We hope to provide answers to all your altered art questions here at altered-art.net. As the website develops, you should be able to find answers to more of those questions somewhere on the site.
On this page we'll give you the answers to some of the questions that our visitors have asked, but which are not answered elsewhere at the moment. We'll also point you in the direction of the answers to a few frequently asked questions. Finally, if you haven't found the answer anywhere else, there’s a chance to ask us your specific question.
If you have a technical question, or would like to tell us about a problem that you have encountered whilst using our website, you are welcome to make use of our Technical Help Form.
Let's kick off with some of those altered art questions from our visitors:
Where can I find out about techniques and get information on resources?
Cloth, Paper, Scissors is a magazine that we cannot recommend highly enough. We would also recommend Somerset Studio, which is excellent for inspiration and information on resources. Both of these magazines are published in the United States, but are available in the United Kingdom from specialist suppliers or Borders stores.
There are many good books available on this subject. We would especially recommend Alphabetica: An A-Z Creativity Guide for Collage and Book Artists by Lynne Perella. Despite its title, this is a definitive guide for all mixed-media artists, and contains information on techniques, inspirational photographs and much more.
You could also try joining one of the many special-interest groups on the internet, particularly on Yahoo! Members of these groups are always happy to share their knowledge and experience with others. You could try Cloth Paper Studio, which is particularly useful for artists working in mixed media.
What are the best types of glue to use?
For sticking paper to card you need a dry glue that won’t buckle the card. We would recommend a glue stick, like Pritt or Tombow, sticky dots or double-sided sticky tape. A suitable alternative that we have recently discovered is the Stix2 transfer tape pen, which you may find more convenient.
For sticking embellishments, we would suggest PVA glue (white glue), which dries clear, silicone glue, sticky foam pads, or an impact glue, like UHU. If you are making a collage with lots of paper scraps, we would recommend PVA glue spread thinly, which will also have the effect of stiffening the card. This is also useful for sticking fabric, ribbons etc. to card.
A good basic selection of adhesives for most purposes would include PVA glue, double-sided sticky tape (or a transfer tape pen), and silicone glue for sticking the heavier, or hollow-backed, embellishments.
The brands we have suggested are available in the United Kingdom. You may find different brands elsewhere. We believe that in the United States there is a good range called Golden which may suit your purposes.
Now let's take a look at some of those frequently asked questions…
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We hope that we've been able to answer all of your altered art questions, but perhaps you have a question about altered art that you can't find the answer to anywhere on the website.
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