Spin Baby Spin

So, who didn’t love spin art as a kid?  I don’t think I could trust someone who didn’t like spin art…what’s not to like?

When reading through Laura Day’s Spin Party inspired by her Damien Hirst print, I thought…why not improvise and go big…Hirst style?  I need bigger pieces of art in this house… I have lots of little things that look crappy on these big walls.  Since my art budget is nil right now…time to improvise…and have fun creating something special with the Minors in the process.  Perfect summer project.  Thing One has an ear infection, so when pool time is out…craft time is in!

Although this is a clever DIY, I wanted something bigger….We have this lazy susan base in the garage that we use when painting small things so we can rotate them on the workbench.  Perfect, I’ll tack the paper onto the lazy susan and we’ll be good to go…right?  If it works, then I’ll attach even bigger pieces of paper to it.

Um….maybe not.  It’s not exactly spin art.  The LS just couldn’t spin fast enough.  Until I can figure out some way to MacGyver a drill powered spinner…we are back to that clever salad spinner version.  Visions of our giant Hirst-ish creations would have to wait. So, here we go…small scale!

She used construction paper, and I used both watercolor and painting paper both of which worked equally well.  I thought the construction paper would be too flimsy and absorbent.  I traced out the bottom of the spinner basket and cut it out with a blade.  Pop the circle in the bottom of your spinner and it’s time to squeeze and spin!  I used craft acrylic paint in squeeze bottles…they are only $.59 each at Michaels.

We’ve started playing around with some other textures of papers and edges…like this slick silver paper I forgot I had…

I think in the end we can make a big piece with all the small ones compiled some way….

Back to spinning!