Cheap Art Materials - Jelly Beans for mosaics

Following on from other delightfully cheap items to use for art, comes one material which might get costly if the child (or art guide mother) eats the material before gluing together for their creation...jelly beans.

Jelly beans are a good way to introduce your child to the concept of a mosaic without having to pay for all those little colored chips of tiles, beads or glass.  If you wanted to keep the jelly bean mosaic for a long time you would probably be advised to spray or paint it with a clear varnish when finished.

View the Ripleys believe it or not reference which was for the Commercial artist Peter Rocha of San Franscisco, California, who created a four foot by six foot masaic of the Statue of Liberty using fourteen thousand jelly beans!  (Imagine the cavities by the end of that project!) Other items by this artist (and many other artists) are housed in the Jelly Belly art gallery, which you can view online!

Go look (eat first) and get inspired!  My favourite (of course) was the one of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.

Aussie Kim

Comments

[Michele@Philoxenos]

Great idea! I've bookmarked this one so I don't forget.

[The Butterfly]

Ms. Kim,
You are wasting jelly beans!

Sincerely,
The Butterfly

[Aussie Kim]

I think, for crisis intervention situations (where the jelly beans MUST be eaten). The best thing to do would be to arrange your art on a flat surface. Take a photo. Then consume your art. Who says you can't have your mosaic and eat it too!