Vintage Materials for Collage

If you’ve seen my Instagram Reels or read some of my older blog posts, you already know how much I love paper. While I do have boxes of commercial and painted papers, my real interest as a collage artist is vintage paper and ephemera. When I first started using vintage materials, I would collect anything and everything that I could find. If it was old paper, I was going to give it a go. After a few years of almost daily collage making, I’ve settled down with a few favorites.

Blank pages from hardcover and paperback books

I use this to cover a substrate, as a paper for printmaking or monoprinting, or as a collage element

Hardback book covers

I rip the fabric covers off of old books and use them in just about every collage that I make. If they aren’t the right color, I’ll paint them.  The threads on some of these are a great addition to a composition. 

Ledger paper

 I have a small collection of vintage ledger books that I’ve found on Ebay, Etsy, and in antique stores. The handwriting is gorgeous, there are often interesting lines and numbers and the paper is gorgeous. 

Player Piano Rolls

The day I found an entire box of these at an antique store was a great one. The neutral paper is useful on its own, but then add in the dashed lines and the lyrics and you’ve got so much to work with. 

Stamp Albums

The stamps are nice (those colors), but the real joy is the paper in the vintage albums. It’s whisper-thin and great for layering. 

Vintage letters and envelopes

The stories they tell!  I read them first, of course, but then use them in collages. I hide the names, addresses, and most of the text when I include them in a collage, but I know what’s there and I know the story they tell.

What would you add as your favorite vintage paper?

And, if you need more paper, check out my Treasure Boxes.