How to properly dry plants for the terra technique. Beautiful volumetric panels using the “terra” technique, MK

Most interesting technique in a collage it is terra.
Translated as "terra" - earth. In it broad concept includes work performed using the technique of sand, peat, clay, ordinary soil, gypsum, putty and cement, as well as plant materials. All these derivatives are mixed with adhesives.

Materials:
1) The use of sand gives a very unusual effect - graininess in the work. The main requirement for sand is sifting. You can buy ready-made floral sand or sift the gravel yourself.
2) PVA glue binds the particles of the mixture and the base of the collage.
3) Water-soluble paints - gouache - do not dry very quickly, they lose saturation when drying. Acrylic paints dry quickly. Color dyes are the most economical option if you make a lot of collages. You need to buy primary colors (red, yellow, blue, black) and mix them together. Spray paint can be used for express painting.
4) Peat briquettes for seedlings provide natural look, naturalness. Mix with PVA and water.
5) The clay is soaked in water in advance. You can use terracotta or blue clay. When applied in a thick layer, clay cracks; this effect can be created deliberately. To prevent cracks, the clay layer is covered with PVA and water. Color the clay with sprays, paint using cotton swabs or a sponge.
6) Natural plaster or alabaster.
7) Putty - the most required material in a collage. The most recommended putty is MAXI from SADOLINI (in buckets), do not take it in tubes or MINI. Decorative plasters are from the German company Reibeputz, and Polish ones are from Capacol. The particle size is better than 1.5, sometimes 2.5. A base primer is required, which facilitates adhesion to the base.
8) Hardboard - wooden base with a mesh grid (scratch the mesh with a nail). Apply PVA glue 9 hours before work and leave to dry. Hardboard will not get very wet and warp. Any base needs to be primed before work.
9) Plant material - flat-dried dry leaves and flowers, branches and driftwood, shells and starfish, mesh and other materials. Before work, soak dry materials with water for greater plasticity and flexibility.
10) Water sprayer
11) Bristle brushes for painting collage, wide paint brush
12) Spatula
13) Rags

Working method:
1. Prepare the surface of the base in advance. For a sea collage - hardboard 50*50 cm. Thick hardboard is better than thin one.
2. Spray the hardboard with water on both sides. Spray constantly while working.
3. Mix putty and sifted sand (1:1), PVA glue (3-4 tbsp) and dye. The base color should be neither light nor dark.
4. Apply the mixture to a damp surface, using a paint brush, spread the mixture from the center to the edges. Wipe the edges of the ogralite with a wet rag. The center and edges of the collage may differ in the color of the mass.
5. Place the wet material into the mixture, press it in, and paint a little on top with a brush. Place shells and stars on top, press in as well, and paint with mixture. Place the material in compliance with the law of grouping.
6. Leave the collage to dry or dry the surface with a hairdryer.
7. Determine the direction of light on the collage (you can put a table lamp), draw shadows with a semi-dry bristle brush. Using a wide dry brush, apply white on the side opposite to the shadows.

Workshop "terra" - collage.

Creating a "terra" collage with your own hands.

Five homemade plaster and putty boards are reinforced with cotton fabric, decorated on both sides and connected to each other in a box with a leather cord. Box size 20cmx15cmx15cm.
Materials: building gypsum, water-dispersion putty, black acrylic paint, dark silver, light silver, white, burlap, inflorescences and leaves of astilbe, sedge, chrysanthemums, hydrangeas; clematis boxes, hazelnut, ornamental sedge roots, melon seeds, elements of a Vietnamese curtain (apparently bamboo), semolina, dragonflies and butterflies (decorative elements on a self-adhesive basis), birds.

(Part II).

