Collage your own Bouquet
Using your spectacular eye, create your own collage bouquet! If you have access to the outdoors, go on some nice walks, even just around the yard, and pluck some flowers or other flora that will make your bouquet pop (sunflowers, daisies, grass, chives, sticks, etc. nothing is off limits!). If you don’t have easy access to the outdoors, don’t worry, this project is still for you! Instead of collecting flowers, take a look around your house and grab up to 10 found materials that catch your eye (newspaper, pipe cleaners, construction paper, pompoms, etc.). Once you have your bouquet items, put them to the side. Now you must create your vase that will hold your beautiful “flowers”! Take another look around your house but this time for a piece of cardboard about 12in x 12in. As soon as you have your piece of cardboard, draw a vase that takes up about half of the cardboard (make sure you leave space for your “flowers”). After your glorious vase has been drawn, punch holes (one hole fore each “flower”) above your vase (you may need to ask your grownup to help you in this part of the project). Now comes the exciting part; adding your “flowers”! Take your flowers or found materials and place them in the holes you punched into your cardboard. Ta-da! You have your extraordinary bouquet! This project can be a great gift to spread cheer to loved ones or to bring cheer into your home.
This project was inspired by contemporary artist Jane Hammond specifically two of her works on paper titled ‘Garden Urn with Delphinium, Altamira Oriole and Pitcher Plants’ and ‘Korean Vase with Hyacinth Beans, Cotton and Chrysanthemum’ (see images below). Jane works in many mediums ranging from photography to printmaking usually working with found image fragments (much like some of you are working with found materials!). Jane is an amazing example of a contemporary artist that plays with making the ordinary extraordinary by proving that found fragments of old images can create an infinite number of new artworks. Learn more about Jane Hammond and take a closer look at her artwork here or here.
Suggested Materials:
-Flowers and/or found materials as your “flowers”
-12x12 piece of cardboard
-Scissors or hole punch to punch your holes for your flowers
-Markers to draw your vase on you piece of cardboard and for added decoration as you see fit!
Below, see the images of Jane Hammond’s collage bouquet as well as a couple of my final creations.
Happy Making!
Garden Urn with Delphinium, Altamira Oriole and Pitcher Plants (2019), Unique botanical collage using linocut, relief printing, digital printing, colored pencil, Sumi ink, watercolor and gouache, hand cut and assembled on collaged Japanese papers over painted cotton rag, 50" x 55"
Korean Vase with Hyacinth Beans, Cotton and Chrysanthemum (2016), Unique botanical collage using lithography, linocut, relief printing, digital printing, colored pencil, Sumi ink, watercolor and gouache, silver and bronze leaf, hand cut and assembled on a collage of Japanese papers over painted cotton rag, 50" x 38"
Image description: My piece of cardboard with my drawn on vase and holes for my “flowers”.
Image description: My found material bouquet! My found materials included, newspaper, tissue paper, pipe cleaners, yellow crimped paper, a marker cap and construction paper.
Image description: My found-flower bouquet!
“Collage is like a house of mirrors. Every direction you look, you see something different and visually stimulating”
— Nita Leland