Val at Val’s Altered Heart Journey has come up with the coolest idea - she uses caulk to create texture in her artwork. She has a full step-by-step tutorial on her blog, so I won’t repeat it here. But I love the texture and flexibility she gets from a non-art medium! Great thinking outside of the box, Val!
The picture I’ve selected to highlight her technique is one of 3 “inchies”- if your a new to them, they are 1 inch by 1 inch pieces of mini art. Yup. ONE INCH ONLY. Why only 1 inch? Well, usually they are made in stages, and the first part is rather serendipitous: you create a large background texture, usually with some layers, and then you chop it up into the squares. You’re never sure just what you’re gonna get. Then, you take each one individually and add extra adornment, paints, embellishments, what-have-you, and make it a little mini work of art.
What do you do with them? Another good question. Make them into mosaics, attach them to altered quilts, books, collage art. Put a hole in them and make them charms or jewelry. Really, they are just small components for other larger pieces of artwork. I keep a few on a small ball chain attached to my quilting tools…that way when I go to a workshop, everyone knows they’re mine.
Here are a couple of pics of other artist’s inchies, fabric and fiber:
And when you make them 2 inches by 1 inch, they are called “twinchies.” How clever is that! Wendy made some great ones, and she even sent me one!
Anyhoo, they’re fun and rather addictive. Get thee to Home Depot and get caulkin’!
(Or sewing, or gluing, whatever!)
I got this e-mail from Beth today:
I ran across a blog: 
Carol from