brian wildsmith-inspired color tiles!

Hey, there, sweet friends.  Remember this?  I spent yesterday making our own set of tiles, and had a blissfully non-stressful time doing it.  It was lovely to just sit and paint simple colors and lines, nothing from a pattern, just wingin' it.

Here's what I came up with:

I took the colors directly from this book (below), Brian Wildsmith's Puzzles, which I found out about from wonderful Nath, and promptly ordered used, as it is no longer in print.  (Here is Mr. Wildsmith's homepage, if you are interested.  His work is wonderful.  Don't know how I missed it as a child, but I adore it now!)

It's such a lovely and clever book, which truly celebrates color and shape and I thought it would suit perfectly as our inspiration:

Here are some of the shapes that Sofia made, and like Merrilee (who came up with the original, super idea), I love that she worked "out of the box":

And Olivia made equally beautiful designs, of her own sort (it's amazing how much I think these designs represent their ways of thinking...so cool!):

I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to velcro them to something that can hang, as a sort of re-arrangeable piece of "art," as Merilee suggested.  I also had the thought that if the front of your refrigerator was big enough, or you reduced the size of the tiles, it would make a fantastic magnet set for your little ones (or you, when you are trying to decide what the heck to make for dinner...)

All in all, a super-sweet day of painting with my girls, a fun open-ended "toy," and a potential cheery decoration, all for under $5.  You can't beat that!  (Thanks, Merrilee!)

Have a great one, my dears.

Cheers!

xoxox. 

Comments

[Happy Find]

Oooh, another idea would be using patterned paper on the tiles so that it would look like a quilt. I like the idea of magnets...

[nath]

beautiful! the colours! i'm so glad you found a copy of that book, isn't it wonderful?

[Jen]

what specifically are the tiles? [I understand they are available at Home Depot?] And do they come already machine cut this size? This looks like a fabulous fun time!

[Amy Hanson]

Jen, from Home Depot I purchases a sheet (maybe 4x6")of 1/4" MDF board, for about $4.75, and asked them to cut it into 5" squares for me there. They did this for free, but they could have charged me, I'm given to understand...From there, we just took them home and painted them with acrylic paints. Merrilee has the instructions on her blog post, so do be sure to check that out! Enjoy!

[Jen]

oh thank you! fabulous...I followed this link.

[Artist]

Yes, you can find color inspiration just everywhere. Great idea. As being synesthete I live a life in colors. Synesthesia means that I see colors when I see words and numbers.I transform this in paintings of names and birthdays.

[mer]

great job Amy! loved seeing what you girls came up with!

[Lauren D]

Wow, as a mom and former art teacher I am in love with this project! Now to hunt for the book!

[N.]

I followed you here from mer mag - I love your version too and the book! I must find that book!

Anyway, I went to Home Depot today in a neighboring town to get my 1/4" hardboard (hardwood? whatever, it's wood-coloured!) and they said they couldn't cut it so small (5" sq). *sob* I'm going to go to another one in the other direction to see if they can do it (for free. do I have to bat my eyelashes or ask my 5 year old to ask them to pretty please cut the wood for her mommy?) and if they can't, then I'll try Lowe's!

[apples]

I am so enchanted with this and was lucky enough to find a copy of the book on Australian eBay. As my year 3 class and I are studying environments this term (built and natural) this will make an amazing task for them. They will make paper collages. Gorgeous! Thank you so much!