Discovering The Art Of Collage
If you want to create a perfect, meaningful Christmas gift
, try creating a memorable collage. Art is a very personal, creative way to show someone you care about him or her.
Collage, from the French word "coller" (to stick), is a technique that incorporates fragments of paper and collected or found objects into artistic compositions. The National Gallery of Art credits Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso with legitimizing collage as fine art.
Today, any material fixed to a surface may be termed collage. As usual, the guys get all the credit!
At the risk of generalizing, women often have a genetic proclivity for collage and have been creating it since time began. Women tend to arrange and organize, rearrange and reorganize, until they see a composition that is pleasing to the eye.
They also tend to save more memorable things, picture, etc. Women do this with home decor, their dinner tables, their closets, their makeup, their apparel, and just about anything else.
Men, on the other hand, tend to leave things where they lie, find organization in disorganization, have little concern (and may exhibit actual annoyance) if you ask them to pick up after themselves or put things away.
Right along in the collage category are shadow boxes, photo collages, collaged cards, framed family history or theme pieces, and of course collage art. They all start with a theme or group of somehow related objects.
Look around you. Get the shoebox of family memorabilia out of the attic.
Keep your eye out for objects that appeal to you and are mountable. Some options might be beach glass, shells, small pieces of driftwood, dried flowers and leaves, jewelry parts, charms, doll house furniture and accessories, machine parts, e.g. gears from a watch or small motor, kitchen utensils, or old silverware.
It all depends on what you are going for. You may have several groups accumulating at once; and objects may be moved at whim from one group to another.
You may want to enhance or alter some objects for a special look. Paper can be "antiqued" by careful singeing the edges and/or washing over the paper with tea.
Some items can be painted or shellacked. You may want only part of a photo-tear or cut away the unwanted portion, or create a pretty mat from textured paper in a coordinated color.
Objects can be painted or colored: polka dots on a scrap of metal, a stained glass design painted on clear glass, a matte finish on one item that would otherwise clash with all the glossy ones - or vice versa. Depending on the size and weight of your arrangement, choose your substrate.
If the project is going to be large and heavy, consider masonite, hardboard, or wood, at least a quarter inch thick. It is a good idea to glue two strips to the back for support, both while you work and when you
go to hang it.
Metal can also be used and is very effective in combination with objects welded to it. If you are scrapbooking, your substrate is most likely twelve by twelve inch paper and your items need to be lightweight.
Other possibilities are stretched canvas, cardboard or wooden boxes, poster board, or for cards-any type of cardstock or decorative paper including handmade papers. Decide what you will need in order to mount your objects. Choose glues appropriate for the object and the substrate; preferably ones which will dry transparent.
Try to avoid any glue seeping out from the edges by carefully placing and spreading the glue and letting it come to a proper tack before placing each object on the base. Follow the manufacturer's label
instructions.
Be sure the adhesive is permanent and, if you are working with photos, also acid-free. Some consumer tapes, glue sticks, and liquid adhesives are not permanent, or may react with photographs and cause them to deteriorate.
Other possible fasteners are nails, tacks (especially decorative ones such as upholstery tacks), pegs, bolts, glue dots, stick pins, wire and tape. You may even want to take up welding.
There are no limits to your creativity. Think about what will be meaningful to the person you are making the gift for, and create something they will love-you will have fun in the process!
by: Tommy Greene
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