Wednesday 29 May 2013

Newspaper Canvas

I saw this original idea on pinterest and initially I was going to do similar, but I decided to use thin strips of newspaper instead as I thought that would look cooler. I didn't want any of the writing visible as I felt if pure aesthetics is what you're going for, reading about which cars are currently on sale may put you off. If however I wanted to to include the text for whatever reason (maybe a favourite book?) then that my friend is the way forwards.

Without further ado, here's what I did.


I bought a canvas from ye olde home decor shoppe (Dunelm Mill). Usually I'd be quite snobbish about these bought canvas' as I never think they're made particularly well. They often have crappy balsa frame with the fabric stretched over, whereas you need a wooden lip about 2-3ml thick standing proud of the frame to lift the fabric off the wood as this can (and will) cause the outline of the frame show through in the final piece. But as it happens These frames have the lip and are therefore worthy of my project(!) But yeah, any sized canvas you want.
I ripped lots of tiny strips of newspaper into strips about 1cm thick
Using a dilution of about 3 parts water to 1 part PVA glue (you really don't need  a strong dilution of glue as the paper is so thin) I just started sticking layer upon layer of newspaper strips, moving about 2ml down with each strip
Both sides complete and then filling in the middle, because the overall look is quite abstract the rows seem to blend in with each other quite well.
The final piece

In situ above my fireplace
As I write this I'm not sure how well the pictures are going to come out, I'm having 'technical issues', in that I'm rapidly discovering I'm not as technical as previously assumed. The pictures were taken on my (non i)phone and as it turns out do not translate onto my laptop particularly well.

But here we go, that's what I did and that's how it turned out. I don't think it's to bad, let me know what you think. Originally I was going to have a silhouette of something or other but I decided I liked it as is.

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