Collage art has always fascinated me. There’s something thought-provoking about taking separate pieces and putting them together to create something new. When we do this in our lives, it can be powerful. When we do this with art, it can be healing, enlightening, or just fun. There’s no wrong reason to make a mixed-media collage, and when you have the techniques and materials on hand, there should be nothing stopping you.
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| Oriental Lily (14×10) “This fabric collage is composed of patterned commercial and hand-painted cloth bits that are layered and fused to a muslin base,” Susan says. “It’s embellished with sequins and metallic thread.” |
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| Collage idea: Use fabric to create a stunning mixed-media collage! |
Susan Minier, whose collage art has been featured in Cloth Paper Scissors, tells us how her experience with fabrics led her to collage. “I fell in love with fabric in the early ’90s,” Susan says. “Ten years previous, a seamstress friend had given me six cartons of cloth remnants and I had no idea what I would do with them, so they were put away and forgotten. When I finally opened the boxes, I was dazzled, hooked, in love! There was a staggering array of fabrics in all different colors, patterns, and materials. Before long, I began creating fabric collages using templates, scraps, and fusible webbing. This technique is easy and fun.”
Scroll down for a preview of Susan’s step-by-step collage art project, a beautiful flower. Use the collage techniques here for any subject you choose.
Fabric Collage Project by Susan Minier
The following directions are for creating a flower collage, but you may apply them to any subject of your choosing. I like to finish my pieces with a mat and frame; these instructions will guide you to do likewise.
1. On tracing paper, compose a simplified picture using a flower as your subject. The picture borders should be 8″ x 11″.
2. Label the right side of the tracing “front” and the reverse “template.”
3. Using a craft knife, cut a foam board so it will just fit inside an 11″ x 14″ picture frame.
4. Stretch a sheet of 12″ x 15″ muslin taut over the foam board and secure it with small quilter’s T-pins.
5. Choose a color palette or let your fabrics suggest one.
6. Sort through your fabric stash and set aside any remnants you think you might want to use and stack them by color. You’ll need a large table to work on because this gets disorganized quickly.
7. Using your iron, apply Heat n Bond to the back of the scraps. Remove the paper backing.
8. Number each shape on the template side of the tracing. For example, each petal, flower center, stem, and leaf will have its own number.
9. Place Pellon® Designers Lite interfacing over the template. Trace each shape onto the interfacing, leaving some space between each one.
Tip: To make it easier to see the tracing through the interfacing, hold them up to a window, using the window as a light box.
10. Number the shapes on the interfacing to correspond to the numbers on the template.
11. Cut out the shapes leaving space around them. They will be trimmed to size after the collage process is complete. ~Susan
Get the full article in this issue. While you’re here comment below and tell us your favorite subject to collage! Also, visit the Interweave Store, where 12 Days of Deals are going on now (today’s special is “The more you spend, the more you save!”).
Piecing it all together,
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