Tag Archives | Non-Fabric Projects

Collaging with Magazine Pages

By Ellen Lindner on December 18, 2023 in Uncategorized

Do you ever hit a creative stumbling block? Or just don’t have the mental stamina to take on something major? How about a quick little collage with magazine pages.

I especially like doing this with calendar images. Since the images already relate to one another, it makes for easier going.

Here’s one I did with winter birds.

And with Western/Native American motifs.

These are NOT meant to be works of art. Or even inspiration for something else. They’re purely a playful exercise in arranging colors, shapes, and values. Just a moment of creativity. I love making them.

Of course, magazine pages are also great if you’re trying to make an abstracted version of something realistic. In that case, I tear the pages, knowing that everything will be somewhat imperfect: just what I need for abstracting.

I’ve written several blog posts about this technique. See the links below.

Ellen Lindner
Links: Loosen Up with Torn Paper Collage
Torn Paper
Overcoming my Left Brained Tendencies
Three Cherries Complete

Playing with Colored Pieces of Paper

By Ellen Lindner on March 21, 2021 in Uncategorized

You can’t work with a bunch of pieces of colored paper without seeing some design possibilities!

As part of my online class with Jane Davies, I was arranging, and rearranging, and rearranging again a wide array of colors and shapes.

Our first assignment was to make a largish collage with multiple pieces. Mine missed the mark (although I had fun doing it.)

Along the way, I was seduced by all the colors and I just HAD to play with them outside the scope of the class exercises. I played with monochromatic greys. Look how nicely they set off soft colors. Could I use enough restraint to create with these colors in fabric? I’m not sure.

Then, I saw a photo of a red beet and a gold beet. So, I had to play with those colors a little. A little sharp, perhaps, but still something I may want to explore in the future.

Eventually, we got to make collages with just three pieces and I was swimming back in more comfortable waters. Quite a few of these were successful, but I know Jane will have us alter them in the next step. I’m very interested to see what we’ll do with them.

When was the last time you took a class that didn’t involve fabric? I think it’s a really good way to explore new ideas and I feel confident some of these will find their way into my fabric collages.

Ellen Lindner

INDEPENDENCE Day!

By Ellen Lindner on July 3, 2020 in Uncategorized

My son is moving out! On July 4th. His Independence Day! I’m so excited for him.

And I also admit to a little joy at the prospect of reclaiming his bedroom for my own purposes! Yahoo!

I got to use his room a few years ago and it was so great. Once again, I have big plans for it. I’ll use it for photo and video shooting. Which will be MUCH better than my current set up, which takes place in the dining room or cramped studio.

Maybe I’ll even be able to keep the light stands up most of the time! I also plan to have a packing station. I can’t wait!

But, I WILL miss having my son around! Thankfully, he’ll be close.

Ellen Lindner

Working with Magazine Pages

By Ellen Lindner on August 17, 2019 in Uncategorized

Inspired by the work of Derek Gores, I decided to make a glued collage with magazine pages. I’ve done this before on a small scale. This time I moved up to a whopping 16 x 20.

This was my inspiration photo. It’s a combination of 3 photos which I manipulated and merged on my computer. Can you guess why I chose blue-green as the background (fabric) color? (Think near-complementary colors.)

I drew my design directly onto a wrapped canvas and got to work.

I was working with friends and we used undiluted matte medium just the way you would with decoupage. You remember that from the seventies right? Glue underneath and more glue on top.

As you might imagine, the largish pieces and the lack of accuracy needed made the background go pretty quickly.

But, hmm, I had a problem. The shadows seemed to almost disappear. Clearly, I’d need to make them darker. More paper and more glue!

That’s better.

I began working on the cherries in earnest and, as you can imagine, I soon had little bits of colored paper going in all directions. Finding papers was pretty fun, though.

The right cherry completed.

LOTS more tiny bits of paper as I worked on the other two.

I was getting there, but I was also getting rather tired of dealing with little fiddly pieces of paper. I decided that perfection was not needed and started to work more loosely. What a relief! (I should have done this from the get-go.)

Soon, I’ll show you the finished collage and also give you a rundown of the pros and cons, as I see them, of fabric collage versus paper collage.

Ellen Lindner
P.S. See some of my earlier magazine page collages: ONE,

Making a Mobile

By Ellen Lindner on November 15, 2017 in Uncategorized

A few months ago I was playing around with paint quite a bit and using a lot of palette paper. You’re probably familiar with it. It’s sorta waxy, so it can handle a lot of moisture.

Often, the paint dried in interesting ways, so I decided to save the papers. (Yep, I did it again: saved something I had no idea how I’d ever use.)

This week I had some down time, so I cut out the paint blobs.

See what I mean about them being interesting?

I thought maybe I could make them into a mobile. All white or with color? I decided on a mixture.

At some point I had heard that you should build a mobile from the bottom up and that was good advice. I used button twist (heavy thread) and started knotting and threading shapes on. I let the bottom shapes dangle, but I wanted the others to hang semi parallel to the floor. With that in mind I tried to puncture each piece at the center of gravity. (One of my aviation terms, simply meaning balance point.) This sometimes took more than one try.

