What you can do with paper and fabric

 Computer Paper, Glossy Magazine Paper,

Beads, Embroidery Floss, Contemporary Japanese Fabric

8 x 12

In-Progress

 A little Asian-inspired collage that started as a page for a concertina book but quickly grew too large for what I had in mind. 

I started with two pieces of contemporary Japanese fabric.  The woman was fussy cut from one piece; her hair heavily embroidered with black floss and embellished with beads.  I cut her fabric face away from the print.  Then printed Japanese characters on ordinary computer paper and then scrunched and crumbled them until they had a 'drape' similar to fabric.  I laid the paper on the diagonal and like the way it gives her a demure appearance.  For the fan, I used the same procedure but with slick and glossy magazine paper again scrunched and crumbled.  In order to produce the soft fabric-like drape with magazine paper, it takes a little more care and time, otherwise the paper will 'crack'.  I'm very happy with how the fan gives the appearance of stained glass.  I hand-beaded the perimeter of the fan and along its spokes. 

This was a liberating process with no sketching in advance.  It was a completely organic process letting one part flow into the next and the fabric 'speak' to me. 

However, for a year I had a subscription to Workshop on the Web (WOW) and it was there I discovered the paper scrunching technique; I've been playing with it in various forms since then.

I'm pretty pleased with the collage thus far but the work needs the addition of quilting stitches along the background landscape then mounting.