Embroidered Collage

Great issue with a wide range of styles and twists on the usual!  Most intriguing to me were Charlotte Lyons "what's left" collages and Robin Olsen's corded chains/mobiles/hangers. 

Putting little pieces on grids isn't a brand new idea, but Charlotte's work shows how effective it can be and gives some good hints on doing it yourself.  In a way, her inclusion is an affirmation to me that maybe it would be okay to just do some work based on little grids, that maybe it would be worthwhile, because I can see what someone else's version looks like. 

Robin Olsen's work doesn't seem to have an easy name - basically each is three hanging pieces of wrapped fabric bits and other things made up and strung together and some have additional embroidery.  But that description doesn't help you see how neat these ethnically inspired and symbolic works are to see. 

Other twists included a different sort of altered book - with the cover as part of a flat collage, using cardboard and cheesecloth in book construction, felt crows as art dolls, using a patchwork style background for building up work on, and more

The two main technique articles are on acrylic alcohol reduction and creating rust - or a rust look, both techniques that can add a sense of age to your work.  While I'm not likely to try either, they were topics I'd not seen discussed before in my magazines and definitely showed doable experiments.

By the way, this issue came on time and in the nice plastic sleeve, so I was much happier than I was with the first issue in my subscription!