Artful Memories: How to create unique art with old photographs

Fabulous and comprehensive book about using old photos to create unique and personalized artwork. Well written lessons using unusual techniques to enhance your collage art skills. A treasure!

I have a stash of old family photos that I wasn’t sure what to do with. Apart from being a beautiful book in itself (it includes a diversity of collage and mixed media work), it also provides so many great ideas and inspiration clearly written. Highly recommended especially if, like me, you’re new to collage.

Both Jane Chipp & Jack Ravi are talented Collage artists, so I was excited to see how they have translated their techniques into book form.So many "project" books are mostly style over substance, but not this one.Yes it's a book of projects, but it's much more than that.There are personal stories, memories, forgotten lives given new meaning.The projects themselves are varied, well explained and inspiring.From books to boxes, from weaving to painting, from sewing to adding natural elements, there's something for everyone.There are also some pages of photographs to use if you don't have your own.As a Collage artist I'm excited to try many of these ideas for myself!Even if you didn't want to create something it's a terrific art book, with many inspiring pieces by talented artists from around the world.

In an era when almost 1.5 trillion photographs are taken each year - 200 for each human being on the planet - it's easy to forget that photography is now almost two hundred years old. And whilst the smartphone is very much of the twenty first century, Kodak introduced the first roll film cameras in the 1890's. Thousands of photographs were taken during the late Victorian and Edwardian periods and as the book explains, examples can be bought for pennies in junk shops and online marketplaces. This book skillfully shows how these fading pieces of paper, documents of memories, can be transformed, combining ideas from present artists with those from the past. The book includes not only ideas for projects but also examples of work by over 100 practitioners of this growing "photo trouvé" craft.If you're fascinated by old photographs, love hidden treasures and are handy with a craft knife and pot of glue - then this book should be high on your wishlist.

I'm no stranger to making collage art but I haven't made much with old photographs. I've been collecting old photos for over a year to make collage art with but I wasn't sure where to start. I needed inspiration and instructions on different techniques. I bought this book over a week ago and I've made a few collages. This book is beautifully put together. A good mixture of inspiration and examples. There is step by step guides of how to do certain techniques like the folded paper skirts I made. Easy to follow and inspirational. I'm really pleased I bought this book.