Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Staining Papers


A lot of collage artists paint/decorate/stain their own papers to use in their work. I was first introduced to this idea by Gerald Brommer in his book Collage Techniques, my very first book on collage. I continue to develop techniques to use in my scribble-painted papers, learning from others and modifying to suit my tastes and needs. Recently I bought a video workshop by Carrie Burns Brown that demonstrates her process of staining tissue papers (and much more) for collage. Tissue paper is great for collage because you can see all the layers through its translucency. I'd been ironing tissue paper to freezer paper in order to give it the necessary stiffness for painting on. Carrie simply paints them with diluted fluid acrylics, and once they are dry they have a little body. I added Golden's GAC-500 medium to my stains (experiment with rations of water to paint; mine is about 1:1 to 2:1), or you could add a little gloss medium, just to give it a bit more body. One drawback is that the papers take a while to dry. A few hours or overnight, depending on how much stain you put on them. Cover your table with white plastic garbage bags before staining the tissue papers.

This is one I stained with quinacridone gold (my all-time favorite paint) plus a little black. You an see how the tissue wrinkles when it's wet. I spritzed it with a little Glimmer Mist on this one before it dried.


I love how translucent tissue papers are! The wrinkles show up in the paper once it's dry. I actually ironed some of mine, between two sheets of parchment.
More on this as I work on ways to further decorate the papers and use them in my work. Carrie's video has much much more and she gives lots of tips on her materials and processes. I may use these papers in fabric-paper as well as collage. I will keep you posted. Thanks for visiting.

15 comments:

  1. Gorgeous...what a great idea...I can't wait to see what how you are going to use these....

    ReplyDelete
  2. They are beautiful. I just started following your blog, which is lovely. I stopped by Ink About It tonight and was chatting with Lori tonight and we were talking about the sketchbook challenge. She was singing you praise, so I thought I would stop by and see what you were up to tonight.

    Lovely to meet you.

    Karen

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh Jane, I LOVE these!!! I like to paint papers to use in collage, and this Carrie Burns Brown is the perfect next step for me. I love your results!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wow...such great eye candy! Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I can see using these in paper quilts~ they would be awesome!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks for this info..might go and see how much the video is.xxlovely workxxlynda

    ReplyDelete
  7. Jane... L O V E these... and I just love Carrie Burns Brown's DVD... what a great one.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Wow, love the colors. Thanks for sharing this!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Once again I am entranced by what you are doing!!

    The color is beyond gorgeous!!!!!
    I am still playing with layering and scraping my fluid acrylics, and am getting a never ending variety of luscious color.

    This will be next on my list!
    xoxo
    SBG

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thank you so much for sharing this technique. I am trying it and am so excited. And your work is beautiful!!!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I'm curious, do you paint the color/stain on or dip them in a water solution, or do you spray the color on? If you brush the colors on, what type of brush do you use, these are beautiful but I am So Intimidated. I'm afraid that I'll tear the paper and make a huge mess. How diluted do you make the stain, a water like consistency or a thicker medium? Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thank you for the link to Carrie; lots of useful ideas and techniques, even though I don't do much collage, the papers are always useful.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I have Brommer's book - guess I need to get it out and review it! Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  14. J'adore toutes vos techniques, MERCI.

    http://leblogdeliberty.canalblog.com

    ReplyDelete
  15. These look fabulous ...thank you for sharing :D xxx

    ReplyDelete

I have had some spam comments lately, advertising of stupid stuff. So I am moderating comments until I can figure out a better way to prevent spam. THANKS!