Michelle Ward's 41st Crusade inspires us to make a grid. The word "grid" for some reason had me thinking about "griddles" which made me think about pancakes. So yesterday I made a big stack of blueberry ones just to try get this sorted out!
Since it's already the end of the month I didn't get too inspired to cut new squares. I have millions of ninchies laying all over the place already. And I have these square boards I keep kicking under my table that I've wanted to start putting some kind of foundation on. So these things clearly needed to come together so they could live happily ever after.
The first board took me about an hour to make. It's the colorful one, with 9 rows across and down for a grid of 81 squares. They're not perfectly placed, but they're relatively regular and somewhat precise.
I got irritated with myself for taking so much time to lay down the initial layer of something that will likely be completely unrecognizable when I take it further.
So I decided to make another one as quickly as I could, using mostly my hands to smooth out and adhere the squares. The brown board took me about 10 minutes to make. I was really happy I did it, because I've always wanted to compare the drying and adhesion of these little elements between jobs I very carefully set into gel medium and ones where I pretty much slapped down the pieces and prayed.
The good news: there's really no difference. The brown squares seem just as stuck down and adhered to the wood as the bright squares. The only difference is that I trimmed a row I couldn't get to fit and they're more sloppily placed.
So there you have it. And BTW, the pancakes were griddle-icious! Isn't it strange the very first time I used ninchies in a grid was in a behind-glass collage that had an apple? And normally I make apple pancakes? This is the 6 degrees of separation, but instead of being linked to Kevin Bacon, it's fruits and the poorly cut metric equivalent to the one-inch square.
I love your inchies...it's so interesting when you put things in a grid...the unorganized becomes organized. Everything just comes together! The brown version is really nice, although muted...the colorful version is very happy looking to me :)
Posted by: linda | June 24, 2010 at 10:17 PM
TJ - these boards are fabulous! So ambitious to make two - with 81 squares each...and so tiny. Makes for some wonderful visuals. Thanks so much for sharing with the team - such inspiration!!
Posted by: Michelle Ward | June 25, 2010 at 04:37 AM
I luv the idea of your nichies!
Great visual interest, fabulously displayed.
daisy xx
Posted by: daisy | June 25, 2010 at 08:58 AM
Beautiful! I like them both.
Cheers,
Sophie
Posted by: MissKoolAid | June 25, 2010 at 06:41 PM
Dearest TJ, these boards are gorgeous!! You made them in such a short time too! Really beautiful! I love that colorful board ~ very inspiring. Have a lovely merry happy weekend and love to you!
Posted by: Jacqueline | June 26, 2010 at 04:42 AM
i love them both! great job! i love mosaics, so these really appeal to me!
Posted by: Maria | June 26, 2010 at 05:50 AM
Oh, wow, fabulous boards! I love your salvage of (n)inchies and I like the brown board even better than the colorful one. Now I (just) have to find a post in which you describe how you make them ;) ;)
And thank you for your comment on my sugar-packet grid.
Posted by: Kitty | June 26, 2010 at 08:43 AM
They are both beautiful
Posted by: Regina | June 26, 2010 at 09:31 AM
It is so much fun to see your ninchies! Love the result. And thanks for your comment on my blog.
Posted by: Helen | June 27, 2010 at 04:46 PM
Yumminess !
Congrats on using supplies available, too.
Pat yourself on the back, kid...
What's next?
Posted by: DJ | June 27, 2010 at 07:05 PM
oh my...i love both of these!!!! The color one makes me want to hold it in my hand and examine all the beautiful colors in it.
Posted by: dawn | June 27, 2010 at 07:22 PM
wow, that's quite an inchie collection. fabulicious!! i love blueberries, and i'm sure the pancakes were griddle-licious.
greetings from bad aibling
belinda
Posted by: belinda | June 28, 2010 at 09:24 AM
OMG! These are so cool! I love that you started off by making pancakes, too. You have alot of patience to line up all the squares, they are beautiful--WOW
Posted by: Jane | June 30, 2010 at 12:25 AM
These are just super fantastic, I love them both ! Think I will make myself some pancakes too. Maybe I'll get inspired to create something beautiful like these ;-) Thanks for sharing !
Posted by: Brigitte | June 30, 2010 at 11:03 AM
Great grids, both wonderful.
Posted by: Rosemary Griffin | July 01, 2010 at 07:16 AM
Wow! What an amazing job! I love both of them.... wish you hadn't mentioned pancakes... now I'm hungry!
Posted by: Michelle Brown | July 02, 2010 at 11:03 PM
Oh these are so beautiful, each very different, but equally lovely. Your glue experiment really interests me; I suspect I spend too much time fussing over glue...
Posted by: Cath | July 07, 2010 at 01:34 AM
With the new 2011. Year! Congratulations.
Posted by: school_dubl | December 30, 2010 at 08:45 AM