at 15:22
thanks, guys!!
Ray-- yay, go go go! I want to see what you come up with.
Gavin-- I... have no idea. They're definitely hard, with a soft plasticky surface. Could be acetate, or vinyl, or something like that.
Posted by: Allison Sommers | February 22, 2008 at 10:55
Oh my. Just arrived from Red Meg, and have to say this is one of the most completely frivolous and ABSOLUTELY delightful wastes of time and effort - and therefore so perfectly unspoiled in it's purity of glee. Very inspiring. Will certainly influence my paintings, and perhaps lead to some delicious goofiness of my own (never goofy enough). I will be back regularly.
Posted by: moominpapa | February 26, 2008 at 21:58
Oh my. Just arrived from Red Meg, and have to say this is one of the most completely frivolous and ABSOLUTELY delightful wastes of time and effort - and therefore so perfectly unspoiled in it's purity of glee. Very inspiring. Will certainly influence my paintings, and perhaps lead to some delicious goofiness of my own (never goofy enough). I will be back regularly.
Posted by: moominpapa | February 26, 2008 at 21:58
Oh my. Just arrived from Red Meg, and have to say this is one of the most completely frivolous and ABSOLUTELY delightful wastes of time and effort - and therefore so perfectly unspoiled in it's purity of glee. Very inspiring. Will certainly influence my paintings, and perhaps lead to some delicious goofiness of my own (never goofy enough). I will be back regularly.
Posted by: moominpapa | February 26, 2008 at 22:25
Thanks so much, Moominpapa! I'm definitely a fan of the tinies...
Posted by: Allison Sommers | February 28, 2008 at 10:15
just...wow. your work, especially the painting in the post before this one...jeebus. wow. it literally blows my mind.
when i was a kid, i loved to make tiny beds out of matchboxes and use tissues for pillows and bedding. i also loved to take the rubber disk out of the inside of 2 liter bottle caps to use like tiny plates. oh tiny things, i love em.
Posted by: natasha | February 29, 2008 at 00:12
Now I want to get out my shrinky pages and try making some minis for myself! What an inspiration you are!
Posted by: carol rose parker | March 06, 2008 at 01:19
Now I want to get out my shrinky pages and try making some minis for myself! What an inspiration you are!
Posted by: carol rose parker | March 06, 2008 at 01:19
Now I want to get out my shrinky pages and try making some minis for myself! What an inspiration you are!
Posted by: carol rose parker | March 06, 2008 at 01:20
SHRINKYDINKS!!!! YAY!!!
Posted by: lisa | April 03, 2008 at 17:03