Tastes of Culture

Plenty of freedom is afforded when you create collages. Basically you can use anything you like to make up your collage, and not only that, you can express your feelings on it in any way you choose.

You have many textures which can be of use to you for creating collages. As an example, take gold and silver paper, wool, felt, corrugated paper, wood, metal, newspaper and ribbon for starters.

It may be now, that you have to paint your background card, or whatever you may be using. Once it is dry, you can then sketch out your subject, then try different pieces out and find places to position them on your sketch, or backdrop.

At this stage, eliminate anything you are not going to use. You could use crepe paper, but any sort of paper you will need in your collage, is in need of tearing or cutting into various shapes and colour choices.

The glue you actually use to stick your collages is very important to your success. So, if you are using fabrics, you need a glue designed for that purpose. The same applies if you are using paper, as you need to be sure your pieces will hold fast.

The collage I have described here is a pretty basic one, but really, if you want to take this a step further, you can use pastels, leather, metal, gravel, buttons etc. Most things can actually be affixed to a flat surface. The rule is really that you can use any items to support what you have in your mind visually.

Children are forever making collages from magazine cuttings, newspapers, bottle tops, silver paper, bits of plastic, bottles etc. Other people make quite amazing collages by only using pieces of newspaper print in black and white from our daily papers.

Of course you could heap together a gallery of photos of people significant to you personally and mix and match them. This seems to be one of the hip and up to date collages at the moment.

First of all, you need a base of one kind or another, for mounting all your treasures. You may have to apply paint and let it dry on this first. It may be you are using fabric or paper that does not need this. Next step is to sketch it all out.

Then you need an assortment of gathered items to choose from. You are unlikely to use them all and no need to fret about using, what may seem rather strange items, nor do they all have to be flat on your surface.

Try and arrange them how you want them and then glue each section carefully. Be patient and wait for this to dry. When your collage is finished you might like to give it a layer of protection with a sealant.

There are then various types of collage, it could become a wall hanging, a framed picture or a mount on a shelf. There are so many possibilities!