Collage Lab by Two: A Year of Collage

The Complete Collage Lab by Two Is Available on CD

2011-03-01T02:00:00.000-08:00

We hope you have enjoyed Collage Lab by Two. We have poured out a vast amount of information here--over 500 pages of it! It's been a great year together.

But keeping these labs available indefinitely was never our plan. Providing such a huge resource of free information may actually hurt our fellow artists who are trying to make a living from their books and classes.

That is why we have decided to remove all but the first three labs, effective March 1. (You can scroll down to read them.)

But there is good news, too!

Collage Lab by Two is available on a CD. All 104 labs are included, with all the photographs and examples. The price is $25 which includes shipping.

For details on how to purchase, please write Nan at:
nan@act2partners.com

This is a great companion CD to Bee Shay's Collage Lab book. Tell your friends!

As for our future, we think it’s time to get back to making our own art. If we decide to create a blog about that, we’ll let you know.

Thanks again for your support and encouragement for our project. Keep creating!

Kay and Nan

We did it! We finished all 52 labs in one year!

2011-01-21T04:15:00.000-08:00

What a great year this has been! Collage Lab by Bee Shay is a great resource for artists. Doing Bee’s labs has been fun, helpful, intriguing, inspiring and a heck of a lot of work. We tried lots of new things and learned so much. We spent countless hours in our studios thinking about art. It’s been a delight.

And working together has been the best part. This year has deepened our friendship because co-writing a blog meant we stayed constantly in touch over the many miles that separate us.

So, for these and for many other happy results, thank you, Bee Shay, for writing such an inspiring book. And thank you, Quarry Books, for publishing it.

And thank you, readers and followers, for joining us this year. We have enjoyed having you along on our wild ride!

Keep creating!

Nan and Kay

A Note from Bee Shay

2010-11-14T07:18:00.000-08:00

We are always delighted to hear from Bee. Without her wonderful book none of this would ever have happened! And check out her fabulous resource for nature printing, too.

Nan and Kay,
Thanks so much for the wonderful journey. I just spent 1 1/2 hours catching up on your blog....my new job has kept me sadly out of the studio for months. Winter is almost here and I'll be back in the studio for 4 bliss filled months!!
You ladies are a force of nature and I'm thrilled to have been swept up into the vortex. When you get a moment, hop on over to www.natureprintingsociety.com LOTS to see there....many talented people. I have been teaching at the national conference for the last three years and LOVE it. So many good resources to look into as well.
Love what you're doing.....sorry I haven't been along for most of the journey...looks like it's been a wonderful time.
best to you both,
bee

We're featured in Artful Blogging!

2010-08-20T04:31:00.000-07:00

If you've been following our blog you probably noticed that a picture of Artful Blogging has appeared in the right hand column. We are delighted to be featured in the Fall issue, and we welcome our new readers who found us there! Like all Somerset Studio magazines, this issue is gorgeous, rich in color and full of inspiration. We're proud and flattered to be a part of it. Check it out if you get a chance.

A letter from Bee Shay

2010-03-01T11:32:00.000-08:00

We wrote to Bee Shay to tell her about this blog dedicated to her book, and we wanted to share the wonderful letter she sent us:

Dear Nan and Kay,
I am honored to say the least and thrilled with the idea that you have taken the concept and run with it this way. I will be launching a blog in April for the book so that people can interact, ask questions, send me photos to post, etc. I would love to feature your blog and have a link to it so that it might inspire others to do as you are doing.

I've have a great response so far to the book and must say, it's so rewarding to hear all of this. For a little over a year it was just me and the work, then the publisher did their thing while I waited patiently (most of the time) for the "baby" to be born. It's been a wonderful experience and letters like yours have made all that work and waiting worth while.

Your blog is amazing...you have really approached it intelligently and truthfully and I love that. Hope you don't mind if I pop in once in a while and make comments...you've really shown me that the book holds value for not only the beginner but the seasoned collage artist as well. That was my hope but one never knows.

Thank you again for doing this and getting in touch with me....please stay in touch, I would enjoy that.
Best to you both,
Bee

Doesn't she sound just delightful?! We'll post a link to her blog in April.