First my brain started boiling!!! Because we had to figure out how to fasten the boards together? It will not be possible to glue them together, because... they are very thin! I decided that I would tie them together somehow! How? I'll think about it later, but in order to knit them later, I need to make holes.
So, first, I sawed the boards with a hacksaw so that one of them turned out to be the bottom, and the rest - the walls. But since I still “disposed” of the hamster supplies so that a minimum of material remained for further storage, the walls turned out different heights! Well, okay, then I’ll figure out how best to adapt these different sizes! I cut more small squares - like legs for my organizer.
Then I drilled holes one from the other at an equal distance: at the bottom along the entire perimeter, at the walls on three sides, stepping back from the edge a couple of centimeters.

Then I glued burlap onto all the boards on both sides with PVA glue, spreading it out a little at the edges. When gluing the burlap, I tried to move the threads apart so that they did not obscure the drilled holes.

Next, what will be inside the organizer was decorated on top with butterflies and dragonflies on self-adhesive tape, melon seeds and elements from a Vietnamese curtain (probably bamboo).

These elements (rings) were too big for me, so I soaked them for a while in warm water, and then braided them raw the way I needed them, then dried them. This spiral was made like this: I wound the loose and damp “bamboo” around a pencil along its entire length, secured it with threads and dried it. I pasted it for a Super moment.

I kept putting off the moment when I would have to start TERRA directly! It was very exciting to get started, however!!!
So, I found time so that no one and nothing would bother me, surrounded myself with all sorts of “tops” and began to get wise! First, I estimated my drawing on each side and decided where it would be placed. I applied a not very thick layer of a mixture of putty (1 cup), PVA glue (1/2 cup) and sifted, washed and dried river sand (2 tablespoons) to the approximate location of the compositions. At the same time, I used a spatula to rub the edge of the stain and, as it were, reduce it to nothing, so that later the putty would not stand out against the background of the burlap. Next, on the still damp putty, I placed the elements of my compositions and pressed them a little with my fingers so that they would sink a little into the putty. I waited for all this mess to dry completely. I was most worried about the hydrangea, it’s too tender! But it’s okay, I got stuck like a native! It even looks like a hydrangea!
Now I had to try the very process of “smearing”, as I understood it. I put a little putty (mixture) on a flat brush (bristles) and, as it were, painted my “herbariums” on top, ultimately making sure that they and the background looked like a single whole, and not separately glued elements. At the same time, she depicted something with all sorts of different ways along the edges of the background so that it is not flat and boring. I was satisfied with the intermediate result: all the elements were decently legible, remained convex and, importantly, rigid, like a thin shell! Hydrangea also passed the “smearing” test and remained similar to hydrangea: so airy. Then I ruined everything, but about this sad moment - very soon!

All this time I wasn’t just creating! I was painfully wondering how I should connect my future structure? I decided that I would join it with linen twine - which means it all should look in eco style - which means I’ll smear it with bitumen! Although all my experiments with bitumen ended in complete failure, I still decided to take a risk and went to paint my boards with white acrylic.

Thank God that although I didn’t paint the inner sides with butterflies, I was just fiddling with the bitumen late at night. I waited until the white acrylic dried, coated the top with acrylic varnish, that too dried, and then I smeared it all with bitumen. After a couple of hours, I went over the boards with a cloth soaked in white spirit, highlighting the bulges. It turned out to be the creepiest!!! Universal dirt! The result was the texture of a dirty, sometimes smoky bone, on which some dirty grass had stuck! I didn’t even take a photo of this disgrace! In the morning I finished washing off the bitumen, but it had already floated into all the cracks, from which I could no longer pick it out! But the main thing is that the airiness in the herbs has gone, they have become thick sticks, and the hydrangea has become some kind of shapeless piece of I don’t know what! But I had to paint it all with another layer of black paint! Which is exactly what I did this morning!
Why did I decide to paint it black? Because there was no time to reinvent the wheel, and I followed the beaten path: on a black background - lightening from dark silver to white. A kind of imitation silver that has never let me down!
Each board was covered with black acrylic on both sides. Then I went over it with a sponge using slightly dark silver, then to make the relief stand out even more, I tinted everything with light silver, and the most protruding parts with white acrylic.

What happened with inside future organizer, I really liked it: the burlap “lay down” beautifully, the butterflies and dragonflies.

