Art inspired by ephemera

​ Those of you who are familiar with my work will know that found images combined with vibrant colour and pattern are at its core. In the collage below, a courting couple find themselves in the middle of a whilwind of colour, oblivious to the presence of flying fruits and a somewhat menacing outsize duck.

Through the years, I have accumulated a collection of ephemera that provides me with reference material and inspiration. My collection is made up of whatever catches my eye and includes postcards and letters, family photos, dictionaries and encyclopaedias, maps, women’s and nature magazines, sewing patterns, stamps and cigarette picture cards. I love the faded colours, typefaces and textures of the bygone printed world, full to bursting with odd things that I know will find their way into a piece of work one day – maybe not today or tomorrow but eventually…

Recently I decided to share some of my treasure trove and so I developed two different collage kits that can be used by anyone who would like to use vintage imagery in their artwork, scrapbooking or greeting cards. One of the kits is inspired by flora and fauna and the other by machinery. They both include printouts of lovely drawings from an 18^th century Arts and Science Encyclopaedia and of period postcards, pages from illustrated Larousse dictionaries, bits of wallpaper and more. Below you can see some of the papers that are included in the collage kits: