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
Posts Tagged ‘canvas’
You Must Soar
Thursday, June 7th, 2012Tim says “Make it Work!”
Thursday, February 16th, 2012Here’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.
More Emily…
Wednesday, January 11th, 2012Here’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.
Dear Emily,
Friday, January 6th, 2012I 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.
And now for something completely different…
Friday, July 1st, 2011For 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.
I’m melting………..
Sunday, March 6th, 2011Melting 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:
Cut it Out!
Sunday, January 24th, 2010For 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.
Welcome Home
Friday, June 19th, 2009I love the shape of a house as a base for a collage, it’s warm and well, so homey:) I just finished this collage on canvas board, the background on the board is layers of Tim Holtz’ crackled paint with several colors of ink rubbed over top of the paint. I cut the shape of the house and chimney from vintage book paper, I inked the edges to make it more aged looking and added a strip from a vintage tape measure as the base of the house. I cut the roof out of black cardstock that has a white core, I then sanded it to bring out some of the white and make it look more shabby. I made a copy of a lovely Victorian photograph I have and mounted it in the middle of the house using black photo corners. I had a small piece left from timming the tape measure and added it like a house number. Before I attached the roof I added some letters cut from an vintage book, small brads and sewed on a large metal key. I think a collage like this would be the perfect house warming gift for someone moving into a new home.
At the Beach
Saturday, April 11th, 2009My mom recently came back from Florida (were she was born) and brought back some really neat tiny sea shells and ask if I wanted some for my artwork and of course I did:) I used them in this fun little collage of a mermaid laying on the beach. I love mermaids almost as much as I do fairies:) I took a vintage image of a lady in a swimsuit and cut off her legs and added the tail of a fish from a vintage nature book, they didn’t really “match” so I wrapped some rickrack around her waist and it helped to tie the two halves of her together (sounds like Dr. Frankenstein or something, hehe) I inked up the small canvas (which is 3 3/4″ 2 3/4″) with various shades of blues, greens and yellows and wrapped yellow grosgrain ribbon around the edges to hide the staples. I tore and sanded cardstock for the beach, attached the mermaid and then added real sand mixed with Tim Holtz’s glitter glue for a very realistic looking beach. I then added those great shells from my mom and stamped and cut out a plaque and added the words “A day at the beach” cut from a vintage book. Makes me wish I was at the beach!
Hope
Monday, March 9th, 2009I 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:
