Attendees choose source material for their creations.
Earlier this month, CLP – Main’s New and Featured Department held the first in its series of HOW: Hands-On Workshops. June’s HOW focused on collage and decoupage, and I led the session with a brief talk before the 17 participants got to work creating their own masterpieces with the supplies we provided.
As you can see from the pictures, we had alot of fun. Each creation on on paper, bottle, lampshade or book was strikingly unique. If you missed the event, don’t worry. Below are some books to guide you on your own collage experiments.
Librarian Melissa demonstrates the zig zag scissors.
Technique:
- Mixed-Media Collage: An Exploration of Contemporary Artists, Methods, and Materials by Holly Harrison
- Creative Collage Techniques by Nita Leland and Virginia Lee Williams
- Collage Lost and Found by Giuseppina “Josie” Cirincione
Inspiration:
- Joseph Cornell: Navigating the Imagination by Lynda Roscoe Hartigan
- Max Ernst: Dream and Revolution, edited by Werner Spies, Iris Müller-Westermann, and Kirsten Degel
supplies, including clipart books
In the workshop, we used damaged books and magazines, but plenty of other sources exist for collage fodder. While paging through printed materials for pictures to use can be an experience full of serendipity and inspiration, sometimes a collage calls for a specific image. Plenty of options exist for finding them. The Dover Pictorial Archive Series and other clipart books are copyright-free collections organized by topic. The library owns many of these that collage artists can check out to photocopy or install the accompanying CD-ROM.
- Anatomical and Medical Illustrations: A Pictorial Archive with Over 2000 Royalty-Free Images
- Animals: 1419 Copyright-Free Illustrations of Mammals, Birds, Fish, Insects, etc.: A Pictorial Archive from Nineteenth-Century Sources
- Hands: A Pictorial Archive from Nineteenth-Century Sources: 1166 Copyright-Free Illustrations for Artists and Designers
A crafter assembles her masterpiece.
Another source of images is the CLP Picture Collection, a physical archive of clippings from magazines and books organized by subject. The collection was a common method libraries used before the Internet as a quick way to access illustrations of subjects like telephones, automobiles, different eras’ costumes and more. Patrons can check out up to 50 of the clippings at a time to view or photocopy. For more about the Picture Collection, visit the Reference Services Department at Main.
The HOW series continues in August with monthly workshops from local skilled craftspeople. The upcoming schedule includes:
- August 2: Bookmaking with Hannah – Local artist and bookmaker Hannah Reiff (Paper Breakfast press) will show you how to make three simple, hand sewn books.
- September 6: Fermented Foods with Alyson– This workshop will focus on the basics of fermenting vegetables to make tasty foods such as sauerkraut, sauerruben, kimchi, and lacto-fermented pickles. We’ll discuss how microscopic organisms can transform and preserve food, and then we’ll try it out for ourselves.
An attendee cuts up an animal diagram for her decoupage on a bottle.
- October 4: Creepy Crafts with Alicia – Join local Pittsburgh Craft Collective member and co-author of Witch Craft, Alicia Kachmar, for a Halloween-inspired crafting session.
- November 1: Cardmaking with Julie – We’ll combine paper, rubber stamps and ink, embossing powder, glitter, trinkets and doodads to create greeting cards for handmade holiday hellos.
Follow the links for more information, and be sure to register if you’re interested!
-Renée
Eleventh Stack 