Embroidered Collage

I have something new to look forward to and to plan for.  Melissa has announced the third Artist Paper Swap over on her yahoo group, RawArt, and I'm excited about the possibilities.  In each of the other two I experimented with techniques to create my own hand-decorated papers and received absolutely amazing pieces to use from other people.  Admittedly I have hoarded them more than used them, but a good portion have been incorporated somewhere.

The big question is what will I create this time?

For the first swap in Fall 2005 I experimented with a little of this and a little of that. 

• colored pencils, outlining shapes, monoprinting
• pseudo-paste papers
• basic hand-carved stamps
• crackle medium

For the second swap in Spring 2006 I focused primarily on printing techniques, but also finally got around to trying marbling. 

•  leaves and spirals created with printfoam
• bubble-wrap printed papers, for which I also wrote a quick tutorial
• marbled papers and a post on my experiences with the process

This time I don't have any specific goals in mind, as yet. 

I could try out the actual paper making - picking up one of the kits at Michael's and some such.  I'm a bit reluctant to go this route because of the additional stuff I'd be bringing in and because I really don't need another media to get into, even if it would be interesting to incorporate into my layered works.

I'm more intrigued by the idea of working on commercially hand-made papers and seeing how they take some of the different decorating techniques.  In the previous swaps I only used drawing paper and watercolor paper and I know from my collage work that hand-made papers can take paints in a very different fashion.

I could also tend the papers towards my fiber side by building up some thicker papers with collaged tulles and laces on large sheets of watercolor paper and then cut them down.  Or maybe I could rev up the sewing machine and do some patterns on lighter weight papers.  If I go that route I'll likely need to get some new needles though, since I've heard that process dulls them considerably.

Whatever I choose, I'll post as I decorate.