I thought I’d take a second and explain why I chose to to the first prototype of my 8-bit art project in Foam Core.  Granted Foam Core doesn’t scream classy or even “finished” but it does have some key advantages:

• It’s light. This is by far the most important to me because I want to hang this in a very specific place – and I’m not sure if all have the drywall studs to support it.  Because Foam Core is so light,  I can quickly hang 16 square feet of foam core with some plain old finishing nails – without too much worry of my wall crashing down.
• Its cheap.  Most of the light weight metal options are pretty pricey.  I was able to a bunch of 2×2 ft Foam Core squares cut for maybe 5$ each.
• It automatically offsets the art from the wall.  because the Foam Core is 3/16″ think, the mosaic automatically gets a cool “floating” appearance.

I’m already thinking about how I’m going to build prototype 2 out of steel, but for the most part, this Foam Core design works really well.  My only problems are that attaching the magnetic material takes a lot of time and the finished product has a “prototype” feel that I don’t know if I could overcome no matter how carefully I built it.