Lab 3: Diffusing Imagery - Kay

2010-02-24T17:27:00.000-08:00

I approached this lab with the goal of statistically limiting input variables so that I’d only be assessing the degree of diffusion and the textures of the washes. I did this by using the same image - a door handle escutcheon plate, through most of experiments. Eventually I moved on to look at other types of images and papers.

General Technique. Image glued to watercolor paper and top coated with matte medium. Let dry. The diluted white gesso wash was applied with two techniques: an artist’s brush (one coat vs. four coats of gesso wash); and a spray bottle (one coat vs. two coats of gesso wash). The bottle sprayer created a coarse spray which resulted in very splotchy and uneven coverage.

The photographs are laid out all in the same order. Original image with matte medium only (far left); brushed gesso wash 1 coat (second from the left); brushed gesso wash 4 coats (middle); sprayed gesso wash 1 coat (second from the right); and sprayed gesso wash 2 coats (far right).

The original image is a commercial print on lightweight glossy paper. Note: since I did not have five exact copies of the same escutcheon plate I used three different designs. I did not sand the paper before applying the matte medium or gesso washes.

Inkjet colored image on white cardstock. There was color bleeding when the gesso was applied.

Inkjet black and white image on white cardstock. There was a fair amount of black ink bleeding.

Inkjet colored image on cardstock. With these specimens I didn’t use matte medium to top coat seal before it was treated it with the gesso. Image on the left -- top section is one brushed layer of gesso wash; bottom section has two coats of brushed gesso wash. Image on the right – top section is one application of sprayed gesso wash; bottom section has two layers of sprayed gesso wash. The resulting image is softer because the paper surface is grainy and dull and the drops of wash are readily absorbed in to the paper. Please contrast this with the matte medium sealed specimens where the gesso spray washes had a tendency to pool together to create larger watery areas.

Funny paper money from a board game.

Playing cards from popular game.

Rough textured printed paper from a holiday mail order catalog.

General Observations.

I agree with Nan the spray technique is highly variable. If you want an ethereal or ghostly image use the brushed gesso wash. If you want it to look old or distressed use the spray application. For a softer look with a small water droplet effect apply the gesso spray wash directly to the paper; for a more distinct image that is veiled by the wash, cover the image with matte medium before applying the brushed washes. The strongest diffusion effect occurs with the black and white washed images because we are reading them with gray scale contrast, not hue contrast.

If you enjoyed this lab:
Collage Lab by Two is available on a CD. All 104 labs are included, with all our photographs and examples. The price is $25 which includes shipping.

For details on how to purchase, please write Nan at:
nan@act2partners.com

Lab 3: Diffusing Imagery - Nan

2010-02-15T09:34:00.001-08:00

For this lab, we are going to choose some perfectly lovely, crisp, clear images, and then bury them under coats of gesso. Why????

For starters, you might want to obscure an image in order to:
Make it less obvious
Push it into the background
Disguise what it is
Make it look vintage, antique, stained, or tattered
Make text difficult to read
Mute bold colors
Make the image look eerie, ghostly
Create a “grunge” appearance
Focus the viewer on what you want them to see

Bee (after all these hours with her book, I just have to use her first name and hope she doesn't mind) says to mix up a 40% gesso 60% water solution. Keep some for use with a paintbrush and pour some into a spray bottle. You will both brush and spray the gesso to get the effects. Each image below has several coats. I did not seal the images beforehand with anything.

1. Glossy Magazine--sanded and painted, but only one coat over the area with the birds
2. Glossy magazine--sanded and sprayed overall; the sky and clouds have disappeared

3. Text from an old dictionary-- painted first, then sprayed
4. Very colorful map--painted and sprayed

5. Glossy photoraph of flowers-- top sanded, bottom unsanded, brushed on the left, sprayed on the right
6. Inkjet copy-- shows some bleeding of black ink when sprayed repeatedly

Lab notes

1. This is an unpredictable technique. First you have too little gesso, and then suddenly the whole image is gone, buried in a snowstorm. It's a good idea to have multiple copies of your material, rather than risk one precious image.

2. Color diffuses more readily than black and white. Inkjet text, in particular, will stay readable under multiple coats of gesso. (I didn't post a photo of this one.)

3. Inkjet black color bleeds under repeated wet sprays.

4. Bee didn’t say to sand the real photos, though they are shiny (like the glossy paper which she did say to sand). I saw no difference in the gesso adhering whether I sanded or not. The gesso did not bead up, in any case.

