WOYWW #386: A book, a collage and some awesome papers

Hello again on this dark Wednesday morning! It was still dark in my neck of the woods at 7.30 this morning. I look forward to the clock going back an hour, but of course it means it will get dark sooner in the evenings. Oh well, time to get those fairy lights out again to make the darkness more bearable.

The photo of my desk for WOYWW was taken on Sunday. I was working on a collage, auditioning different pieces. As you will see, it ended up looking quite different in the end. This project was inspired by a book titled 'Storytelling with Collage' that I saw on my friend Jackie's blog just last week and, of course, I had to have it! This technique is perfect for using up bits and bobs and scrap pieces that I have lying around. The finished collage includes pieces of a tea stained kitchen towel, a stamped tea bag, a test piece of polymer clay with an image transfer, a skeleton leaf, a piece of ribbon and bits of cardboard that I used as underpaper for my paintings.

The collage was built on a piece of handmade Khadi paper, which comes in different weights. The heaviest is 640 gsm, which feels almost like a canvas board and even the 320 gsm weight feels very sturdy. This paper has a lovely textured surface and deckled edges. Don't even think about cutting it with scissors as that would ruin the effect. I trimmed my piece by wetting the paper with a brush along a ruler to soften it and carefully tearing it, so the lovely fibers created a feathered edge.

I've discovered another wonderful product called lokta paper at Anglesey Paper Company. It's very similar to mulberry paper with natural fibres. It's made in Nepal from the bark of the lokta tree, which is a renewable resource as it regenerates itself when it's cut. That's always good to know! When you look at these papers against the light, you can clearly see the yummy fibres in them. This particular type is sold as gift wrap but it will work great as collage paper. Here's my collection so far and some closeups to show them against the light.

I hope you enjoyed your visit today and found something of interest!

Happy Wednesday!