Adapting Collage Techniques to Jewelry

by Terri Wlaschin.
(Key West, FL)

This was the last piece I made from the pile of beads I created.

My style in creating beads and jewelry often involves looking to inspiration from other mediums. I am particularly drawn to collage, mixed media, and paper craft mediums as I find they have a lot to offer in terms of color patterning, lines and balance ideas, and bringing interesting things together in one piece.

This was the first necklace.

So when the local art studio was offering a collage class I jumped on it. Lucky for me, it was a small class and the teacher spent a lot of time giving me one-on-one instruction specifically getting into the details on how to create lines to help someone travel through the collage, what to use to calm down or brighten an area etc. I feel she was the primary creator of my collage piece to be honest.

That bail was originally part of the necklace in picture 2, but I had a change of heart (lol).

How I adapted the collage techniques to my poly clay beads and jewelry:
I rolled one sheet of white and one of black polymer clay, gathered the stamps, texture pads and the paints, and used my collage to guide me in thinking through a process. I used wire netting from the class in a couple places to calm down overly bright areas and dabs of Golden’s white fiber medium to brighten others. I used shapes to guide the viewer through the piece as best I could, trying to incorporate direction in the finished pieces.

This is what the teacher and I made in the collage class.

I love and am happy with these pieces but they I still consider them a work in progress. As I am writing this, the thought that comes to me is I want to create more of a combo collage/assemblage piece, possibly with a lean towards contemporary edgy styling. I am more of a free form than a precision worker but I believe if I continue to practice, I will be able to produce better results.

Terri Wlaschin
Shanty Chic Beads
https://www.facebook.com/ShantyChicBeads/