Collage

Materials Explored:

Glues:

Elmers Glue Bottle

Liquitex Acrylic Gloss Medium

Elmers Glue Sticks

Hot Glue

Liquitex Acrylic Matte Medium

Plaid Sparkly Hologram Modpodge

Surface:

Construction Paper

Printer Paper

Main Collage Material: 

Magazines

Construction Paper

Newspaper

Tissue paper

Paper Streamers

Paper Scraps

Fabric Scraps

Found Objects

Process:

I tested each glue type for it's ability to:

• Stick

• Transparency once dried

• How much it warped the material

• How well it works as a varnish

I then tested each of these with 5 main types of paper

For the actual collaging you can break the process into:

1. Gathering materials and searching for useful images or scraps

2. Organizing (can be by texture, color, object type, subject matter)

3. Cutting or ripping

4. Assembling

5. Gluing

6. Varnishing (optional)

   
   

Findings:

• Construction paper is a better surface to use to avoid the base paper wrinkling and warping with the glue and materials on top

• Dry completely clear (great for varnish):

  • Elmers glue sticks

  • Liquitex acrylic gloss medium

• Dry opaque:

  • Elmers bottle glue

  • hot glue

  • Liquitex acrylic matte medium

• Makes thinner paper appear wet when dried:

  • Liquitex acrylic gloss medium (does it the most)

  • Liquitex acrylic matte medium (kinda and can bleed through from underneath and change the color of thin paper)

  • Elmers bottle glue (can bleed through from underneath and can VERY MUCH change the color of thin paper

    
    

• Paper Streamers adds a lot of great texture but these and tissue paper tear easily and glue bleeds through, which may be frustrating for younger students who can't control the materials as well. These would be better used with elmers glue sticks or in modgepoge assignments for younger kids who may not have the motor skills to handle bottle glue

While I didn't include Yes Glue Paste as part of this material study because I'm already familiar with it and use it at home, I do want to make a note that this paste glue is the best for collage. It makes sure paper (no matter how thin) doesn't wrinkle and its easy to spread and apply with minimal mess. It also doesn't age and discolor the paper with time. Unfortunately it is incredibly expensive (can be $40 a jar but can last forever if used smartly) so would best be used sparingly in an advanced middle school or high school setting

Ideas for Application in the Classroom:

Collage takes away the focus on technical drawing and rendering skills and exercises other skills like: composition, use of texture, color and assemblage. This makes it the perfect medium to use for a lesson on composition, visual hierarchy and the rule of thirds

With hot gluing, there will likely not be access to enough outlets for a whole class to hot glue at once. To solve this problem a classroom lesson can be set up so there's a hot glue station where a few kids at a time can take turns hot gluing. This also helps teachers narrow down their supervision on a few students at a time who could be at risk of burning themselves Providing multiple types of glue can help solve this problem as well. Hot glue can be less messy than bottle glue and dries quickly, however I found it can be lumpy and warp the surface of thinner papers

Differentiation Strategies:

Giving kids the option to tear or cut paper can help students without fine motor skills (who can't control scissors well) participate

Collage can be an activity where students don't have to glue down their assembled image if they don't want to. They can capture a well lit digital picture of their work instead and materials can be returned to where they were found to be used again. This helps kids without fine motor skills finish faster with less mess (which is especially useful if a block period is short and there is a time crunch)

For kids with less developed motor skills who can't gently handle thin, easily tear-able paper (especially when it's prone to tearing when being pushed around with glue) using fabric scraps instead of paper can be a great solution. I know some people have an aversion to paper products, especially wet paper products as a sensory issue, so fabric could be a solution to that as well

Technical and Safety Information:

Some glues like rubber cement produce toxic fumes known as "inhalants" that can harm kids by immediately entering their bloodstream through their lungs and have psychoactive effects or create a kind of "high." These should not be used in a classroom, I've heard too many stories of kids finding ways to evade supervision and innocently using inhalants for the high without understanding the dangers in school

Kids with hot glue guns should be heavily supervised ages 8-11 and hot glue guns that are built to not exceed a certain temperature should be used to help avoid burns. For students ages 4-7 you can make sure to avoid burns by having only the low temp hot glue guns at a teacher run station of no more than 6 kids at a time with the teacher watching closely and helping with the process. Another option for little kids is to have only one hot glue gun going at a time that's controlled by the teacher. Kids ages 12-18 can have more freedom with the hot glue guns