After adding a piece, I’d make a small knot a little ways down the thread an add the next shape. I kept the colorful side facing down, since I knew it would be viewed from below. ( I did a lot of lifting to look up at my progress.)

I used short pieces of plastic straws as my cross structures, again finding the center of gravity for each one before adding it to item above.

I think it turned out pretty cool.

One thing I didn’t anticipate was the mobile moving. And that’s the best part! It’s sorta like visual wind chimes. (Only better.)

What experimenting have you tried lately?

Ellen Lindner

Suzanne Sanger’s Work

By Ellen Lindner on June 10, 2017 in Uncategorized

Back in October, I wrote about creating torn paper collages in order to loosen up and to work more abstractly. Like this:

Original photo

Torn paper collage
Because the paper is torn, you can’t be too accurate, so you
HAVE to focus on the largest shapes.

The fabric interpretation, Ti Party.
One of my readers, Suzanne Sanger, decided to give it a try and was kind enough to share her results with me (and with you.)

Her original photo, taken in Bermuda

The paper collage, with part of the original photo overlapping.

And, her final quilt, called Dozing in Bermuda.

I think it’s great. And don’t you love the way she’s matted and framed it?

Suzanne says, “I want to thank you for inspiring me! Like you, I’ve been challenging myself to work more abstractly, and have dabbled with a range from just barely to totally non representational. Your blog post from last October about torn paper collage sent me right into the studio to tear up the only magazine I had in order to recreate a photo I took in Bermuda a few years ago. Then I did my semi-annual house switch, life intervened, I took a great abstraction class from Lisa Call, all the while leaving my torn paper start hanging on my design wall. Now I’ve switched back to my summer house, and needed a project to get myself back into the studio. Ah hah! It was time to return to my dozing man. He’s a bit more realistic than I would like, but still a move in the right direction. I LOVE this process! Hmmm. I guess I’ll have to subscribe to an image heavy magazine again, pain though that is what with changing mailing addresses twice a year. LOL. Anyway, thanks for a great idea! You always give me new things to think about.”

I love this! So much so that it makes me want to reach for my magazines again, too. It’s a FUN way to work!

Ellen Lindner

Revamping Artificial Flowers

By Ellen Lindner on May 19, 2017 in Uncategorized

I have a white “silk” orchid that was very realistic looking when I purchased it several years ago. Over time, however, it has yellowed badly.

I considered several ideas about how to best revamp these pretty petals. Eventually, I decided just to paint them, with ordinary acrylic paint.

This worked well. I left the fiddly centers yellow and was happy with the results.

Not bad, right? No one’s going to think they’re real, but they’re definitely pretty.

What have you painted lately?

Ellen Lindner
P.S. What I really wanted to do was to decoupage black and white fabrics onto the petals. It only took a little experimenting to realize that would be too difficult. But if I ever create some from scratch? Who knows.

Some Eye Candy

By Ellen Lindner on May 15, 2017 in Uncategorized

Here are some interesting links for your enjoyment.

First, a gallery of wonderful quilts made by the Front Range Contemporary Quilters. You’ll love them!

Ova Nova, an art quilt by Louisa Smith

Next, check out the beautiful and subtle work of Cas Holmes.

Textile installation by Cas Holmes

Finally, something a little different: painted pebbles. I was intrigued by these because some of them looked almost like they were embroidered. They reminded me of fabric cookies. Wouldn’t they be fun to reproduce with some felt scraps?

And there you go: just some of the sites I’ve enjoyed recently.

Ellen Lindner

Making Angel Ornaments

By Ellen Lindner on December 11, 2015 in Uncategorized

After seeing some angel ornaments for sale I got the idea of making something similar as gifts. But my idea was to add the faces of the recipients to their respective angels. Doesn’t that sound like fun?

I painted the bodies red and added a little shading on the sides. As you can see, these primitive figures have no shoulders or arms. Which I kinda love. It will make the angels almost cartoon-like, giving me lots of artistic latitude.

The halos got a gold leaf treatment. Don’t you love the way the black underneath shows through? I think that sort of imperfection adds a LOT of character and interest.

The wings got a rather “fancy” country-style treatment: cream paint, stained edges, and lace. Perfect, I think!

Before assembling the angels, I spent some time on Photoshop tweaking photographs in order to get heads to the right size, etc. Here’s my first prototype, with me as the subject.

Isn’t it a hoot?

I’ve now given away the other three, and I can’t believe I forgot to photograph them first! But, my friend, Lynn, photographed hers. As you can see, I tried to match the text to the expression on the face.

(This is what she gets for striking such a goofy pose in the original photo!)

These were a lot of fun to make and I’ll be making several more.

What craft/art projects are you doing for Christmas?

Ellen Lindner
P.S. I ordered the angel kits from retrocafeart.com

Navigation

Tag Archives | Non-Fabric Projects

Collaging with Magazine Pages

Playing with Colored Pieces of Paper

INDEPENDENCE Day!

Working with Magazine Pages

Making a Mobile

Suzanne Sanger’s Work

Revamping Artificial Flowers

Some Eye Candy

Making Angel Ornaments

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