My overall direction of ‘journeys and pathways’ was too illustrate the path taken by my mind over these past few years. Each work depicts a stage in my life which had a great impact on my being in some way.

To present my final pieces, I wanted to try something diverse and ordinary instead of exhibiting them in the usual window mount situation.

I’ve decided to embroider the tracing paper onto my original print and hang it with small golden bull dog clips and string. If I had chosen to present my final works in a window mount I sense that it would over power the delicacy and fragility of the final outcome, and as presenting your images is just as important as the image itself, I wanted to make sure they both complimented each other fairly.

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Starting off, I punctured holes in each corner of the photographs and stitched tracing paper and original print together with a needle and grey thread.

After this, I attached two small gold bull dog clips to the top of each piece and then tied the string through each hole to form a hanger.

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A close up of the hanger method and picture of all three final pieces.

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The order that the works will go in.

“My collages embrace the imperfection of old, used, discarded and damaged paper. These papers depict moments in time – often bearing marks and traces of a past life and the human hand. I ‘rescue’ these unwanted fragments, creating layers and building connections into some sort of new, elusive and unpredictable thing. The process is wholly tactile – nothing is digital. I like the restrictions that this creates… the hand-cutting and gluing down, the use of only original papers and ephemera. Elements are added or removed, or covered over and reworked. Ideas and narratives may emerge, but often a series is initiated through the acquisition of a certain type of raw material – an old photo album, a stash of old maps, a pile of old postcards…”

To add another dimension and altitude to my final pieces I decided to experiment with overlays and tracing paper. I chose tracing paper over acetate as it gives the image underneath a hazy, unclear, almost forgotten demeanour to it – like the memories I’m reminiscing over that I can barely remember without great brain power and strength.

Starting out, I printed the collages that I had edited on photoshop, and then proceeded to layer tracing paper over the top of each one. Before this I visualised the whole entire photograph and noted the most eye catching elements of each. Using a black ink pen, I carefully traced what was underneath of the tracing paper, often making sure to check that it was lining up with the original print out.

Below are the final outcomes without the original image underneath.