I thought that I was simply fixing up a few collage papers. What I got was so much more!
New Year. New Me.
Okay, okay, okay.
New Year. Same Me. But, slightly more organized (hopefully)!
Making My Messy Collage Papers More Usable
During the first week of January, we returned from a week away visiting with family and I got to cleaning. I even decided that my collage stash needed some cleaning up. This week’s vlog is all about that journey.
What I Learned
Here are a few things I’m taking away from this experience:
- Cleaning the studio can be a creative reset, not just a chore. Deep-cleaning my collage stash helped me mentally reset for the new year and unexpectedly sparked new ideas. I need to make cleaning up my collage stash a regular part of my art practice. Maybe something I do every 3-4 months?
- Most of my collage paper is accidental—and that’s both a gift and a problem. Ghost prints, cleanup paper, test prints… abundance is great, but without intention it can become overwhelming.
- For me, unity is not the same thing as perfection or even beauty. I wasn’t trying to “make pretty papers.” I just wanted to make them more usable by simplifying color and reducing visual chaos.
- Cutting things smaller often solves big problems. I know this. But I need to be reminded: Trimming, cropping, and breaking papers apart made them feel intentional instead of random.
- A thin layer of paint can change everything. Glazes and washes unified wildly different marks without erasing their history. (Did you see my post earlier this week about translucent paints?)
- Repetition creates cohesion! Using familiar motifs such as stripes, dots, and circles helped turn my random papers into usable collage papers that fit in with my natural visual language.
- For me, quiet, repetitive work pairs well with listening. I used to cross stitch in college when I really needed to listen. Doodling and mark-making during a Zoom meeting this week helped me listen better and use “in-between” time productively. Win-win.
- Unifying materials is a transferable skill. I didn’t do it on purpose, but I discovered along the way that this whole collage-paper-unifying experience wasn’t simply about collage paper. Rather, it reinforced strategies for bringing cohesion to finished artwork too. I love that. A great exercise with practical results.
- Refreshing supplies can reignite excitement. You probably already know that if you like shopping! Having a “new” stash (made from old materials) made me genuinely eager to create again.
- Small studio wins add up. Making just one area of my studio more functional feels like a serious creative victory. Yay!
New Year. New Collage Stash!
All in all, this was a truly great experience. I had no expectations of it being anything at all. I’m so glad that I gave it a try!
Thanks for stopping by!
I watched this last night, knowing I needed to organize my collage papers (and all the other papers that got mixed in with them). I love the idea of putting them in 4 simple piles based on color, and I appreciate that you said that we may need to make different piles. My papers include a small number of pages that I made myself and a large quantity of pages I cut from magazines. So I had to split the up between glossy paper & flat paper because they take different kinds of glue/medium. Also, I have some large pages & a lot of little pieces of paper with interesting textures. The whole process ended up taking 4 hours. But I’m thrilled that my stash is now useable.
Yay! That’s so awesome! I’m glad you were able to make the basic idea work for your particular needs!
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