Collecting Paper to Make Collage
I love to make collage, and I love to collect all kinds of paper to use in my collages. There are so many beautifully patterned and textured papers out there now. Many art and design stores have good stock of wrapping papers and decorated paper to choose from. The scrapbooking craze has even been a gift to us non-scrapbookers. We have access to more and more beautiful paper goods—from woodgrains to florals to modern geometrics. But the kinds of papers I love to use even more than the ones I find in art stores are the ones I find as I peruse thrift stores or papers that I find in my everyday life. There is beautiful design on paper everywhere. It’s a matter of looking for it and saving it for collage.
Yesterday I found the piece of cardboard pictured below in the locker room at swimming practice. Don’t worry. It wasn’t on the floor. It appears to be from the package for a plastic shower cap. I was drawn to the text and the sort of retro “right way/wrong way” illustration. I am known for picking stuff up in strange places and have actually picked stuff up off the sidewalk before and using them in my work. I am known to keep chopstick wrappers. They often have wonderful little illustrations on them and great Japanese characters. And envelopes, especially those from overseas, have wonderful text markings. Take this one I received from Australia earlier this month.
Speaking of overseas, I love ephemera written in other languages. I especially love Japanese characters. Anytime I see any book at a secondhand store with Japanese characters (especially if it is made from newsprint, which is easy to collage) I pick it right up. And while perusing SCRAP and thrift stores, I often find old children’s books. I especially love old children’s textbooks because the illustrations are cool and colorful, and you are reusing something that should no longer be used with children because the content is outdated. I love to tear pages for my collages.
Of course, I am always looking for vintage journals and receipts. Vintage or new, I love any ephemera with numbers on it, like the tag pictured below. I save dry cleaning tags, which are usually pink, favorite color. I found these old used bingo cards, which are made from newsprint, in a cupboard at work. I work in a very old school building, so I imagine there are treasures hidden everywhere!
And I found two boxed of these old card stock accounting forms at a thrift store. they are not only good for collage, but for a drawing and screen printing surface. And vintage patterns and their envelopes are a great source for layering and color in collage.
Wonderful paper for collage is everywhere. If you see a piece of paper that you like, whether it’s packaging on food or an old magazine, pick it up! And voila, with a little time, patience and varnish, you have a wonderful collage.
March 28th, 2006 at 1:01 am
Oh accounting pages have been my weak point since I was little! Old ledgers just call to be added to my ever-growing piles of paper scrap. This entry decided for me, I am going to march right down to my regular antique shop and buy the little check and register book (full of old receipts) I’ve been eyeing.
March 28th, 2006 at 2:50 am
Very nice Lisa. I love the tree!
March 28th, 2006 at 3:27 am
I absolutely love to collage and I adore piecing together images, but I don’t commit them to paper. Why? Well I am trying to make some things to sell and I am not sure about collage copyrights. For instance, can you sell something you make with pieces of scrapbook paper or magazine photos? I would love to know. I would be so appreciative of any information you could provide. I would love a future article about this subject since I can not seem to find a single definitive answer.
Thank you for this wonderful post!
March 28th, 2006 at 4:07 am
Great post Lisa and beautiful collage!
March 28th, 2006 at 4:41 am
I love the way you get your inspiration…very cool. I love chopstick wrappers too! Sushi restaurant take-out menus have some great designs as well, and I know this sounds odd, but my local dump has a trailer in which they keep only paper garbage (usually old magazines and I’ve found quite a few discarded journals in there too!). This is definitely something you need to ask permision for…I learned the hard way that one can’t just carouse around the dumps…
March 28th, 2006 at 5:57 am
have you ever heard of a magazine called Found? I don’t think it comes out very often but it basically features notes & papers found on floors & sides walks or whereever. This made me think of that.
March 28th, 2006 at 7:38 am
Thanks for opening my eyes to new ways to do this. I’ve had some Japanese paper for a while and wondered what to do with it. I’ve always wanted to collage and I’ll start looking more when I go out places.
March 28th, 2006 at 2:35 pm
I love that you find the postmark boxes on Australian envelopes so different - to me they are just normal and commonplace…
You’ve inspired me to consider trying out collaging - I love old paper, pages of Japanese & Chinese scripts & etc etc, but never know what to do with it. Thankyou!
March 28th, 2006 at 4:02 pm
Over the years thousands of artitst have used collaging so to me it seems
you don’t have to worry about copyrights. Think about painters and sculptures of the sixties.
March 28th, 2006 at 5:42 pm
Wonderful collage! I have to start collecting paper too… :)
March 28th, 2006 at 11:21 pm
thanks for this post! i’m creatively inspired now!
March 29th, 2006 at 6:36 am
I love your work (especially the latest, #5!!). Thanks for sharing your secrets. Very inspiring. I am a letterpress printer and am considering ways to incorporate collage into my work–maybe printing on accounting forms or drycleaning tags? Thanks, Lisa!
P.S.–I love that you’ve named your cats human names. For some reason, pets with people names always makes me chuckle.
March 29th, 2006 at 10:35 pm
Thanks for the tips–for a future post here, would you consider discussing how you organize and keep track of paper/ephemera/fabric stashes without letting them take over your apartment? I’m desperately trying to organize my craftwares, and since I’m not tidy by nature, I don’t know how to go about it. I’m afraid that if I pack things away they will disappear, so my little treasures are all over the place…
March 31st, 2006 at 3:50 am
I used to have a chest of drawers filled with folders of magazine images. It was some kind of obsession that I had to continue. Then I got onto a decluttering thing, and I thought, “I’ll never use these cool 70’s (and other) pics. I mean, they’re cool, but how much stuff can one girl save?” So I threw them away. Along with Life magazines from the 60’s, programs to plays and events like seeing Torvil (sp?) and Dean skate….
and now I realize my error. It never fails that when I declutter I want stuff back. And maybe that’s just part of being artistic. I love paper. I love collage. And I’ve started new files again…
I always gravitate to things you write. Have you considered a book?
April 4th, 2006 at 4:00 am
Thanks for the idea. It’s good to know I’m not the only one saving bits of paper. I wasn’t sure what to do with them but now I know. Thanks!
April 19th, 2006 at 12:00 pm
This entry is my favorite! :)
April 20th, 2006 at 7:54 pm
I love it. I actually gasped when I saw the accounting paper that I used on a collage I started last week. I also have lots of “garbage” squirreled away. I also love to use maps and have several old atlases and even a set of outdated encyclopedia that I regularly source from.
I am lucky to have a sewing room of my very own to keep everything in. Truthfully, I rarely sew now because it is such a chore to dig the machine out from under the pile of resources and art projects in progress. Some of my things are organized in a 5′ x 5′ cubbyhole console to which I also added some doors and drawers. I also use lots of stackable plastic shoeboxes and those little plastic sets of drawers on wheels.
June 20th, 2006 at 9:51 pm
hi. I recently found your site and that’s the 1st entry i read,
and i like it :) simple, neat & creative. I like to collect paper in a box, and use them in my handmade cards & other crafts, it’s a good idea!!
^^