Hello! I’m Wendy Solganik, aka @willa.wanders on Instagram. If this is your first time here on my blog, welcome! I’m pretty excited that you found me and my little corner of the art world.

I’ve done a bazillion kinds of art in my life, and the thing that intrigues me the most today is Mixed Media Collage Art.

I’m such a passionate student of this form of art and I’m obsessed with making and using collage fodder (what the heck is collage fodder?).

I really want to learn everything I can about it. I created an entire online art school called Fodder School where anyone with an interest in Mixed Media Art collage art, handmade books and journaling can come and learn this craft from a variety of incredible instructors, even if you have never made any mixed media art before! At this point, Fodder School is about to enter its fourth year with no intention of slowing down.

If you are looking for a great place to start your mixed media art journey from scratch, can I recommend this $19 course?

In this blog series, I’m going to be introducing you to the instructors that will be joining us in Fodder School as Fodder School 4 instructors. If you want to know all about what Fodder School is, go here.

Arlyna Blanchard is a lifelong artist who has always been into painting and anything art-related since she was young. She went to study Chinese painting and calligraphy in Tianjin when China was just starting to open its doors to the outside world, and later followed her passion into her career as a graphic designer and entrepreneur. Arlyna fell in love with her country’s history and culture, which inspires her personal artworks to this day.

Arlyna enjoys documenting her life in Shanghai through urban sketching and journaling. Her art journals serve as her free space to create freely and expressively and a respite from the hustle and bustle of life with twin teens. During her free time, she's a knitter, crocheter, sewist, scrapbooker, art journaler, urban sketcher, gardener, watercolor painter, wanderlust, calligrapher, Postcrossing ambassador, teacher… "yes, I’m a hobbyist!"

Both of Arlyna's projects in Fodder Challenge and Fodder School lean into appreciating all of the small bits and bobs that accumulate when you make collage fodder. I love teaching styles like hers because she encourages you to appreciate what someone else might toss without a thought, and teaches you how to turn it into magic.

In her Fodder Challenge 2025 project, you will be shown how to make a lot of adorable Fodder Clusters. While the scraps you choose are up to you, Arlyna will expertly show you MANY different ways you can attach and fasten your clusters together. You'll be sure to find a technique that suits your style! Once you have these clusters, you can attach them to a journal cover, use them as tags, or anything else you could add a little texture to.

In Fodder School 5, Arlyna continues with her "several smaller components teaming up" approach as you will learn how to make a fun, interactive "Fodderdex". This is the perfect way to explore and display all the techniques you'll learn with Arlyna so that you can quickly reference them in your future mixed media endeavors!

Arlyna will be our first Fodder School 5 teacher in November, and ironically, her lesson month will break the established release structure that we've followed for so long. Instead of dropping lessons on the first and 15th of the month, Every few days, she will be dropping another set of lessons on different types of cards for your Fodderdex. Techniques include, but aren't limited to: embossing, origami, sewing, "floral arrangement", and lamination (alongside many other staple Mixed Media techniques).

If you think that you aren't capable of creating incredible mixed media art like what you see here, you haven't been to Fodder School yet! We make it accessible. We make it effortless. We make it incredibly FUN!

check out fodder school 5