I recently found an amazing antique book from 1912 about famous poets and I cut out some text from Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” for a soldered charm on this mixed media necklace. I also added a book and pen nib charm too.

I got out my bees wax last week and made some encaustic collages.

The first is on a small 3×3 canvas with a blue bird and cage on vintage music sheet paper and a quote from William Blake. I coated the entire front with melted wax and then wrapped the edges with ribbon and added a vintage wooden game piece.

This next one I wanted to look like a page from a naturalists notebook. It’s a small canvas board on top of a larger canvas board, both covered in wax. The quote is on fabric and I added some faux grass for the nest, some scrabble tiles, part of a wooden measuring stick and ink pen nib.

Wanted to share a couple of William Blake inspired collages I made recently. I love this quote!

The first one is available in my Etsy shop, the smaller one has sold already.

-Heather

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 a few Art Cards I made with a cool new bird cage stamp. In the first two I used a template and patterned paper and cut out the bodice of a dress and added it to the top of the cage so it would look like a vintage “cage” dress form. I added a bird inside the cage and a tiny wire hanger to hang it from.

This card uses a quote from William Blake and I added a blue bird and some tiny black alphabet beads.

-Heather

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.

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:

I really liked the look and feel of my bird cage ATC’s and wanted to do something similar on a larger scale so I did a 5″ x 7″ on a canvas board. The background is vintage music sheet, the cage is stamped on a transparency sheet and the bird is an image from an old nature guide. There’s alot of embellishments on this one including the tiny tag tied with hemp string, an old cancelled German postage stamp (I added another stamped cancellation to it myself) a skeleton leaf (which is a leaf that has had everything but it’s “bones” bleached away), a piece of old wooden measuring stick, a brass book page marker and a piece of tattered fabric that I stamped an Emily Dickinson quote on. I named the piece “Hope”.

close up: