Course Description

I can remember playing with shrink plastic when I was a kid in the 70’s…drawing and coloring on a sheet of clear plastic, not quite believing my mom when she said we would put it in the oven and it would magically shrink down several sizes. I was always thrilled and amazed when it turned out to be true…although I am still skeptical that babies are found in cabbage patches…

Fast forward to 2002 where I was asked to do some design work for a book on shrink art with rubber stamps…I made tiny jointed dolls and found that my fascination for shrink plastic had not diminished (get it?) during those intervening years.

Presently, there is a white shrink plastic that you can print on with an inkjet printer. Mind. Blown. I feel it is an amazing art material that can be substituted in for many projects that have been fashioned from only paper in the past. Now you can produce small plastic pieces that have a strength and durability that make them easy to manipulate in assemblage projects like this one!

In this class you will learn:
-ways to prep your images for ideal shrinking results
-how to cut the plastic to achieve a nice finished product
-how to add color with pastels, inks, and paints aided by rubber stamps and stencils
-tips on successful shrinking methods
-how to line boxes with paper and fabric
-how to design and build environments within the boxes
-nifty ways to decorate the outside of your boxes
-how to pull it all together and finish it out.

It never gets old watching the plastic pieces shrink in the oven…even after forty (ahem) years! The process really is magical…let the kid running wild inside yourself come out and play!

“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.”
-Vincent Van Gogh