Contemporary Collage Week 5 : Decoupage

This week  in Contemporary Collage   we were looking at 'decoupage'  moving from making collage on flat surfaces to decorating an object. Artists we looked at included: Rauschenberg; Matthew Jackson; Peter Blake, Raschid Jackson: Grayson Perry; Kurt Schwitters, Joseph Cornell 

We were asked to bring in something  that didn't mind collaging over, cutting up or adding to. I found this pink card suitcase in the childrens section of a charity shop and  having grand ideas  about  making a Shrine   for Lost Earrings , I also brought in a selection of the small  boxes I'd collected over the years when purchasing earrings. 

Apart from the usual losses/ breakages , I had a purse of  favourite earrings lost/stolen from my rucksack when left in the lobby of a hotel in Athens in 2002 . Some of them I had remade  but others were irreplacable  ( incuding some I'd bought in  Seraphos just days before) .  Since then I only take earrings on holiday that I wouldn't mind losing too much ( I mainly wear dichroic glass ones)

I   even made a  Journal Quilt   containing fabric I printed using scans of  earrings 

and have been meaning to make  an amulet against lost earrings for quite some years ( pictures below are from the excellent book on the subject by Sheila Paine. ) 

I'd gone through magazines cutting out anything to do with jewelry  or red and pink in colour  and had a fine time choosing strange images to stick on

I then found a picture of theatre boxes  from an old V&A members magazine  to  stuck  inside  and  decided to leave it as it was  ( with the addition of a Greek God ). Not so much shrine as suitcase theatre. A bit obvious  but working in 3D is still outside my comfort zone.  

 Unlike Judith  who  with her  architecture/ sculpture  background produced  this amazing structure  ( particularly like the internal space and reflections )

After lunch I turned my attentions to all the little boxes ( reminded by Simon of the boxes of Susan Hiller) 

I used scraps of fabric, sequin waste and foil; bits of braid and ribbon; old stamps :  quirky illustrations from magazines; fold out strips of paper.  As usual time passed too quickly and I'm just staring to explore the possibilities of combining them , stacking them , putting them together.  Some of them  might still end up as miniature pocket shrines.   

 I'll miss the 'bricollage' session next week as I'll  be  in Rydal   but Simon suggested I join in spirit  when I go on walks making  some assemblages  and taking photos of them.