Here’s my latest collage piece inspired by Tim Gunn’s famous Project Runway quote: “Make it Work!”. The painted wooden tag in the middle has a paper dress with a tiny vintage button that’s hanging on a little wire hanger with a paper tag. I used a lot of vintage sewing items to embellish it like part of a tape measure, spool and wooden clothes pin. The background paper is vintage music sheet.
Here’s another collage inspired by Emily Dickinson. This one is on a chunky canvas and I tried something new for the background, I stitched organza fabric onto of the vintage music paper. I think it adds a nice soft romantic touch. The focal point is a stained wooden tag with vintage book paper, a silhouette on canvas, the quote and a bird charm. I also added a muslin flower with a vintage button and wrapped some lace around the canvas too.
Here’s another recent collage. Guess I’m on a quote kick, this one is inspired by a William Blake quote. It’s on 5″ x 7″ canvas board painted grey with vintage music sheet background. The cage is on a transparency and it’s embellished with a silver bird charm, metal key, metal clip, vintage measuring tape and letter beads.
I adore Emily Dickinson’s poetry. This collage was inspired by one of her most famous quotes. It’s on a 5″ x 7″ canvas board. The main images are of a bird cage and womans silhouette with a bird sitting on top of the cage. I embellished it with vintage measuring tape, a flower I made from muslin and a vintage button and a fountain pen nib.
For while I’ve been admiring an art style that I can only describe as “primitive mixed media girls”. It’s a mixture of paint, paper, embellishments, etc. hand draw and cut into the shapes of girls with a very “prim” look. I’ve decided even though I don’t think I’m very proficient at drawing (or even painting) that I’d like to give this style a go. This is my first attempt at it, so please don’t be too harsh 🙂 I’m pretty happy with the results for a first try, I need to work on my painting techniques for sure!
Since I love Alice in Wonderland so much I thought she’d be a good place to start. On watercolor paper I drew the basic shape of the girl with a pencil then painted her in with acrylic paints and highlighted with Gelato sticks. I then cut out her clothes, glued them down and traced over all the edges with a fine tip black micron pen. Then I cut her out adding a bow and vintage button. Next I glued her to a painted canvas, adding the definition for “curious” cut from a vintage dictionary.
Melting wax that is. I decided I hadn’t played with bees wax for awhile so I got my little crock pot out and played around with it the other day. I made some more captured fairy in a jar art cards, like I did in the past, dipping the collaged jars into the bees wax, they always turn out cute. I also did a bird collage I’m really happy with. I started with a wooden tag and collaged vintage music sheet and images of a bird and egg and the word “fly” cut from a vintage book. Then I took a brush and covered the tag with the melted wax. One of the cool things about wax is it can be remelted. So in a couple spots were it was too thick and cloudy I used my heat tool and melted it a bit to thin it out. You can also use a mini iron to melt the wax as well. I then added some game pieces that spell “egg” and faux grass for a nest. I covered a 5 x 7 canvas board in vintage dictionary paper, mounted the tag in the middle on cardstock and then added a few vintage buttons.
Here’s a couple of my fairy art cards:
doesn’t he look shocked to be captured?:
and this is my bird and egg collage:
First I wanted to be published in Somerset Studio magazine, check, that happened (so exciting!) and then I wanted to be published in my favorite issue, the Halloween issue, well I can now check that off my list too! My witch collage is on page 113 of the Sept/Oct 2010 issue! I’m so excited! If you’re a frequent reader you might recognize the collage, it started out as just a HOME themed collage but it just wasn’t finished in my eyes so I later “re-worked” it and turned it into a Halloween theme and was so happy with it I decided to submit it. So glad I did!
It’s been awhile since I’ve made any collages on canvas so I got out a few canvas boards last week and made a couple.
Awhile ago I made an all white washed collage with a bird cage theme and was really happy how it turned out so I got out the gesso again to do some more white washing. I used a sponge brush and a light coating of gesso over some vintage music sheet and vintage book papers, then covered my 5 x 7 canvas board with music sheet using gel medium to adhere it. Then a traced a chipboard butterfly onto the back of the book paper, cut it out and adhered that. I had a lovely copy of a Victorian photo I bought from a dealer in the UK that I scanned and printed onto watercolor paper and I matted it with black cardstock that I cut with deckle edge scissors giving it that edge you see on alot of old photos. I then adhered the photo, popped up the butterfly with lots of foam tape and added layers of buttons on the butterfly and the corner of the photo along with a crocheted flower. Lastly I cut the words “spread your wings” from a vintage book and adhered that to the bottom of the collage.
I love the black and white contrast of this one alot.
For awhile I’ve been wanting to try something I haven’t before but I’d seen other artists do it and that’s cutting a section out of a chunky canvas and making a little box or niche inside the cut out. I was so worried I’d ruin the canvas I’d been putting it off. Finally I thought, well I’ll use a small canvas and just try, so I did and I’m thrilled with the results! I traced the shape I wanted to cut out on the back of the canvas and very carefully used an exacto knife to cut it. I then collaged the front like I normally would with vintage music paper lining up my paper with the hole and cutting that out too. I added a back to the canvas to complete the “box”, to the front I added the branch, bird, scrabble tiles and a piece of vintage wooden measuring stick and then added a nest I made out of silver wire and beads inside the niche. I will definitely be trying this again.
This recent collage of mine was very influenced by mixed media artist Catherine Moore, her mixture of every day items to make clothing and art dolls is very inspiring to me. I also used the Paper Fashions Fantasy book I gave away recently for the top of the dress and one of the hangers that comes with the book, this shows you can use the book in a very artsy way not just for cute fairytale princesses 🙂
It’s on a 5″ x 7″ canvas board I painted brown. I made the top of the dress from inked vintage paper with a vintage button tied with hemp string, the skirt of the dress is a bird cage printed on a transparency with a red bird inside. Tied to the hanger with hemp string is a tiny tag that says “(cage ‘d”. The background is vintage music sheet and it’s embellished with a piece of vintage measuring stick and a quote on tattered fabric from Emily Dickinson that says “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the Soul”. I’m really happy with the results!
close up of the dress:
