Upcycled Collage: Hummingbirds

August 16, 2011

I’m still a week behind on sharing new work, but my excuse this time is vacation. Boris and I were on Pender Island with friends for five nights and it was a glorious getaway for all those involved. I debating doing a big of blogging while I was there, but I preferred having a laptop-free break.

The base for this collage is the cover of a wooden cake box originally from a Hotel in Germany. I picked it up at Value Village and am saving the rest of the box for a future mixed media piece.

With the hummingbirds I decided to make yet further explorations into creating what I wanted by cutting the shapes from paper. This time the usual clouds, but also leaves, branches, and a nest for Mrs. Hummingbird. The wood was first layered with strips of sewing pattern paper to tone down, but not hide the existing text.

I left the original metal hardware on the box lid, as you can see at the corners and part of the latch on the bottom edge. I like trying to incorporate as much of the original details of these found materials as I can. I hope I can source more wooden boxes from Value Village before I run out of what I have.

Materials used: wooden box lid, security envelopes, book page scraps, sewing pattern paper, and paper birds.

Upcycled Collage: Crane & Book Cover

August 8, 2011

This is the second upcycled collage I completed last week. It was very satisfying to sit down for the day and come away with two completed collages. You should’ve seen the HUGE mess in the studio when I was finished.

Normally with the books I use in my altered book work the cover of the books ends up hidden away. This one was much too nice to not feature in a composition and so it’s ended up as the background for this collage.

I chose the crane for this because it was the first thing I came across when I opened the bird encyclopedia to select a bird. It seemed like the perfect one to go with the colours and flower motif. I decided to continue with the paper waves because the crane is also a wading bird.

I sorted through the pile of saved envelopes looking for something that would go well with the patterns on the cover but wasn’t the usual blues of security envelopes. I found one with this grey pattern that feels very Japanese, and it ended up being the perfect thing.

Materials used: book cover, thread, paper bird, book page scraps, security envelopes, and gel medium.

Upcycled Collage: The Wading Birds

August 4, 20111 Comment

The bird collages made from upcycled materials continue this week with three new pieces almost completed. This is the first of the three, and also my favorite of them all.

The canvas for this collage is the cover of a wooden box, the rest of which I used earlier this year in another mixed media assemblage piece. The Japanese characters are part of the original cover design and I tried to incorporate them into the composition because they’re lovely.

It was fun to try different things with the same materials. So far I’ve mostly been making clouds with the scrap book pages and security envelopes, but this time it made more sense to reference water because these are shore birds.

The finished artwork feels very Japanese, and I love how beautifully all the elements come together.

Materials used: sewing pattern paper, security envelopes, book pages, paper birds, wooden box lid, and gel medium.

Upcycled Collage: Book Cover & Birds

August 2, 2011

I removed this cover from a sample altered book I’d put together for one of the workshops I taught earlier this year. I don’t normally remove covers from the books I use but I did in this case and decided to hold on to it and use it in something else. I was really hoping to use it in a collage somehow and here it is at last.

This is part of a series of collages I’m creating as a warm up. I’ve taken most of the summer off from making things and it feels good to get back to it.

As mentioned previously, I’m tentatively calling this series, “Put a Bird on it”, as each one will be a whimsical composition containing birds. They all come from the same bird book I found at Value Village and each collage contains upcycled security envelopes, scrap book pages and thread. I’ve decided to use both found wood boxes and book covers as the “canvas” for these.

Even though it’s still months away my efforts in producing new work is in preparation for the Eastside Culture Crawl in November. Stay tuned for more new work.

Upcycled Collage: Put a Bird on It

July 28, 2011

If you’ve seen the show Portlandia you’ll understand the reference in the title of this blog post. They did a sketch called “Put a bird on it”, where they make fun of the trend of bird motif covered everything. It’s really funny and you can watch it here. I’m thinking it will be the working title of a new series with birds.

As I get back into the flow of creating new work I’ve decided to continue creating small collage using reclaimed materials. I’m focused on sourcing wooden boxes as the base for these collage, and will use scrap book pages, security envelopes, thread, and birds cut from an encyclopedia.

I’m continuing with a style I started working on at the beginning of this year mixing the patterns created by the type on the book pages with the blue prints of the envelopes. Both papers are ones I’ve saved and collected. The wood I’ve used as the canvas for this collage is the cover of a wine box I bought at Value Village. I’ll be using the rest of the box for another piece.

My focus with this series is definitely whimsical scenes with birds. But I also want to create these with reclaimed materials upcycled into art. The most difficult part will be sourcing appropriate pieces of wood, though I’m also considering doing these on book covers.