5. I like having the gesso in a spray bottle at the ready, but the nozzle is prone to clogging.

6. We had a basement flood in March and this lovely photo of my family was under water. It's a good reference for creating a water-damaged look.

7. I think there are a lot of possibilities to explore with this technique—using colored gesso, for instance. I especially liked the effect of obscuring text to fade it into the background. This was a useful lab, but I am really looking forward to the next one--when we get to paint gorgeous washes over textures!

If you enjoyed this lab:

Collage Lab by Two is available on a CD. All 104 labs are included, with all our photographs and examples. The price is $25 which includes shipping.

For details on how to purchase, please write Nan at:
nan@act2partners.com

Lab 2: Basic Paper Surfaces - Nan

2010-02-10T11:08:00.000-08:00

I agree with Kay--this lab was simple and fun to do. I could use papers I already had, and I have some new ideas for future collages. All the papers were adhered to watercolor paper with matte medium, then sealed with matte medium on top.

Using Wrapping paper, Old Books, Magazines1. Shiny thin metallic wrapping paper flattened completely into the medium (gloss medium on top would have kept it shiny)
2. Text--the printing on the reverse side of the paper stuck to the medium when I pulled the paper off while still wet. I've used that effect in collages before.
3. Glossy magazine--harder to stick down; the edges keep curling. This paper needs extra medium to adhere well (gloss medium on top would have kept it shiny).

Using Tissue paper4. I used a paper napkin. This is the top ply.
5. Sumi-E paper decorated with India ink. I am going to make more of this paper. I really liked the effect of layering it.
6. A dress pattern from my sewing phase. This one is crinkled to get some texture.

Using Paper Punches
I punched red cardstock and black handmade paper with the only two decorative punches I own. The stars and moons are about 1/4" high.
7. Using the negative spaces
8. Using the positive punch outs
9. Using both together (this one looks like next year's Halloween card to me)

Lab Notes

1. Napkins are really 3 layers in 1,and you can pull them apart. The top ply will be the darkest, the second layer a pale "ghost" of the pattern, and the third layer a solid color. You can use all three for backgrounds.

3. Heavy handmade papers are hard to punch and will "fray" at the edges, scattering fibers into the matte medium. (see the black moons)

4. Don't throw away your shiny holiday gift wrap!

5. Patterned tissue can be overlaid for some very interesting effects and patterns, since it almost disappears when covered with matte medium.

6. Note to self: buy some paper punches! Not usually my thing, but the idea of making raised patterns with the cutouts is very appealing.

OK, Bee Shay, thanks for another fun lab! I see new possibilities with this.

If you enjoyed this lab:

Collage Lab by Two is available on a CD. All 104 labs are included, with all our photographs and examples. The price is $25 which includes shipping.

For details on how to purchase, please write Nan at:
nan@act2partners.com

Lab 2: Basic Paper Surfaces - Kay

2010-02-10T08:25:00.000-08:00

I thought this lab was fun and very simple to do.

Exercise 1 - tear various lengths and widths of kraft paper and adhered to watercolor paper with matte medium. Sample 1 strips laid in one direction. Sample 2 the strips were laid in one direction and a second layer at ninety degrees. Sample 3 I wove the strips together -- under over. Let dry.

Exercise 2 - tear pieces of a printed tissue paper and glue to watercolor paper with matte medium. I love the leaf print on this paper and was curious to see how the image changed when the tissue paper was folded or squished together. Sample one is very flat and its easy to read the image. Sample 2 the image is no longer clearly distinguishable but parts of the image are repeated. Sample 3 has lots of dimension and the lines in the leaf look like texture.

Exercise 3. A paper punch was used to cut out jacks from kraft paper and glued to watercolor paper with matte medium. Sample 1 shows the paper with the negative cuts in the base paper. Sample 2 is a combination of the negative and positive cut outs. The positive image of the paper punch outs is seen in Sample 3.

RESPONSES TO FOOD FOR THOUGHT QUESTIONS

1. Heavy papers require more matte medium to saturate the paper and keep it adhered to the watercolor base paper.

2. Glossy paper has more shine but the matte medium will dull its finish.

3. Thicker papers are more difficult to work with -- more effort to use punch tool; not as malleable to folding or squishing together; requires more matte medium to adhere to the base paper.

