COLLAGE

Supply List

• Paper. The equivalent of two-three sheets of 22″x30″ paper, such as 280 grams BFK Rives; can also use paper you have on hand
• 1 yard of muslin (bleached or unbleached)
• Acrylic Paints (Sarajo likes GOLDEN fluids and Flashe paints, but use what you have!)
• White Gesso
• Matte medium or a PVA glue
• Assortment of paintbrushes
• Brayer
• Cutting mat
• Exacto knife and extra #11 blades
• Scissors
• Funny Foam
• Scraper
• a piece of Tracing paper

Sarajo’s Notes:

Cutting board
I have a variety of sizes, very handy for cutting paper and muslin. I have Uchida and Fiskars brands, but no preference.

Exacto Knife
It’s handy to have several knives. Try to purchase a box of 100 #11 blades (and the knives that fit that size blade) so you can keep the blades nice and sharp. (I keep a handy tin where I deposit all the used blades.)

Scissors
Good scissors are a good investment. Sometimes you might want to cut shapes with an exacto knife and other times a scissors makes sense.

Funny Foam
Available as a kid craft item, it cuts easily with scissors. Use for mono-printing. I use with acrylic paint.

Brush or roller for application of paint.

Papers
I like Rives BFK, a printmaking paper. It comes in different weights. I like 280 grams as a good weight which takes paint well and can be cut fairly easily. You could also use a thinner weight for attaching collage elements, but the thinner weights don’t absorb as much paint. BFK Rives comes in an assortment of colors: white, buff, grey, tan, etc. It has a smooth surface.

Muslin
I buy it in yards, unbleached, at JoAnne’s or any fabric store. No need to get bleached as you will probably be painting over it with gesso.

Paint
I like Golden Acrylics. I mostly use Fluid Acrylics, but also use ones that come in jars and tubes. I also like to experiment with different Golden mediums: matte medium, light molding paste. Flashe paint is a vinyl emulsion, can be used straight from the jar and can be very opaque (depends a bit on the color). It can be thinned with water to get more fluid, watercolor effects. It’s a very matte paint, velvet-like finish, which is why I like to use it.

Gesso
You don’t need to purchase expensive gesso. This is for sealing/preparing the muslin for painting acrylic. You can use it straight from the container or thin with water—the less water the thicker and more opaque the gesso will be.
India ink or Black Sumi Ink: great for drawing and painting on plain paper, loosening up, creating sketches for inspiration or cutting up and adding to collages.

Brushes
I like to keep as many brushes around for making a variety of marks: think different widths, thicknesses, for dry brush work. Old, stiff brushes and wood branches or sticks are also good mark making tools.

Scrapers
I like Bondo scrapers (probably for use in construction), but they work well with paint. Also Princeton/Catalyst makes a line of wedges for painting or clay work. These come in a variety of shaped edges if you like that.

Glue
Use an acid free material, such as matte medium or glue whenever you are working with collage. Sometimes I use soft gel (from Golden) as another medium to adhere muslin to muslin or paper. For glue I like PH Neutral PVA available at most art supply stores (it’s made by Lineco).

Other supplies: butcher paper, plastic for covering tables or for placing under muslin when gessoing. I like to mix my paint colors frequently and I keep a supply of well cleaned food containers with lids handy. Tracing paper: handy to use if you want to draw elements and cut out for placement. You can re-use these, or use flexible clear acetate sheets for the same purpose—as templates.