Affordable Homemade Art Inspired by Sid Dickens

Am I the last person in the world to discover Sid Dickens?

I wandered into a home interiors store near our new home and was captivated by his three-dimensional memory blocks. These are sculpted porcelain tiles released periodically in sets that collectors covet. While each one is beautiful in its own right, collectively their display quickly becomes a focal point that draws you in for a closer experience.

Working out of his studio in Vancouver, Dickens’ cadre of artisans hand-embellish each tile with pigments, gold- or silver-plating, and stain. These hand-applied processes enliven the dimensional effect. When you approach these tiles, you are compelled to touch them and then try to figure out what they mean to you.

The finished patina evokes an uncovered artifact. Each tile might be a fragment, a memory of the past, a snippet of a greater whole that may have perished. Your imagination will fill in the rest, which makes a more powerful encounter and fuller engagement with this art.

Dickens memory tiles are generally hung in multiples, and they can be pretty expensive. Retired pieces in particular can run into the thousands of dollars. There is an old world feel to these tiles, with traditional elements and aged colorations that combine in tribute to a shared, yet individual past.

I hankered after a display for one of the walls in our new dining room, but at an average of $100 per tile, this was not going to be happening. I envisioned a series of nine – which would have run at least $1000 when everything was said and done.

After all of our downsizing and clutter-busting prior to the move, I couldn’t believe I would even consider for a minute beginning a collection of anything, let alone expensive art. Nice-to-have, perhaps, but definitely not need-to-have.

However, the empty wall was crying out for some kind of art to balance the room. We’d cleaned up and hung an oversize antique mirror that had been in Pete’s parents’ garage for years, and I had purchased a painting on canvas for Pete for Valentine’s Day (shown at right). The curtains were hung, the new table and chairs were in place and I wanted the room to be done.

So it was that I came via frugal necessity to create something on my own using the memory tiles as inspiration.

I decided my medium would be decoupage in order to incorporate three dimensional elements. The basis would be beautiful background papers, upon which I would layer attachments to create the effect. I would select elements that conveyed a message or celebrated what we felt was important in our life. And most importantly, the materials and supplies needed to be budget-friendly.

I started with wrapped blank gallery artist’s canvas, 5″ x 5″ square. These canvases are found in many sizes be found at hobby stores. I liked the ones with the thicker sides for this project. They happened to be 40% off the day I walked in, so I loaded up. I also bought a set of flat craft brushes and a small bottle of Mod Podge, and then selected some patterned scrapbook paper to test out my planned technique.

I wandered through a couple more hobby and scrapbooking stores collecting trinkets, pressboard shapes, wooden letters and additional papers to complete the supplies. There are some stunning designs in scrapbook paper these days! Here are some of the patterns I selected. All told, I spent about $80 on everything.

At home, I decided to wrap the canvas as one might wrap a gift and decoupage the first paper layer directly on it. I squiggled some Mod Podge onto the front of the first blank canvas, not knowing in the slightest how much was appropriate to use. Talk about winging it!

Then, using the smallest brush, I spread the Mod Podge over the entire front of the canvas evenly. Mod Podge resembles Elmer’s white glue and acts like it, too. Things got sticky pretty quickly, and pretty soon my fingertips were covered.

After the Mod Podge was spread, I pressed the canvas face down on the back of a pre-cut square of scrapbook paper and let it set up a little on the flat surface of our desk. Mod Podge doesn’t take very long to dry, but it does affect the texture of the paper by softening it, as anyone who has tried to glue a first grade paper project will remember.

In order to eliminate bulk, I cut a diagonal slit in each corner of the paper while the Mod Podge was drying. This would make the canvas much easier to wrap. Scrapbook paper comes in various thicknesses. Often more beautiful with glitter or embossed effects, the thicker paper is more difficult to work with, as you might imagine.

Then I proceeded to systematically wrap each canvas with the paper as one might wrap a gift, glueing each side into place. The first couple of canvases I wrapped using different techniques, until I hit on a sequence that seemed to work best: rotating the canvas to glue down each side in sequence.

I found that the smaller patterns were more forgiving when the paper overlapped. I wound up trimming some of the diagonals with the larger patterns. In this photo, you can see that I just tore the paper if the slit that I had cut wasn’t deep enough, knowing that the decoupage effect would disguise it when completed.

Here is a photo of one of the canvases when fully wrapped with paper. It looks like the top of a gift box. The corner points which look so awkward in this photo mellowed out after the decoupage process, in which the paper actually gets wet with product and re-forms to the shape of the canvas.

Once the wrapping was accomplished, I brushed several coats of Mod Podge on the patterned surface to set the technique, letting each coat dry in between. The canvases are stretched over wood forms and there is a convenient area in back that you can use to hold it while you’re working without having to touch the wet areas (mostly!).

When the Mod Podge dried clear, the surface of the paper became almost leathery. It did wrinkle up some as you might be able to see in this photo, but this didn’t bother me too much. As more coats of Mod Podge were applied, the wrinkles diminished. Also, take note of the “professional drying system” I used: plastic shopping bags from the store on top of the carpeting in our home office. Whatever works, right?

I was excited to layer the different papers and elements in pleasing designs. I decided that I would apply contrasting paper to some of the edges as a visual surprise. And I used the Mod Podge to affix the little trinkets, pressboard shapes and wooden letters directly to the surface. Once they were in place, I just Mod Podged a few more coats over the entire surface to “set” the design and strengthen the adhesive bonds.

Mod Podge is great to work with, because if you splatter it on a surface – cloth or tabletop, you can just let it dry and then lightly scrape off the bubble with a fingernail – even from the carpet. Don’t ask me how I know this!

Anyway, over the course of a weekend I finished this project and everything was completely dry. Once I got going, I was more gratified by its fast completion because it didn’t disrupt the limited workspace we now have in our new home. The older I get the less chaos I want, even if it is creative chaos!

I hung my project on the other side of the window from Pete’s painting. Beneath each art element is one of our “Ghost” dining chairs. Those are pretty fun, too.

I like the way this project complements the room overall and it was fun working on something creative that was different than writing. I was really happy this artistic inspiration came in the middle of what seemed like a very long, dry spell of writer’s block.

Have you ever been inspired to create something decorative in your home without knowing exactly how it was going to turn out? What sparked your creativity? How did you like your project when it was completed?

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