But from the front side everything looked very rough! As they say: feel the difference! To somehow correct the situation, I had to pick up my favorite circuit white and walk it very subtly both along the “herbariums” and along the edges of the burlap - to make everything more elegant! Well, in general: what has grown has grown!!!

Now we had to figure out how to fasten the structure! I went to the store and bought black and white leather cord. The process of threading the cord into the holes, which after many layers of paint have shrunk in size, is a separate story! I spent more time on it than on the entire decorating process! But the design turned out to be surprisingly strong, and the lace fit like order! Two birds were taken from the hamster supplies, and I lightly brushed their feathers with black acrylic so that they matched the overall color scheme! They were the ones who delighted my child when I came to him with finished work and with the question: “Well, how?” The child exclaimed: “Cool birds!” Everything else turned out to be just a background for the birds!!! That's it!!!

For those who are interested, a separate description of what the herbariums were actually compiled from:
1. At the bottom right is a hazelnut, around it are three clematis boxes (I found out that over time they fluff up like cotton and become like lumps of cotton wool), inflorescences of astilbe and sedge.

2. Astilbe inflorescences, chrysanthemum flower with partially flowing leaves, astilbe leaf.

3. Sedge leaves, astilbe inflorescences, hydrangea bouquet.

4. Leaves and inflorescences of sedge, tubers of garden sedge, chrysanthemum flower (the leaves were preserved), astilbe inflorescence.

5. This is the bottom: on the legs are some elements found in a bag with dragonflies, there were 4 of them, but my hand didn’t raise itself to throw them away, I glued them for shock absorption.

Terra collage with your own hands. Master class with step-by-step photos

Floral collage “Orange mood” using the “terra” technique. Master class with step by step photos.

Floral collage has such an arsenal expressive means, so many techniques and creative techniques that, perhaps, no other species has visual arts.
Many people probably still have dried flowers, twigs, seeds of various plants, shells and acorns, eggshell and many other little things that at first glance seem unnecessary. Don't rush to throw them away. Try making a collage using the terra technique.
Terra (from Latin terra - earth) The founder is an artist and florist from Germany - Friedhelm Raffel.
Compositions in the “terra” style are made using collage techniques. Much that is perceived as trash in everyday life has a place in collages. The charm of the “terra” technique lies in its ambiguity. With its help you can reproduce volume, depth, color, play of light and shadow, and variety of texture. There are many things that connect terra collage with painting. A color tone is applied to the dried solution. Tone is the main color of the entire composition or any part of it.
Collages are usually heavy, so you need to choose a thick base. The most suitable paints are gouache and acrylic paint.
Only dry plants can be included in the collage. You can’t dry it under pressure, as the plants and leaves lose their shape and volume. Therefore, air dry the plant material. Bizarre shapes will even be to your advantage.
Working in this technique, immersing yourself in the solution, laying out simple compositions, it’s as if you turn into a wizard who has control over all the elements.

Gouache paints,
glossy varnish,
a patch for mixing the solution,
PVA glue,
brushes,
putty knife,
sponge,
leg-split,
dried flowers (at your discretion),
orange peels,
pine nuts (can be replaced with others),
sesal fiber.
Manufacturing process:

If you have leftovers from children's crafts - dry branches, leaves and plants, fruits, shells, acorns, fragments of porcelain and glass - this does not mean that they should be thrown away. You are simply not familiar with the Terra technique. Collages from natural materials will help create a special atmosphere of comfort in your home.

Compositions in the “terra” style are made using collage techniques. Much that is perceived as trash in everyday life has a place in collages. Objects that seem uninteresting in themselves, when built into the work, become part of a kind of mystery, game, performance in which they are assigned a significant role. The charm of the “terra” technique lies in its ambiguity. With its help you can reproduce volume, depth, color, play of light and shadow, and variety of texture. There are many things that connect terra collage with painting. A color tone is applied to the dried solution. Tone is the main color of the entire composition or any part of it.

Great importance in collages, “terra” is given to texture: the nature of the surface, the method of processing.

