Blasts From the Past (Collages I Have Made)

While going through pictures of former projects, I found my "Collage" file and wondered if I had ever posted most of these on my blog.  I think one of my first collages was made from objects I picked up while walking along the lake shore during a very happy outing with a quilting friend. Bleached fish bones, driftwood, and a fishing bobber were the start, on top of a hand-dyed fabric background.  Then I added wadded-up white netting to simulate wave froth over a netting layer to suggest water.  Metal tines left behind by a street sweeper were a stand-in for shoreline reeds.  Fancy yarn was my "seaweed."

I think the next one was my fabric-on-photo-matte-board collage.  This was for someone who loves the color Purple.  I made some thread embroidery on the sewing machine, and also added fabric cut-outs.

One of my very talented southern friends suggested a collaborative challenge including several artsy friends of hers.  Each participant sent the others a nearly-identical package of items which had to be incorporated into a finished piece.  I tend to do things bigger, so my collage is on a sheet of poster board.  Interesting oddities include several small glass bottles to hold Kosher salt which, although sent to me natural, I dyed with food coloring so it would show up better.  There is a leather ponytail holder, a key, and a narrow rectangular painted picture someone sent me, to which I added collage. Plus a "wah-wah" saying about collage, composed when I was experiencing artist's block. 

I will continue this theme in another posting :)