And then Shana had a bright idea. Travel brochures! Think of all those endless blue skies, beaches — oh yes, and the thousands of identical hotels.

Well, at least it’d be a refreshing change from making collages full of toasters and patio furniture, I thought.

Today, however, the Kirker Holidays brochure arrived. and I looked at all the wonderful watercolour illustrations, and, frankly, I just couldn’t bring myself to start cutting bits out of it.

Kirker Holidays do luxury short breaks ‘for discerning travellers’, you know. Discerning travellers: that’s what we’d be, I guess — if we had a few quid and a couple of passports to rub together. But we haven’t, so we’ll have to settle for being discerning droolers instead. I’m not sure who the watercolour artist is but I’ll update this post if I find out.

[Disclaimer: In case you we're wondering, no, we're not being paid to advertise Kircher Holidays. However, if they're sending their in-house watercolour artist off on a world tour any time soon and he or she needs someone to carry their paintbrushes, we can be very helpful if we're asked nicely ]

This piece is called ‘Any old iron’. Iron is referenced in three different ways: firstly by part of the periodic table; secondly by the steam iron; and thirdly — and this is something that might be noticed only by those with truly artistic sensibilities — by the playful use of materials, viz. a scrunched and flattened portion of aluminum foil, which gives this work a more tactile texture and alludes to the act of ironing, i.e., pressing clothes. The question is, will that pink iron ever manage to smooth out the rough surface of the foil, or are my collage creases destined to become permanent?

Here, a close up section of the original work shows how an altered books technique has been used to create a surreal sentence. Snorkelling round the raspberries! Whatever next? Jacques Cousteau would be horrified.

Here are a couple of recent experiments in collage what I have done. Notice the daring use of materials in the first example, most notably sandpaper used to represent hills and valleys. Symbolically (and less charitable readers probably think this is all a load of symbolics) this hints at how those who live and work in the countryside have to take the rough with the smooth. Can you guess who the handsome chappie on the gingham tractor is?

[Did I just write 'gingham tractor'? Oh, blimey!]

In the second example, I have again, as the great Frida Kahlo often did, decided to use a self portrait. The daredevil rocking horse rider is none other than…ME! I was five years old at the time. Sadly, I have gained a few pounds in weight since those days.

The sheriff’s star was cut from the bottom of a pie tray. I’ll leave it up to you to figure out the what the symbolic meaning of that might be.