Grab your scissors and glue! Parnassos is launching a new series of collage-making workshops at the Cultuurcafé very soon. On Wednesday 16 September, the first session will be led by our very own colleague Eva. What exactly can you expect from such a creative afternoon? And where does Eva’s passion for collages come from? She tells us herself.
What exactly is the Collage Café?
The Collage Café is a new series of workshops at Parnassos. During these afternoons, participants gather in the Cultuurcafé, where materials such as scissors, cutting mats and magazines are laid out for them. Here, you can spend a few hours working together on your own or a collaborative collage. Each session has a theme.
During the first session, you can create your own vision board. This is a great opportunity to visualise all your dreams and goals for the new year. You can hand in your vision board at Parnassos at the end of the session. We’ll then send it back to you in a year’s time, so that twelve months later you can see which of your dreams have come true! On Wednesday 16 December, we’ll be making Christmas cards and taking a moment to de-stress during the busy month of December. You can then send your homemade cards straight away via us.
What do you enjoy so much about making a collage?
It’s a very intuitive process that I can really lose myself in. I also really enjoy collecting and organising clippings. At home, I have a filing cabinet with different categories. What’s more, making collages is a lovely, accessible way to get to know new people. When making a vision board, for example, you can brainstorm together about goals and plans.
cutting out
How did the idea for the Collage Café come about?
Making collages is my favourite pastime. I’ve been doing it since I was a child. I’m part of the Utrecht Collage Collective, with whom I also get together to make collages. We once worked at the Cultuurcafé as a collective. The tables were completely covered in paper, and that’s when I realised how lovely it would be to offer this to students here at Parnassos too. Thanks to its lovely atmosphere, our café is the perfect communal studio. Making collages is also very much a trend. More and more collectives are springing up across the Netherlands, and collage meet-ups are often organised in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, for example. That’s why I’m especially delighted to now be able to do this here at Parnassos as well.
Making collages is a lovely, accessible way to get to know new people.
If you were to create a vision board for the coming year, what images or themes would you include on it?
I’d reuse a few of the goals from my previous vision board. Because I suffered a concussion last year, things turned out a bit differently. This year, I definitely want to do at least 50 Rocycle classes. And, of course, make even more collages!
Do you have a favourite collage, image or type of clipping that you keep coming back to?
I prefer to make collages using old magazines from the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, which I hunt for at the charity shop. I find the colours of the print from that era the most beautiful, and the paper is often a bit thicker than it is nowadays. Old issues of National Geographic, for example, are lovely to work with. I keep all the collages I make; I’ve framed and hung up a few of them.
I’ve quite often been asked if my collages are for sale, but I find it hard to part with them. I do, however, plan to start selling prints or originals in due course. In any case, my collages can currently be seen on my Instagram. Recently, I received a DM from the Canadian Kolaj Magazine. They asked me if I’d like to submit a portfolio with text and images for publication in their magazine. A request like that is, of course, a lovely surprise, so I’ll definitely be doing that.
I’ve often been asked if my collages are for sale, but I find it hard to part with them.
Do you need to be creative or have experience making collages to be able to do it?
The great thing about making collages is that it’s really accessible. In principle, anyone can do it and you don’t need any expensive materials. At the Collage Café, you can join in whenever you like: all the materials are already laid out, so you can just sit down and get started. I’ll give examples and tips on how you might turn your ideas into images, but how you do it is entirely up to you.
Why should you definitely not miss the Collage Café?
At the Collage Café, you can enjoy a relaxing afternoon and give free rein to your creativity. It’s also a lovely, informal way to meet new people. As you go about cutting, you’ll come up with new ideas by swapping clippings with others or through the things you come across in magazines. I hope others will enjoy cutting and pasting just as much as I do. Another tip: if you’d like to get to grips with the collage technique more often, you can sign up for the ‘Sketchbook and Experiment’ course at Parnassos.