Vintage Book Collage
with Hollie Chastain

Carla Sonheim Presents: Hollie Chastain

Do you have a collection of old books that are ready for a new life? In this fun class Hollie Chastain shows us how to take a vintage book—preferably one with some markings already embedded in the covers somehow—and turn it into a story, shrine or abstract design using a whole bunch of mixed-media techniques including paper weaving, embroidery, paper scaling and cutting, and more. – Carla

Vintage Book Collage
Instructor: Hollie Chastain
Class Dates: March 17-26, 2026
5 Lessons • USD 59 / EUR 65

This class includes:

• 5 video lessons + Overview lesson with materials video;
• Unlimited access to all the teaching materials of this class;
• You can watch this class from your computer, but also from your tablet or phone. So you can also take this course while on holiday!
• Access to the class forum
• Forever access;
• The video lessons are pre-recorded and will be available to view on the following schedule: see below on this page. The overview lesson with the materials video will be available immediately on signup so that you can prepare for this class.

This class is only available for customers
outside United States & Canada

If you live in The United States or Canada, please visit www.carlasonheim.com to purchase this class

Price:
USD 59 (Outside EU)
EUR 65 (EU incl VAT)

Class Itinerary

The video lessons are pre-recorded and will be available to view on the following schedule:

Lesson 0 – Upon Signup

Lesson 1 – Tuesday, March 17
Lesson 2 – Wednesday, March 18
Lesson 3  – Friday, March 20

Lesson 4   – Tuesday, March 24
Lesson 5 – Thursday, March 26

Here is some of Hollie’s collage work utilizing vintage book covers as a substrate/main event:

And here are some samples from the show she referenced in the video:

And here are samples of what we’ll be working on in this class (with techniques of shaping, embroidering, paper cutting, scaling and mounting):

Supplies Needed

For the supplies list of this class, click the ‘Materials’ tab on top of this page.

Lesson 0

Sourcing your books! This video is available to you upon signup and we’ll talk about how to source your vintage books, and what to look for in your books for best success.

Lesson 1

We’ll begin by carefully disassembling our book choice(s) and talk through what that might look like depending on the state of your book. The design of our decorative book edge will be planned and cut away so we can begin to see the shape of our piece.

Lesson 2

For Lesson 2, we’ll start adding in compositional details through embroidery. You will use your pencil to plan out the lines and shapes you can then stitch directly into your book cover. We will also make a woven paper element to include in your piece in a later lesson.

Lesson 3

It’s all about the spine! Again, we have a few options to accentuate the inner spine of your book and will work on embroidery and/or a wooden veneer technique perfect for this use and many more.

Lesson 4

The hero of the collage story—paper—makes its appearance. We’ll chat about cut shapes and color and, in addition to gluing, will also be using thick tape or another spacer to create some lift and shadow on the surface of your piece.

Lesson 5

In our final class we will focus on those last surface details (mainly paint and paper additions) that pull a piece together. Then we’ll do the final assembly and talk about framing options!

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