Vintage Textile Design Collage

Some papers and fabrics just seem to special to use. So, they sit in a box, or a drawer, or a bin, or a notebook for weeks, months or even years. Sometimes you take them out and oooh and aaaah and wonder what to do with them, then decide they are too special to cut or glue or stitch. Then they get tucked back into the box for a few more months.

The middle pink floral stripe on this collaged journal page was something that had been tucked away for about a year. A European decorating magazine had a center insert of some vintage border prints from the 1700s. My art training and specialization is in textile design, so I loved seeing the artist's pencil marks and measurements for the repeat. But use it? noooo...until today.

I carefully cut it out and used matte medium to adhere it to a reject watercolor. Next, I used a black ink pad and stamped three shapes that I had previously hand-cut. I added a strip of harlequin paper to give it a zetti feel.

The top middle had a triangle of beige where the artist had sketched the pattern's repeat. It looked empty, so I masked off the area around it with tape and stamped a Balzer woodcut design to fill in the space.

To break up the striped effect, I added a blue butterfly that was printed on translucent paper.

It needed words, so I hand-wrote BELEIVE. (I had just returned from the Bronx Botanical Garden Frida Kahlo show and was feeling inspired.) Rather than using a black marker, I chose a black "scribe-all" all-surface pencil, which I dipped in water to get some shading variation and gradation. Around it I used it's twin sister, the Aquarellable Watersoluble white pencil. I used the pencils as accent not only to write believe, but as black dots and white accent around the butterfly and to soften some of the background color.

I really like the black and white water-soluble pencils. I have many watercolor pencils and often use them, but somehow I lacked basic black and white, so these are an excellent addition to my art supplies.

Last, I added some tiny inspirational words that were printed on Avery clear peel and stick labels. The small size and horizontal orientation balanced the large word nicely.