My first drop for #enjoybenches

I’m starting a new series where I leave notes on benches, encouraging people to stop for a moment and enjoy the bench. The series is called #enjoybenches

I welcome you to make notes like this and leave them on benches in your area. Please feel free to explore with different material ideas.

This is very much a prototype. Looks like it’s laminated, but it’s actually Sharpie writing on a milk carton. Sticky notes are nice and easy, but sometimes benches get covered in water from the morning dew. Instead, I’m looking for a durable material to write on.

Our recycling bin is often a great place to discover new art materials. I should write a whole separate post about materials from the recycling bin. In that recycling bin was the milk carton. PLASTIC. Perfect!

When I started writing on the plastic, I realized that milk carton plastic has a textured and smooth sides. Which to use? I tested the durability of the Sharpie ink on both sides. It seemed that the textured side held the ink a bit better. But that smoother side definitely makes for smoother writing. You can’t go wrong with either side—smooth or textured.

I had tons of stretchy cord sitting around, so that makes a nice way to fasten it to the bench. Why I didn’t use this stretchy cord to make masks when COVID first hit, I don’t know. This stretchy cord was like liquid gold back in the early months of 2020. It was selling for like $100 per roll. I got mine for something like $10 years ago.

To attach the stretchy cord to the note, I bought those little metal barbs that they use on lanyards. This makes it easy for someone to detach the artwork if they don’t prefer to have this note on the bench.

When I was testing this out at home, the translucent material of the milk carton make it hard to read the text when the note was placed on metal bars. So I stuck a 2×4-inch mailing label to the back of the milk carton material. That helps to make the text more legible. Things didn’t line up the best with the text on the top and bottom. The text sort of hangs out over the white sticker area. But this is just the first prototype of what might become a longer series.

The holes are from a standard hole punch. In my opinion, they are a bit big. I should have a smaller hole punch around here somewhere.

I might also make some of these out of scrap wood. Scrap metal, maybe? Although I don’t exactly have scrap metal lying around. When my town has the annual “throw out your big stuff day”, it’ll be a field day for finding new materials to use!

Please, if you’d like to make #enjoybenches notes, join in the fun!

In my next post about this series, I’ll cover some thoughts on the text for these notes.