A Passion for Creativity

The Collage Process Explained

1. First there’s a rough idea for paper collage design, or two or three ideas.
2. Scanning your immaculately organized studio, you consider the backing/support. Heavy watercolor paper, Bristol board, museum board? Rummaging through a drawer, a file, a cart, you pull considerations out onto the desk.
3. You bring out the stored decorative and handmade-papers. Seeing the colorful bags sorted by type and size, you feel so TOGETHER.
4. You plug in a Mozart tape.
5. Tear. Cut. Snip. Hey! Let’s make four different collages at once, or more!
6. At the counter, arrange, and rearrange the paper shapes on the backings. You vaguely notice that there’s an equal amount of bits and pieces on the floor.
7. They need something else, pop the lid off that other bin of collected oddments!
8. By now, every studio drawer should be hanging precariously open.
9. You didn’t notice that the music ended long ago.
10. For the fifth time you’ve misplaced the small and large scissors, and can’t find the Xacto-knife.
11. You bring out more scissors. Plus you consider a yellow silk ribbon; 5 inches of orange cotton cord; 1960’s stickers of a chicken, a t.v., a hula girl, and a rubber duckie; a vintage matchbox; a soap wrapper from India with elephants; and textured metal buttons. None of which you’ll use.
12. Right about here, every surface in the studio should be covered with collage materials. The purple papers are in the orange bag, and the tans have disappeared. You feel, MMM…words fail.
13. It’s time to glue: with paste or acrylic medium depending on the paper’s weight.
14. You glue  in layers, covering each in pieces of plastic drop cloth, so they won’t stick to the big art history text you weight them down with to dry. There’s likely a place left on the floor to put them.
15. Another layer, more stuff.
16. If you did it right so far, the palette knife for the paste is glued to a CD cover; the acrylic medium brush is best friends with a paper towel; one shoe is stuck to the floor, and the other is trailing a bit of Thai pink mulberry paper; there is unexplained ink on your hands.
17. Then, suddenly, you are finished- can’t remember when you started, but it’s dark now. Looking around at the chaos, you feel GOOD.
18. That’s right, collage had its way with you.
19. The next morning it takes an hour, or two, to reorganize, put back, wipe down …you find the scissors, and the bag with the tans under the canvas cart.
20. You arrange some of the collages for a photo shoot.
    

    ©2013, Joan Desmond, Collage Postcards.
    

21. Hah! such a clean and tidy pic.
22. Collaged, mail art postcards, ready for messages, addresses, and stamps. For the Grandkids. Sending some art through the mail.