Saturday, February 26, 2011

Think Small!

If the thought of creating art feels daunting because you imagine that you must paint a huge canvas, fill a thick sketchbook, or sew an entire quilt, then I have an art form for you to “try on for size”. I have recently discovered “Inchies,” and thought I would share:

10 Reasons to LOVE Inchies.

1. You can create an inchie in any art form you choose to practice—drawing, collage, watercolor, rubber stamping, chalks, fabric, polymer clay, whatever your medium of choice. Here are some Valentine's Day-inspired collaged inchies:

2. Inchies are a great way to create art daily, even when you are pressed for time. At 1 inch by 1 inch, it doesn’t take long to make an inchie!

3. At 1 inch by 1 inch, there isn’t much point worrying how they turn out. You have only invested a little bit of time and a few resources. If you don’t like one, set it aside and make another! Here are some illustrated inchies, done at the beginning of the year before I set my goal to learn more about drawing. I took images from illustrations I saw other places. Many aren't that great, but, hey, they're only an inch square!

4. Inchies are a fun, small “canvas” or “sketchbook” to practice something you’ve been working on. For example, I used inchies to practice tangles when I started making Zentangles.

5. Inchies are so small that they are a great way to use bits and scraps that you have lying around. Once you start making collaged inchies, you will hesitate to throw ANYTHING away again.

6. An inchie is interesting to look at; a collection of nine, fifteen, or thirty inchies is FASCINATING!

7. Making several related (or, I suppose, unrelated, for that matter) inchies allows you to make other art and crafts projects, like greeting cards, journal pages, and decorated picture frames. I made this card after seeing a blog post by one of my favorites, Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, where she used inchies to make Valentine cards.

8. If you draw several 1 inch by 1 inch squares on a piece of paper ahead of time, illustrated inchies make a great art project to do on-the-go; you basically just doodle in the boxes and come away with a whole set of inchies to cut out and use however you choose.

9. Inchies are an art form that even small children can enjoy! This piece, which can officially be called "mixed-media," as it was created with both graphite and ink (that is, pencil and pen!) was created when my 3-year-old saw my page of squares and couldn't resist making her own mark on them!

10. If inchies feel too small, or you want to move on to something new, you can make your squares two-by-two, and you’re making “twinchies”! I haven't tried that size yet; I haven't tired of inchies yet!

9 comments:

iHanna said...

Love this post Andria! Your zentangles and drawins are awesome, and your child's drawins are extremely cool. I would cut them out and frame them. :-)

Thanks for the inspiration!

Anonymous said...

You made a wide variety of inchies...love every inch of them!!!
Mary

Sam said...

I love your inchies, and that's a great idea to draw all the little squares ready to fill. I'm going to have a go at that :-)

Andria said...

Hanna, I just stuck my daughter's inchies in a file of her artwork, but I love your suggestion, and think that I will frame them for her room! Thank you for your comments, Mary and Sam. I'd love to see how some of your "inchies on the go" work out for you, Sam!

NLT said...

What a cool idea! I HAVE to do this now. No more excuses about big projects. This is brilliant!

Anonymous said...

I did this with my tangle patterns too, although I love iHanna's suggestion of cutting them out and framing them!

neathra said...


Thank you for the info. It sounds pretty user friendly. I guess I’ll pick one up for fun. thank u.

Leather Note Jotter

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Sharon P Pope said...

I love inchies too, and yours are fabulous! I haven't made any in a while, but your post has made me want to! Some great ideas here too! I love the 10 reasons to love inchies! They're very true! :)