To work you will need a container for mixing the solution, a spray bottle for wetting, a spatula, latex gloves for work, a palette for diluting paints, brushes for applying paint. Painting brushes with artificial bristles of sizes 20, 20, 58 mm are used to paint the background; with art brushes from sizes 2 to 12, details and small fragments of compositions are painted.

You will also need an awl, wire, paper clips, scissors, and pliers. Of course, you will have to use various “garbage”, the choice of which will depend on your vision of the picture. It could be dried leaves, scraps of paper, a piece of glass, a shell, a button, a ribbon, or a string. It’s even difficult to predict what can be used in a creative impulse.

Collages are usually heavy, so you need to choose a thick base. Of the paints, gouache is the most suitable.

Only dry plants can be included in the collage. You can’t dry it under pressure, as the plants and leaves lose their shape and volume. Therefore, air dry the plant material. Bizarre shapes will even be to your advantage.

Light materials are attached with a solution, heavy materials: nuts, cones, chestnuts, acorns are tied with thin wire (it is advisable to purchase floral wire).

When composing compositions experienced artists They even use insects. Dried, of course. For these purposes you will need entomological pins. Regular needles and pins are not suitable. It is easier to use rag insects in your work.

Beads are used in a bunch, since individual peas will be “lost” in the plot.

Material such as fabric is rich in its expressiveness.

Background making technique

The main techniques are grattage, fottage and decalcomania.

Scratching is a way to “translate” the pattern of any surface - wood, metal, textured glass: randomly rolled strings, etc. - onto canvas. Having spread the canvas over the object, you need to apply paint to it - and the texture of the material will be imprinted on the base. The resulting abstract drawing gives clues to the plot or theme of the future painting. The artist completes a random pattern in accordance with his associations.

The decalcomania technique is used in a similar way. The paint is poured onto a sheet of paper, covered with a second sheet on top, and then separated. Peering at the abstract drawing printed on paper, you can see figures, landscapes, and images.

Frottage is another way of making a print. Paper is placed on a textured surface rubbed with graphite and an imprint is obtained on it that repeats the texture pattern. The techniques described for creating backgrounds are used in many floral collages. For example, plant materials are glued onto a base created by the decalcomania method, forming a panel that is harmonious in color.

Otherwise, a background is created in “terra” collages. The base used is not fabric, paper or glass, but a sheet of fairly heavy building material(hardboard, plywood, etc.). The working solution is applied to it. You can apply the solution either with a spatula or with your hands, either in a fairly thick layer or in a thin one.

Distribution feature additional material in collages, “terra” is that it is not pasted on or secured with special devices, but is “smeared” into the solution, introduced into the background. After this, the excess solution is carefully cleaned off and the collage dries.

Basic work techniques

Modeling technique involves working with the solution itself, creating shapes and objects with your hands, without additional material.

The base solution is characterized by plasticity, which allows you to create volumetric images. Additional portions of the solution are applied to the applied base and the intended shape is formed.

When composing compositions various plants are used: leaves, flowers, bark, branches, berries, etc. In “terra” collages natural material does not stick to the base, but is fixed with a solution. You need to work with natural elements very carefully in order to preserve the texture of a leaf or flower, since the solution hides the relief of the material. If you fill them with solution, the work will become poorer and lose its expressiveness and liveliness. Therefore, they use the indentation technique, which requires special care, thoroughness, and experience.

Interesting patterns, textures, reliefs are easy to create using impression technique. A variety of solid materials that can be fixed by pressing into the solution are suitable: and pasta, and dry berries, cereals, seeds, and beans. Since this material contains moisture or easily absorbs it from a wet base, after drying it easily falls out, leaving a very interesting relief pattern.

Frames with complex relief are suitable for “terra” collages. At the same time, the baguette should not distract from the work itself; rather, it should emphasize the merits and individuality of the composition.

Collage gallery

We have touched upon only a small part of the basics of making collages using the terra technique. But this, at first, is quite enough to evaluate new technology. Then it's up to you. Try, experiment, search.