Froissage Collage: Combining Crumpled Paper and Cut Images

Froissage collage brings together the two halves of the crumpled-paper tradition: Ladislav Novák’s drawing from creases and Jiří Kolář’s cutting and reassembling of printed images. Wikipedia goes as far as describing froissage itself as a method of collage. In practice, once you have a crumpled sheet in front of you, glue and scissors are an obvious next step.

This guide explains three approaches, with step-by-step instructions and material tips.

Approach 1: collage on a crumpled ground

The crumpled sheet becomes the background, and cut elements are glued on top.

1. Make a froissage ground: crumple, flatten and wash with ink or watercolour, as in the step-by-step guide.
2. When it is dry, look for a setting in the creases: a mountain range, a sea, a city, a cave.
3. Cut figures, animals or objects from magazines, old books or your own drawings.
4. Arrange them on the ground until the creases and the cut images interact, for example a cut-out climber on a crease that reads as a cliff.
5. Glue them down and press under weight.
6. Add linking marks in pen: shadows, horizon lines, connecting creases.

This approach works well with children because it combines the fun of crumpling with the control of choosing images; see froissage for kids.

Approach 2: crumpled elements on a flat ground

Here the crumpled paper is cut into shapes and placed on a flat background.

1. Make several crumpled sheets in different colours.
2. Cut shapes from them: leaves, rocks, clothing, buildings, abstract forms.
3. Arrange them on a smooth sheet or card.
4. Glue down and press.

The contrast between flat and creased areas makes the crumpled shapes look textured and three-dimensional. Crumpled paper is particularly good for rocks, bark, water and fabric.

Approach 3: crumpled reproductions

This is closest to Kolář’s work. In his technique known as crumplage (in Czech muchláž), a printed reproduction is crumpled, flattened and mounted, so that the creases break up and distort a familiar image. Encyclopaedia Universalis also lists froissages among Kolář’s works of the 1960s, and he often worked with reproductions of older art. Read more in Jiří Kolář’s collage techniques.

To try a version:

1. Choose a printed image: a postcard, a magazine photograph or a printout.
2. Crumple it firmly, then flatten.
3. Optionally wash a transparent colour over it to emphasise the creases.
4. Mount it on card with glue stick or diluted PVA.
5. Consider the result: what survives of the original image, and what new image do the creases suggest?

You can extend this by combining two crumpled reproductions, or by cutting the crumpled image into strips and reassembling it, which nods to Kolář’s rollage.

Use only images you have the right to use if you plan to exhibit or sell the work. For private practice and classroom exercises, old magazines and your own photographs are ideal.

Layering with tissue

Thin tissue paper crumples into very fine creases and becomes translucent when glued. Crumple coloured tissue, open it, then glue it over a drawing or a froissage ground with diluted PVA. The creases catch light and the underlying image shows through. Work gently, because wet tissue tears easily.

Adding other chance textures

Crumpled paper is not the only accidental texture that works in collage. Two Surrealist methods produce sheets that cut up beautifully and sit well next to froissage.

Decalcomania sheets. Press gouache between two sheets of paper and pull them apart, and you get branching, coral-like textures. Cut into shapes, they make convincing rocks, foliage, lichen or animal skins. Óscar Domínguez introduced the technique to the Surrealists in 1936; our guide to the decalcomania art technique explains the method.

Frottage rubbings. A crayon rubbing of wood grain, bark or woven fabric gives a flat, graphic texture that contrasts with the soft relief of crumpled paper. Max Ernst used rubbings as the starting point for imaginary landscapes from 1925; see the frottage art technique for how to make them.

A good exercise is a three-texture collage: one area of froissage, one of decalcomania and one of frottage, combined into a single landscape or creature. Keep the palette limited so the textures, not the colours, do the work, and use a few drawn lines to tie the pieces together. Because the three methods show their origins differently (folds, pressed paint, rubbed relief), the finished collage also works as a small lesson in how chance techniques differ.

Materials

• Grounds: 100-150 gsm drawing paper, card, or heavier watercolour paper.
• Collage papers: magazines, maps, sheet music, old book pages, wrapping paper, tissue.
• Adhesives: glue stick; PVA diluted about 3:1 with water for heavier papers; acid-free adhesives for permanent work.
• Tools: scissors, a craft knife for adults, a brush for glue, a clean cloth or roller for pressing.

See froissage materials for paper weights.

Tips

• Glue less than you think. Excess glue soaks crumpled paper and flattens the texture.
• Press between clean sheets. Glue squeezes out of creases and can stick to your weights.
• Mind permanence. Newspaper and magazine paper are acidic and yellow over time. The Library of Congress recommends keeping acidic papers away from other works on paper.
• Keep the crease network visible. If you cover the ground completely, you lose the froissage.

Where to go next

Collage opens up the whole family of chance-based methods. Explore surrealist art techniques for decalcomania and frottage, or browse crumpled paper art ideas for more projects.