4. I enjoyed working with all of types of papers.

5. The thicker paper problems are cited in answer 3; tissue paper is lighter and folds easily but when wet it may randomly tear in a place where you don't want it to.

6. I experienced no major surprises when working with these papers; but I love the layering effects of the printed tissue papers.

If you enjoyed this lab:

Collage Lab by Two is available on a CD. All 104 labs are included, with all our photographs and examples. The price is $25 which includes shipping.

For details on how to purchase, please write Nan at:
nan@act2partners.com

Lab 1: Gesso - Kay

2010-02-09T22:09:00.000-08:00

I didn’t preprime my watercolor paper with the white gesso so I did not get the strong contrast that Nan did with her examples. Nice work, Nan – I learned a great deal from your pieces. I also used Liquitex Acrylic Gesso – it definitely created tints not saturated colors. I used inexpensive periwinkle blue paint as my base color. To get my second color (the soft mauve) I added copper metallic craft paint to the periwinkle gesso. Consequently my pieces are more subtle and don’t have a lot of contrast. For practice work inexpensive craft paint is economical; but I thought my results were too muddy and subtle. Mixing craft paints together creates dull colors -- color vibrancy can only be achieved by using artist quality acrylic paints.

Sample 1. Periwinkle tinted gesso used to prime the watercolor paper. Let dry. Top coat with mauve color gesso. Let it set. I used plastic lid cut with a decorative edge scissors to create a scalloped graining tool. Squeegee across the sample. Let dry.

Sample 2. Periwinkle tinted gesso used to prime the watercolor paper. Let set up. Use plastic lid pinked cut to create a graining tool. Squeegee across the sample. Let dry.

Sample 3. Periwinkle tinted gesso used to prime the watercolor paper. Let dry. Brush mauve colored gesso on to another stiff paper. While the mauve paper is still wet; I placed it on top of the periwinkle paper and lightly pressed them together. Remove mauve colored paper. Let the periwinkle paper dry.

Sample 4. I used a sea sponge to push periwinkle tinted gesso on to watercolor paper. Let dry.

Sample 5. Place various widths of office white out tape across the untreated water color paper. Use a brush to paint the periwinkle and mauve color gesso on to the exposed paper. Areas where there wasn’t good contact between the tape and watercolor paper allowed the paint to seep underneath which created the ragged edges. Let dry.

Sample 6. Used two different circle shaped rubber stamps. I used a paint brush to put the periwinkle gesso on to stamp and then stamped directly on to the watercolor paper. Let dry. Repeat with mauve colored gesso. Let dry.

Sample 7. Prime the watercolor paper with a brush to distribute the periwinkle gesso. Let dry. Cut a wedge from a sponge and dip in mauve colored gesso. Stamp on to paper. This effect created different opacities and ridges of thick paint. Fun and loose looking effect – don’t use if you want an even and controlled look.

Sample 8. Use a brush to prime the watercolor paper with the periwinkle gesso. While wet I used the end of my wooden paint brush to write “collage lab.” Overall the effect is very subtle but a great way to personalize any work of art.

Sample 9. Prime the watercolor paper with a brush to distribute the periwinkle gesso. I put it on extra thick because I knew I would be removing it when I stamped objects in to it. The D shape is a cut out wine cork. The circle form is a button. I like the textural effects of the final images.

ANSWERS TO FOOD FOR THOUGHT QUESTIONS

1. Once the gesso dries it gets hard and self levels – I call it slumping.
2. Subsequent layers of gesso build depth or height off of the surface of the paper – creates3D effects
3. All of the techniques worked well – what you think works best will depend on the desired effect you’d like to achieve. It was a good exercise to learn about the characteristics of gesso by adding it, removing it, moving it around, or using it as a print medium or paste.
4. Easy exercise and fun to do.
5. Ten common household items that can be used to manipulate gesso – sponge, paintbrush, credit card, button, plastic mesh from a fruit bag, cut potato, gum eraser, pencil, crumbled plastic bag, and masking tape.

If you enjoyed this lab:

Collage Lab by Two is available on a CD. All 104 labs are included, with all our photographs and examples. The price is $25 which includes shipping.