It feels really good to be making new work.

Revising the Tree of [Un]Common Knowledge

July 14, 20111 Comment

The Tree of [Un]Common Knowledge has been languishing away in storage since I last displayed it in November. I’ve always wanted to make it a few accessories from paper, like leaves, flowers, and birds. Last week I finally got around to creating the birds.

I picked up an illustrated bird encyclopedia from Value Village a few months ago with the intention of using the bird illustrations in collage work. Some of the birds are fairly close to the life-size, which made them perfect to use on the paper tree.

I cut out twenty-five birds from the encyclopedia. Each one is glued to a thicker cardstock and attached to the tree with a pin. I wanted to be able to move them around and not make them a permanent part of the tree. The birds are a delightful addition, and I wish I had somewhere in my apartment I could leave the whole thing set up for my enjoyment.

The Tree of [Un]Common Knowledge was supposed to be displayed in the lobby of the Sandbar Restaurant for ReVision @ Creekhouse, which is a show of artwork made from recycled materials. Unfortunately I decided to withdraw it at the last minute because the space I was given in the lobby of the restaurant wasn’t suitable and I felt the tree was at risk of getting damaged.

I’m hoping to eventually find somewhere else to show this, so stay tuned…

Butterflies, Paper & Leaves Collage

February 24, 2011

This is the last of the old heat transfer experiments recycled into art that I started working on last week. I ended up completely covering up the original image printed on this cradle frame because it didn’t work well in the collage.

I don’t feel I do this random style of composition well, so I was finding it tricky to know when to stop layering things. It’s just on the edge of having too many things going on and becoming a mess. But I love the papers overlapping and the colours are fun.

As with the previous collage pieces, this is available for purchase through my Etsy shop or in person.

Recycling Art Experiments into Collage

February 22, 2011

If you’re an artist like me who loves to experiment with different ideas and processes, you may have a whole bunch of unsuccessful pieces of not-so-great art taking up space in your studio. Last week I pulled out three of these, all on wooden cradle frames I wanted to reuse. Two of the pieces had heat transfer images printed on the surface, and one was a collage I never felt was “quite right”.

This one is my favorite of the three because I was able to retain some of the previous work with simple additions of Japanese paper and leaves. The face is a statue I photographed in the Egyptian museum in Berlin combined with a photo of lily pads. It’s a style of digital collage I haven’t done in ages (and no longer like).

With this second collage I decided to give it a simple tweak by adding clouds made from book pages and security envelopes. I’ve always like some part of this collage but felt it was more of an experiment than something representative of my “style”. Now I like it much better.

It also ties in nicely with the larger collage I made a few weeks ago with airships (which is sold now, by the way).

The collages are made on wooden cradle frames ready to hang, and are both available for sale through Etsy (and in person).

Collage: The Butterfly Chase

February 11, 2011

I really wish I had more than just two of these circle cut pieces of wood because they were terrific to work with and now I’ve used both. The first collage featured airships and this one has butterflies. It’s a theme of flying things.

I continued using the same materials in this one because I’ve been enjoying figuring out different ways to mix the book page scraps and security envelopes. This time I cut the paper into leaf shapes and placed them around part of the circle in a messy swirl as if they’re blowing in the wind.

I found this particular type of thread difficult to glue down because it kept sticking to the brush of gel medium instead of the paper. I decided to use it in the composition as a flight path for the butterflies to follow.

Materials used: wood, sewing pattern paper, acetate butterflies, cotton thread, book page scraps, security envelopes, and gel medium.

As always this collage is listed for sale in both my Etsy and Cargoh shops.

The Return of the Airships

February 3, 20111 Comment

I picked up two beautiful pieces of round wood from a recent artist networking event and had been itching to use them for new collage work. I’ve never made something round but it seemed like a fun shape to work with. I also haven’t ever made a collage so large.

I decided to reinterpret an old collage from my sketchbook with this piece. I still had the same airships and colourful pixelated paper but incorporated new bits of whimsy. I took inspiration from the layers of book page scraps and security envelopes I used in last week’s mixed media collage to create clouds and suggest a sky for the airships.

Sewing pattern paper with simple lines is the first layer of this piece and it allows some of the wood grain to show through. The last item I added was the tangle of threads swirling their way through the composition from top to bottom. Everything I used in this, except the three airships, are recycled materials.

Materials used: wood, sewing pattern paper, magazine ad, silk thread, book page scraps, security envelopes, and gel medium.

This collage is listed for sale in both my Etsy and Cargoh shops.

Canvas to the Imagination

Rachael Ashe – Art | Craft | Life

Category: collage