Staining Tissue Paper to use in Collage

Here is a video I just released demonstrating how to make stained tissue paper in small quantities. In 2011 I did a post about staining tissue papers in much larger quantity, taking up a lot of space to make full sheets. Read it here and find some useful links. This video shows a more compact version.

You need palette paper (or use freezer paper); white tissue paper (I use Blick); fluid acrylic paints - transparent colors give you the best results; water, brushes.... I think that's it.

Stone Stack #6,  9x12"

Stone Stack #7, 9x12"

Stone Stack #8, 9x12"

Stone Stack #9, 9x12"

I used the resulting material in the collages above. These are very simple studies in which I am focusing on scale, value, and arrangement of elements.

You can find the pieces available as prints or products here.

Greetings from Guilford!

I am having such a great time at the Guilford Art Center in Guilford CT! What a fabulous group we have! And even though some acrylic medium spilled all over my camera in transit, I am happily able to post pix because one of the participants, Cathy Farrell, kindly took photos and e-mailed them to me last night. What a gal!! So here are a few photos of just a fraction of the papers we painted yesterday:


We painted on Cheap Drawing Paper, on deli paper, and then we stained tissue papers, which will be dry this morning. We will learn one or two more techniques today, and then focus on making collage compositions using our papers. Sharon Gorberg is taking more pix, and will e-mail them to me soon so I can post even more tomorrow. I'll also scan some of the individual papers to give you a better look.

I am delighted to have Diane Wright in my class this weekend. She is a fabulous art quilter (check out her blog!!), introduced to me by Vivika DeNegre, whom I heard about through Jane LaFazio, one of my Sketchbook Challenge sisters! LOVE this networking thing! More about Vivika and company in a later post. She has an interesting project I want to show you. Stay tuned.

Trying out my new video camera

Here is my first attempt at video. I am making a quick series of small collage paintings, first by using my own scribble painted papers, stained papers, and a few other items for a basic collage layout, and then painting over it with Golden fluid acrylics. I use acrylic matte medium for the adhesive and top coat.




Here are the four finished small collages:


On this one I added a little stamping with wavy corragated card stock to echo the same pattern as is on the scribble painted paper:
I printed white dots with a hand-carved rubber stamp on this one, and also added the wavy corragated lines
I used plastic cross stitch canvas to print the white grid patterns on this one:
Thanks for visiting!

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.