Vintage Collage-Works by Mary Jo & Sunny Koch

Vintage Collage-Works:
Artful Ideas with Antique Ephemera

by

Sunny Koch & Mary Jo Koch

Is an inspiring collection for artists interested in collage.

Mother and daughter artists Maryjo and Sunny Koch have compiled an inspiring portfolio of their collage-works in this new volume for artists and hobbyists entitled Vintage Collage-Works: Artful Ideas with Antique Ephemera. Employing basic collage techniques, these artists have created a wide range of distinctive collage projects using antique documents, vintage boxes and glassware, handmade papers, and ephemera of all kinds.

Both women are noted artists and teachers who bring their unique sensibilities to these easy yet sophisticated projects. In this book, they show how ordinary vintage collectibles such as postcards, letters, prints, and photographs, can be transformed into stunning works of art by following just a few step-by-step techniques. By combining this vintage ephemera with readily available clip art, special papers, objects from nature, and sewing notions (such as buttons and ribbons), they create dozens of finished collage projects that can then by framed or used to make unique note cards, gift tags, or journals to share with family and friends.

This is an inspirational how-to book for any artist or hobbyist interested in collage, no matter what their level of expertise in the medium.

And boy was I inspired!

Like yesterday's post, there was a new word I was unfamiliar with.

"Scumbling"

Scumbling is the technique of softening the color or outline of a painted image by lightly applying a thin coat of a lighter color of paint with an almost dry brush.

So, I had to give it a shot.

I had these cabochon frames hanging out on my desk and I thought they might make a nice frame for a "scumbled" piece of art so I flipped to the back of Vintage Collage-Works which has a whole bunch of pages packed full of lovely clip art. I decided on these little birds. I scanned the page in and resized the birds in different measurements and duplicated them. I like to have multiples of things, that way I am not under any pressure to get it right the first time. This is particularly handy when trying new techniques!

After I had my printouts I wanted to get an idea of how they would be in the frames. I got out my ellipse template and found ones that were close to the same shape as my frames.

I then traced the shape lightly on the images.

I then followed the directions and painted away! On a kind of funny note. I tend to alter my photos on the computer, it felt a bit like I should have learned this technique first. Painting with the opaque white paint felt to me like using the- paint brush tool in Photoshop, ironic hu? But amazingly I don't think I ever have altered a photo before, shall we say-manually?

After the paint was dry I cut the ovals out and tinted the edges with another coat of paint.

Then when that was dry I did a few coats of clear embossing to strengthen the paper.

I glued the images into the frames using DG3 Art Gel from Judikins. My new scumbled art jewelry!

I think they came out really cool. (The red one was being a pain to photograph, the glossy finish looks great in person but makes it look foggy in the shot.)

I hope you'll give this technique a try and be sure to let us know about it by leaving a note in the comments section with a link to a picture! We'd all like to see.

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About the Authors:
Maryjo Koch is a popular and highly regarded naturalist painter who has authored and illustrated over a dozen books including the best-selling Bird Egg Feather Nest. She conducts painting and collage workshops at their studio near Santa Cruz, California. Her work has been exhibited in natural history museums nationwide, and her paintings and prints are sold in galleries and specialty shops throughout the United States and Japan. Maryjo’s artwork has been featured on fine housewares products and on gifts and stationary by retailers such as Marcel Schurman Fine Papers, Smith and Hawken, The Republic of Tea, and The Nature Company.

Sunny Koch, the daughter of Maryjo Koch, specializes in collage and assemblage art and is regularly commissioned to create themed collages for a wide range of design, corporate, and editorial clients. She and her mother collaborate frequently. Her work has been widely published in magazines such as Hallmark and Guideposts and she has been a featured artist in Somerset Studio magazine for visual artists.

Work by Maryjo and Sunny Koch can be seen on their beautiful website: www.kochstudios.com

Comments

[barbe]

When you posted this on the assemblage group, I thought you were talking about freeform crochet/knitting. LOL

Very pretty, I have the book in my wish list. I have been wanting to take a class with them, since they are relatively close but haven't yet.

p.s. I recognize that yarn in the corner!!! hee hee!

cheers,
barbe

[New Jordans]

This post makes me realize the energy of words and pictures. As always your things are just gorgeous and I am grateful that you let us look in! Have a good week!