The map of the continental United States of America is finished and awaiting hundreds of bottle caps that our neighbors and friends have diligently collected for us.
For those who want to learn more about our process, here are the steps we followed.
- First, we bought two 4′ by 4′ plywood boards from Home Depot.
- Next, we primed them with leftover paint from Marie’s kitchen cabinet project, which naturally was turquoise, her favorite color.
- Artists Kai Kulkarni and Alyssa Glick made a graph on the plywood to assist them in drawing the map of the 48 states. Poor Alaska was too big to fit and it seemed wrong to include Hawaii without including Alaska.
- The kids helped with the next step: painting by number! Each state required 2 coats. Some states required more. Lesson learned: do not use turquoise as a base color; use white or grey. The turquoise distorted the yellow and orange, turning them green.
- Finally, we sealed the painting with mod podge.
Our plan is to use silicone glue to adhere the hundreds of bottle caps. In the states that are too small to accommodate even a single bottle cap such as Rhode Island and Delaware, we plan to use buttons. Very small buttons.
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