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How to Make a Gridded Button Portrait

comments (7) March 6th, 2009     

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leethal Lee Meredith, contributor
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Use assorted vintage buttons for a truly one-of-a-kind work of art!
Like Chuck Close paintings, the image shows up better as you step farther away from it.
You can use any colors, as long as they are divided into light and dark shades.
Use assorted vintage buttons for a truly one-of-a-kind work of art!

Use assorted vintage buttons for a truly one-of-a-kind work of art!

Photo: Lee Meredith
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Now you get to start on your surface, so first you need to draw your grid. Use a pencil (if possible for your surface), and keep it as light as possible. Mark along the edges, then connect the dots across with the straightedge.


 If you can't mark on your surface with pencil, you'll have to find another way to make your grid.

Sort out your buttons by shade—this project is all about organization! I used a box with dividers and placed them in order (white, light, dark, black) so I could grab them without paying too much attention. What you see in the photo wasn't anywhere close to enough buttons; I added more white ones throughout the process as needed, and I added more blues until I ran out completely and switched to different colors.


 If you want to be extra organized, you could count each shade in your grid, and count out your buttons before starting.

Warm up your glue gun, and get ready for hours of gluing and lots of hot-glue burns! Not to scare you—it's super-fun to watch the image come into view as you go! Look at your gridded picture, and glue on each button according to the shade. Keep track of your rows by marking off each one as you finish it. I never printed out my computer image; I just looked at it on my laptop screen, filling in the first box with red as I finished each row.


 Center each button within its box to keep your work from looking messy.

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posted in: , buttons, art, glue, wall, picture, portrait, mosaic
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Comments (7)

paperrain writes: I'm doing this! I'm going to also buy stock in buttons. I've got about a dozen projects for them now!
Posted: 5:08 pm on March 21st
oldjack writes: What a great idea for a portrait. Can not wait to try this.
Thanks Lee.
Posted: 12:17 pm on March 14th
gabriellek writes: This is absolutely FANTASTIC! Thank you for sharing! We can't wait to make a few and put our mosaics on canvas'

Love it!
Posted: 12:04 am on March 10th
sALTYGAL writes: Awesome idea and great instructions!
Posted: 1:57 pm on March 7th
eyesaflame writes: Ok, this is really cool . . .are you sure you've been sick? Or have you just been letting your body be taken over by some kind of alien snot-monster craft genius? 'Cause this is BRILLIANT!!
Posted: 3:59 pm on March 6th
Sister_Diane writes: Wow, Lee - this is so amazing. And your instructions are so clear, I totally feel like I could make one. Thanks so much!
Posted: 10:00 am on March 6th
Jen_W writes: This is splendid and so original! I love Chuck Close too, and this is such a great twist.
Posted: 12:21 am on March 6th
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