Now Playing: Playing with scrap materials
Topic: workflow
In the studio tour I mentioned having a "Parts & Starts" drawer. How many of you caught that??? How many of you understood that??? Well, here I am to explain it!
Whenever I run across something interesting that I think I might want to use in art some fine day I toss it in a bin I call Parts & Starts. These might include calendar illustrations, magazine ads, catalog clippings, travel brochures, neat things torn off of commercial cards, a bit of metal - those kinds of things.
When the drawer gets full or I feel like playing I take out the bin and spread stuff all over my work surface. Today I pulled out these things.
Then I start rearranging things into groups that look good together. Here are 4 groups of things that I matched up: First is a paint strip, a brochure from the credit union, and a butterfly from a calendar cover.
The second group is two different kinds of paint strips and a coaster from dinner at the Olive Garden.
Group 3 is just a paint strip and an illustration from a travel magazine.
Group 4 is an illustration from a cruise brochure, the seal off the neck of a Kahlua bottle, and another paint strip. (By the way these large single-color paint strips I get from my local hardware store are peel and stick - made so you can apply it right to the wall and see how you like the color without painting).
To each of my groups of things I add coordinating bits from my supply drawers so I have a complete set of things to work from. For group 1 I added some handmade paper, tissue paper in both blue and yellow.
Group 2 picked up printed paper with writing, a leaf-printed handmade paper, and some grosgrain ribbon.
Group 3 got some orange handmade paper and copper tissue.
Group 4 was the set I ended up working with today. I added some printed scrapbook paper, printed cardstock with a plaster-finish look, and a piece of wire mesh.
These elements were torn, trimmed and rearranged until I found a layout that I liked. Then I adhered them in place.
I then tore the right side of the grouping, trimmed up the other two sides and used green brads to adhere the wire mesh on three sides. This reaffirms the green in the photo and 'frames' the collage. Finally, I it mounted on a folded green textured cardstock and added rub-on text as a title.
I will go back to my original groupings of supplies and finish them off in similar steps. When I am done, in a typical session, I might have anywhere from 6-12 cards to file for future use.
Start saving junk mail!
Ddd
