Something old, something new

Vintage items get a second life - twice over!

One of the magical things about collage art that keeps me coming back to my boxes of scraps is the challenge of taking something old and making it new again.

While I often hunt for vintage books, postcards, and photos, I’ve recently been finding a new source of material for my collage supply bins - embroidery!

I’m preparing for an upcoming art show featuring my reverse glass paintings. When I make this type of work, part of the charm is upcycling used frames and glass. I roam my local sources—estate sales, antique shops, and thrift stores—in search of unique or interesting frames.

(Check out this beauty that came all the way from Amsterdam!)

I then remove the art from the frame and make new paintings directly on the glass. (If you follow my other studio work, you may have seen my process, as shown here with this 2023 goldfinch and magnolia painting-in-progress.)

With this particular round of preparations, I found two suitable frames at my favorite local antique store, the Albany Antique Mall. And they just happened to be holding this lovely embroidery work framed by the Davis Gallery in Hawaii in 1972.

I admit I am a little torn about what happened next. I recognize someone spent a great deal of time and care making these hand-stitched pieces. But I also acknowledge this embroidered art has already been abandoned to the unknown future of a secondhand life. I hope my efforts to give it a new life can be a form of honoring it - and if not the thing itself, the idea that we don’t need new materials or to deplete more resources to be creative and make art.

And so… I felt compelled to add a little to today’s collage and save the rest for future collage and paper-making projects. A few snips and stitches later, I fell in love with this little combination of materials, colors, and texture—especially this sweet painted bunting I collected from my original childhood birding book.

This piece also uses pages from a vintage botanical textbook painted with guache, twine, and thread from craft bins I acquired from my mother and a vintage postcard from a family collection.

And as for the glass?

It’s currently on my other studio table getting its own makeover, to be returned to its frame as a new original work of art.

(My reverse glass painting process starts with a drawing I’ve sketched using Procreate, printed onto paper, and then taped under the glass to use as the template for my painted design. I’ll follow each of these pink lines with an India ink drafting pen to create a line drawing on the glass before I paint the glass with layers of oil paint.)

So keep your eyes open—interesting collage materials could be waiting for you in your garage, closet, or local antique store!

Happy collaging,

Jennifer