For details on how to purchase, please write Nan at:
nan@act2partners.com

Lab 1: Gesso-Nan

2010-02-09T15:36:00.000-08:00

Bea Shay starts by diving right in. Pull out your gesso and acrylic paints, cover your work surface (and in my case, myself), cut yourself a stack of small watercolor sheets to work on, and get ready to be messy. We're going to use gesso to create raised textures on the paper, but first we make several colors by tinting the gesso with acrylic paints (any kind will do).

This was lots of fun. I'd used gesso before as a textured undercoat, but I'd never mixed it with colors. Gesso is creamy, very opaque, waterbased, and actually very nice to work with. It stays where you put it, and dries to a matte finish with no visible brushstrokes. It creates lovely pastels, but if you want it darker, be prepared to use an enormous amount of paint. The white gesso swallows colors whole.

Scraping through wet gesso. Most dramatic results when the paper has been given a first coat of gesso, as in samples 2 and 3. I used a paint scraper from the hardware store.

Scraping with the end of a brush. Again, the first sample on untreated paper is very subtle, the others more dramatic.

1 Dabbing with a cosmetic sponge--more interesting result than I would have expected
2 Using masking tape to protect the under layers
3 Smooshing (a technical term!) two wet gessoed sheets together and pulling them apart (like ink blot printing)

1 Printing with a foam stamp
2 Scraping with a credit card
3 Smooshing gesso over previously painted paper.

Lab Findings:
1. Scraping works best when the paper is gessoed first, and when the scraping layer is still very wet. (Shay says to gesso all your papers, but I wanted to see for myself.)

2. Burnish the masking tape down (run a credit card over it) or gesso will seep under it, destroying your sharp lines.

3. Cover your work surface and prepare for messiness! (Or is this just me?)

4. I used Liquitex Basics Acrylics to tint the gesso and was surprised at their weak tinting strength. I plan to test other acrylic paints and will post my findings.

OK, I think I'm off to a great start with this book. This was lots of fun. If you are following along with us, make some extra texture sheets--with raised textures. You'll need them for Lab 4.

Now, I wonder what results Kay will report. . . .

If you enjoyed this lab:

Collage Lab by Two is available on a CD. All 104 labs are included, with all our photographs and examples. The price is $25 which includes shipping.

For details on how to purchase, please write Nan at:
nan@act2partners.com

The Book

2010-02-08T08:19:00.000-08:00

Collage Lab is a beautiful book, printed on heavy, quality paper. It's the kind of book that feels good in your hands. Bee Shay's artwork examples are elegant and interesting, with harmonious colors chosen for each section. The book is actually quite a different, and visually more sophisticated, book inside than its hot pink cover would indicate. And it is brimming over with inspiring ideas.

We do wish it were spiral bound, which would have allowed it to lie flat for easy reference. And the lab instructions are very abbreviated. Some suggestions would have been helpful--such as "make extra sheets of textured gesso in Lab 1 because you'll need them in Lab 4." Sometimes you'll need to peek ahead in order to prepared for the future. But there are no rules in these labs, no right or wrong results. Bee Shay illustrates a technique, suggests materials and a possible way to proceed, and sends off you into your own explorations.

We are very excited about this book and our collaborative blog.

Grab a copy of Collage Lab by Bee Shay and follow along with us! We'll share what we discover.

If you enjoyed our experiments and write ups:

Collage Lab by Two is available on a CD. All 104 labs are included, with all our photographs and examples. The price is $25 which includes shipping.

For details on how to purchase, please write Nan at:
nan@act2partners.com

The Bloggers

2010-02-06T16:10:00.000-08:00

This blog is a collaboration between Kay and Nan who, together with another artist friend, Karen, spent three years making monthly collages as an art trio we named Two By Three.

You can find an article about us in Somerset Studio Gallery Winter 2009.

When Two by Three came to an end (after making over 100 collaborative works!) Kay and Nan, now separated by half a continent, continued to create collages together long distance.

Nan is a painter, and Kay is an expert rubber stamper and textile engineer. We are both professional teachers, and have taught adolescents and adults. We began our collage collaborations in 2004.

Recently we discovered the book, Collage Lab by Bee Shay. The book is a series of 52 "experimental labs" which explore various mixed media techniques. We have set out to do them all.

(We should probably put a disclaimer here: We have no personal connection with Bee Shay, her publisher or the sales of this book.)

We invite you to join us in A Year of Collage. . . . by two. . . long distance.