A Necklace That Connects To The Heart

Hello Dears!
Are you ready for brand new beautiful Art on the blog? It's Friday which means it's my Creative Team's day to amaze us all and today it's Gayle who comes with stunning collaged layers of papers, paints and metaphors.

I feel I could completely lose myself in these deep, rich and meaningful pages. I know you'll love this piece...

Hello again lovely Finnabair friends. This month I have created a journal page.

For someone who loves to collage as I do, art journals with heavy paper are my favourite place to loose myself.

I think with every art journal purchased, a jar of Art Basics Soft Matte Gel must come with it - for collage, for image transfers or as a general adhesive - I love it and use nothing else.

Finnabair also has some amazing Ephemera packs full of interesting and beautiful vintage images perfect for collaging.

Some of you may be new to “collage” and have the idea that it is merely cutting paper and gluing it down to more paper. It is so much more. You may find this “The Art of Collage” article interesting.

My story is not new, but one every mother will understand.

Empty journal pages, patterned papers and Finnabair Ephemera.

Don’t start with too many patterned papers or images… that can sometimes make choosing what to use very confusing. Have a couple of “main focal images” and choose background papers that have maybe similar colours to the focal image, or are from the same vintage era, or go completely the opposite and use a vintage focal image and then use super modern background papers and create great contrast.

Or... forget all of the above and just use papers and images that you absolutely love because they talk to you, that you simply love and want to work with. :)

You don’t have to Gesso your pages, but I do as I like the way paint and ink sit on the surface of the paper rather than soaking into it. Plus, putting on a layer of Gesso means you have made a start on your blank pages, which can sometimes be daunting.

I used to always apply my gesso with  a soft brush: it would leave brush lines which is ok and sometimes you may want that added subtle, background texture.

However, using Finnabair’s Silicone Brush is my favourite way of applying Gesso. It is quick and gives a perfectly smooth finish. Wipe it clean with a baby wipe and you’re done; so easy.

Creating the background.

I know you all would have seen this before… glueing down random bits of paper. Very tedious to watch someone else doing it on a video. I find it relaxing and even a little therapeutic to do.

What you put down can of course be very random. Balance, however, is important and even though a lot of these papers will be covered with other images and paint  later on, it’s good to have an equal mix on each page. Also have in mind which pieces you don’t want to cover and may want to highlight.

Soft Matte Gel and a soft brush is what I use to stick every thing down. This gel is thin enough to spread smoothly and evenly with no lumps or bumps, but not so thin that it causes your papers to wrinkle. But it is thick enough to hold down even thicker, heavier papers. Of course you can paint your background or apply mists or inks as well, either before or after adding your paper pieces, there are so many options...

Fill in some of the white space with stamps.

Beautiful Finnabair Clear Stamps are so versatile. Using these text stamps helps to unify the page. With a few pieces of text paper already “floating” on the page, stamping over or near them, ties them together and helps to unify all the separate pieces.

Use acrylic paint now to tie the separate pieces of paper together by painting around the separate pieces in the same colour.

I’ve done this with a brush as well as dragging paint down the page with a credit card.

When you are happy with how your background is looking, add your focal images.

Mine are the two women taken from Finnabair’s fabulous Ephemera packs, the moths and the heart. These are the images that tell the story.

I’ve painted around some of these images to blur the paper edges and to try to blend them into the background. The beads have been highlighted with Art Alchemy Acrylic Paint in Metallique Gold Rush and then these dots continued on into the moths and the heart, thereby bringing all these images together and connecting them.

Lastly, add the finer details like paint splatters, ink dribbles, pattern making and details with white or black pens, hand drawn details to connect images.
 

Collage can seem like just a whole lot of bits of paper stuck to a page, but you can have many layers under and peeking out from your main images. Uniting all these separate pieces, and layers into a cohesive, balanced and interesting story is the challenge and of course the fun part.

I love this quote from a musician Jens Lekman (this quote came to me by way of collage queen Kelly Kilmer):
 

“The beauty of the collage technique is that you’re using sounds that have never met and were never supposed to meet.

You introduce them to each other, at first they’re a bit shy, clumsy, staring at their shoes.

But you can sense there’s something there.

So you cut and paste a little bit and by the end of the song you can spot them in the corner, holding hands.”

Hugs, Gayle.

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