Upcycle the ugly


|    idealog    home

Add 3D elements to a 2D painting, an ugly vase, or that hideous statue.

You could:

  • Add collage elements from print sources like magazines, books, photographs, postcards, flyers, menus, tickets.
  • Add lighting with LED bulbs, glow-in-the-dark paints, or fibre optics to illuminate the piece.
  • Add moving parts to a static piece by incorporating mechanical elements like gears, pulleys, springs, propellers and other things that spin, items attached by fasteners so they can move, switches, levers.
  • A pop culture references into incongruous spaces.
  • Add personal elements that hold meaning to you, such as favourite quotations, jewellery, or family heirlooms.


Or:

  • Attach a vintage map to an old landscape painting.
  • Add lace to a still-life.
  • Add hand-stitched shape outlining, patterns, text, or other forms using embroidery floss, yarn, metal threads, or thread.
  • Use markers, inks, graffiti pens to add directly to the piece by hand.
  • Use a decoupage method to add layers of a section on top of each other to add raised elements.

idealog    home    top