Roxanne Evans Stout - Storytelling with Collage: Techniques for Layering, Color and Texture

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I dedicate this book to my loves: Jim, Amanda and Christopher. You three are the lights of my life. You have filled me with joy, listened to my dreams and shared your own dreams with me. I am blessed to love and be loved by you.

The journey between who you once were, and who you are now becoming, is where the dance of life really takes place.

Barbara deAngelis

I have often thought that every piece of art has a story. Sometimes the story is in my imagination long before I create a collage, and sometimes it emerges much later.

This book is a collection of my own collage stories and those of other artists. I would like to invite you to experience each of these Collage Stories, not only by viewing the artwork itself, but by reading each story written from the hearts of the artists themselves.

My wish is that when you look at each photograph of my world, my worktable or the collages and stories that you may be more inspired in your own life.

On these pages I want to share with you the general materials well be using to create collages throughout the book.

I have often called matte medium my favorite tool, and I talk about it a lot in this book, especially in .

• acrylic matte medium
• craft glue
• GAC 200
• gesso: white and clear
• glue sticks
• mosaic glue

I have a couple of different water dishes I use; one is smaller for painting with watercolors. The other (it was my mothersa square plastic dish, stained and discolored, and I am quite attached to it) is larger and is used for collaging. It needs clean water more often as it gets thick with gesso and matte medium fairly quickly.

• hand sanitizer
• paper towels
• water dish
• wipes

There are so many materials that you can use to add color, tints or backgrounds to your collage pages. PanPastels are my favorite. Their colors are soft and earthy, and you can make them transparent or opaque according to how you apply them. Hair spray is a great fixative for pastel and doesnt smell as strong as the fixatives you buy in art stores. (TreSemm comes in travel-size spray bottles.)

It is good to have a variety of paintbrushes, some for details and some for backgrounds.

• acrylic paint, assorted colors
• distress Inks
• PanPastels
• pencil, no. 2 with a good eraser
• permanent pens
• pigment inkpads: black, brown and white
• watercolors

These are the materials and tools I begin with when I want to add beeswax to my collages. If you decide to do more advanced work, there are books and websites that can help you expand your encaustic workstation. I talk about collaging with wax in .

• beeswax, white
• heat gun
• old paintbrush or 12"1" (13mm25mm) crafting brush
• palette knife
• small Crock-Pot

You might be surprised by what you can find in your own backyard or garden. These are things I love to collect that work well in collages.

• baling wire and rusty wire from the garden
• beach glass
• beads
• buttons
• chain
• discarded candy bar wrappers
• flat stones
• leaves and other natural treasures
• old paint chips
• old pocket watch parts
• old tickets, tape, price tags
• pieces of text
• rusty washers
• seedpods
• shells or shell fragments
• small vintage bottles
• small vintage tin boxes
• wine labels

If you are reading this book, chances are you already have a stash of images that youve collectedeither your own photographs or torn from magazines or discarded books. Hold on to them! You never know when you might need one for your collages.

• newspaper, magazine or catalogue pages
• old hankies, scarfs or fabric napkins
• photocopies of fabrics or rugs
• pressed flowers
• printed-out images of your own photographs or copyright-free images from the Internet
• stamps
• stencils
• vintage postcards, books, envelopes and letters

I love paper and fabric too; the more unusual the texture, the better. Paper can be found at paperies and art supply stores, and vintage papers (and fabrics) are often in antique stores and on Etsy.

Fabric stores will have cottons, muslin and silk as well as tapestries and upholstery fabrics. Here are some of my very favorites:

• cheesecloth
• cotton
• envelopes
• fabric scraps
• graph paper
• handmade papers
• lace
• mesh
• mulberry paper
• muslin
• Nepalese paper
• old library cards and pockets
• paper scraps
• rice paper
• silk
• tissue paper
• velveteen
• vintage fabrics
• vintage paper
• wax or parchment paper
• wrapping paper

For binding books and even stitching as an embellishment I often use beading cord. It comes in many colors and is easy to thread into a needle.

Wire can be found in many sizes and colors. I suggest experimenting until you know what works best for you.

• beading cord
• embroidery thread
• metallic threads
• twine or string
• wax linen thread
• wire, assorted gauges and colors

I use all of these surfaces plus many others, but my very favorites are old scraps of wood. My husband and my son often build things, and anything left after their projects are complete is fair game for me.

If I am using a canvas board, I prefer the wrapped ones but will use anything I can get my hands on.