Making Wood Magnets
It's important to utilize scraps for a lot of reasons - fully utilizing your resources, getting your money's worth out of your supplies - but most importantly, for the environment. With an estimated 3.5 - 7 billion trees cut down each year, it seems respectful to Mother Nature to utilize as much of each piece as you can. People tend to take them for granted, but our natural resources on this earth are truly a gift (and a borrowed one at that!).
As we continue to expand the pieces we make, I am finding my love of nature becoming more and more apparent in our designs and works, and it seems to be developing into a strong part of our aesthetic. In a way I'm not surprised; growing up running barefoot and catching grasshoppers in northern Michigan I developed a close relationship with Mother Nature, something I'm sad to say dissipated over time as I entered the corporate world. It is incredibly refreshing - and liberating - to be able to work with my hands again, utilizing nature's supplies and creating something I feel is beautiful (and hopefully others do too!)
Wow, that was a lot of deep thought for a blog talking about making wood magnets.
The Magnets! They are one of my most favorite things I've made to date. I am obsessed with anything rustic and oversized - oversized pieces can be so unusual, intriguing and charming - simply because their size is unexpected.
We had some scrap pieces of pine (1/2" thick, 5.5"W, 12"L) that I decided to cut into 4 pieces, creating 5.5"W x 3"L. I'm also still obsessed with combining different colors of stain into 1 piece, so decided to make a magnet collection with mixed stains and herb prints.
Though it would still be cute, when going to put a design on these, I didn't want to do the cliche "love, faith, family, friends" in a farmhouse script font. Undoubtedly that route would be the most commercial, but Husband has been challenging me to make truly unique pieces that are my own design - not to make something already out there, mass produced in foreign countries and sold at places like Kirkland's.
Thus, I decided to go the Herb route, and I love them. I love their simplicity, I love the fonts..I love the stains. The stains are a combination of walnut, red oak, golden pecan and driftwood. I created the magnet designs in Adobe Illustrator, created a stencil for each, and used chalk paint for the color.
Fun Fact: #chalkpaint is awesome. It goes on easy, it dries extremely fast, and has a beautiful matte finish. For this work, I used #FolkArt Home Decor chalk paint, you can get on amazon here!
I also used black chalk paint to paint the edges so that the color of the stain really popped.
Lastly, I bought these magnets that although they have a great adhesive on the back, need to also be glued just for extra strength and hold. Once everything dried, they were good to put on the fridge, and will also be listed in our etsy shop. I can't wait to create more.
It's as easy as that. I welcome more scraps that maybe have slab edges like our coasters, or are odd shapes, creating more of a challenge of how to elevate them into home decor. Taking something out of the ordinary, elevating it, and making it beautiful and useful is the root of what I do, and really fulfilling! So... find some scraps and get busy! It's as easy as that.
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