Debasree Dey

Every mixed-media project leaves something behind.

A corner of painted paper.
A torn book page you couldn’t throw away.
Whisper-thin tissue that felt too beautiful to waste.

If you’ve ever ended a session with a pile of leftovers and no clear plan, this post is for you. Today, we’re turning those forgotten fragments into Collage Clusters—small, ready-to-use compositions that bring depth, texture, and meaning to your future work.

After playing with plain coffee dyeing for a while, I found myself longing for more color, but without losing the raw, vintage textures that make coffee‑stained papers so magical. Boiling onion skins for that beautiful reddish tone was lovely—but not always practical. That’s when I thought: What if I just mix a tiny bit of acrylic into the coffee solution itself?And that opened the door to a whole world of earthy, muted, moody shades.

Neutral collage clusters have a quiet way of holding space on a page. They do not ask for attention, yet they draw the eye in—through texture, layering, and subtle contrast. Over time, I found myself creating and collecting many such clusters across my art journals. Some were dense and layered, others sparse and airy. Together,

These days I’m just getting into the mixed media world and learning so much from the many mixed media artists on youtube. One of the things that I find fascinating is creating collage papers using deli/butter/bakery papers. So here I’m sharing some of my creative play ideas with deli papers.

Drip white paint on butter paper
Doodle with needle tip applicator – white
Doodle with needle tip applicator – black
Doodle on a colored background
Light colored abstract background using 2-3 colors
Dark colored abstract background using 2-3 colors
Stamps on blank / colored deli paper (add tissue paper to create faux rice paper)
Stencils on blank / colored deli paper
Thick white texture paste on deli paper using stencils