Bent, Bound & Stitched by Giuseppina “Josie” Cirincione

Bent, Bound & Stitched: Collage, Cards and Jewelry with a Twist by Giuseppina “Josie” Cirincione. Cincinnati, Ohio: North Light Books, 2008. ISBN: 978-1-60061-060-8

I'm a sucker for collage books. Thankfully I'm generally able to satisfy my desires through my local library, as with this book, which I had seen advertised, or reviewed somewhere, so I checked my local library catalog, found it, put a hold on it, and waited patiently until it showed up at my local branch for pickup.

Don't get me wrong: the book has a lot of great ideas and creativity sparking suggestions in it, replete with lots of intriguing pictures and images. But most of the projects are too complicated for me personally. Just the supply list alone was enough to tell me that, especially when it contains items like wire, sheet metal, brads, eyelets, and screws! I prefer to stick to paper, thank you very much. I'm not interested in bending and twisting wire, and the projects that involved those kinds of techniques looked way too complicated to me, and besides they just didn't pique my interest.

There was only one project in the book that really grabbed me, to the point that I had to try it out, and that was “Signed and Sealed,” in which the author shows how to make envelopes from pages taken from vintage magazines. For larger cards, she says, “try using atlases; the oversized pages easily accommodate odd-sized cards.” Since I just happen to have several old atlases lying around as part of my accumulated stash of collage supplies, this worked perfectly for me.

The only problem: instead of the card stock she recommends, I used pieces of cardboard rescued from emptied cereal boxes. I think these were too stiff and clunky. Consequently the envelopes I made seemed bulky and awkward. I will really have to give it another try actually using card stock as the author recommends, and see if they turn out any better.

So, the success of the envelope project? As yet undetermined. But hopeful. As for the rest of the book? Lots of pretty pictures, and clever projects, too clever by far for me. But for anyone into paper arts and crafts, you'll enjoy looking at the pictures, and who knows? You might even get sufficiently inspired to try making one of them!

Vintage Collage-Works by Maryjo and Sunny Koch

Vintage Collage-Works: Artful Ideas with Antique Ephemera by Maryjo & Sunny Koch. Produced and Designed by Jennifer Barry. Photographs by Wendy Candelaria. Text by Carolyn Miller. Beverly, Massachusetts: Quarry Books, 2007. ISBN: 1-59253-390-6

This is an idea book for collage artists, or those who would-be such. As such, it has lots of good ideas, and provides inspiration for any number of collage projects, designs, and techniques. These include painting on a collage, using various types of antique papers, such as old letters, envelopes, postage stamps, music (my favorite). Other techniques, such as painting, image transfer, and the use of clip art, are also described.

Of the painting techniques described, scumbling seems the most useful to me. I'm not good at drawing, so I'm afraid the painting of birds and butterflies by hand is not something I'd be good at, or particularly interested in. I see how adding them to a collage can add interest, but I'd be more inclined to find a preexisting picture, and just paste it onto the collage.

While many of the specific projects depicted and described in the book are too cutesy, or too florid and fancy for my taste, they provide lots of inspiration, and ideas for similar collages. My style would hopefully be a little more restrained. Also, the very specific step-by-step instructions on how to create more or less exact replicas of the pieces shown in the book, are not all that helpful.

What I want from a book like this is ideas that spark my own imagination, and techniques explained well enough that I can apply them to my own ideas. And both of those things, this book provides in plentiful supply. Definitely recommended for anyone interested in collage as an art form.