Tree and Button Collage

It's done. Farewell February.

Machine sewn collage brooches

I've been wanting to make fabric collages for ages.  Last night I sat at the sewing machine and it all suddenly clicked.  I've had these beautiful pieces of material - and not much of them - that I can finally put to use - machine sewn collage brooches.  Even Joe, who doesn't usually comment on what I make, says that he likes them!  What do you think Kate??!!

Tree and Flower Collage

Here is the beginning of my next collage - although I must admit I am still working on my last collage still. I have a leaf-shaped hole punch and I was sharpening it by using foil with it (I don't know how it works but it does) and was amazed by how effective the silver leaves were. Consequently I have stuck silver ones over the green ones on the collage below and will probably feature some on the one above. I have actually painted some silver birch trees on since I took the photo and can't wait to finish it off tomorrow.

I am also really excited because I found some really good quality canvas pads which means I can continue using acrylics but also sew onto the surface as well. I can't believe February is almost over when I am just getting into the swing of it.

Love Kate xxooxxooxx

If it's February it must be collage...

After googling 'collage art blog' I found Michelle Caplan's blog.  Whilst it hasn't been updated recently, I found a couple of inspiring images that I tried to emulate (above).  I did this on the computer using Pages.  I made the images of Sophie and Tom black and white, then overlaid them with coloured images at 40% opacity.  I assume you can vary the opacity on Windows as well, but I've never tried before and don't have a Windows computer anymore!

Kate and I are collaging this month.  Hopefully this will be more successful than our month of felting which didn't work due to a number of reasons, mainly being a combination of the heat (have you tried felting during summer?!), school holidays (both of us have had two kids at home full-time) and we've both been sick.  We'll come back to the felted vessels during the year as we definitely haven't finished with them yet.

Our collaging will be very experimental and you'll see our evolution throughout the month.   I'm planning on doing a combination of collages both on and off the computer.  We're both going to use elements of our own images - whether they be paintings, photos, drawings, writing etc - as well as using images garnered elsewhere - magazines, newspapers, etc.  And with Kate's eldest starting school this week and my Tom starting school tomorrow, we should become a lot more productive very soon!