The Fine Art Of Plastering

I spent my summer holidays kneeled on a tarpaulin, wearing glue-coated rubber gloves and a mask. All the while I could hear my family splashing in the pool. But I persisted with the thin pages and enough runny glue to give anyone a bit of a high, closed in their bedroom.

This was artistic transformation. An art from of decorating created by pasting cut-outs on an object and coating it in layers of lacquer or clear varnish. Decoupage is one of the easiest and oldest forms of decorating. It is thought to originate from the Chinese and Japanese, who in the 12^th century were using paper cut-outs to embellish windows, lanterns and other objects. In the 17^th century, oriental lacquered furniture became very popular in Europe and the fashion began.

I’m avid reader, I love my books and I was so bored with my plain white bookshelf I couldn’t handle it anymore. So why not take a chance, use a bit of spare change and cover it with the pages of my favourite book, The Hobbit? After spending $14 on two secondhand copies of the novel, and $25 on a litre of glue, I buckled down to work. Before long Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf were very present in my bedroom.

The process:

1. Cover your work area with painting sheets, tarpaulin or newspaper.

2. Chose an area of the object to start with and brush on a thin layer of glue.

3. Press the cut out onto the object, make sure there are no bubbles and it is securely glued down.

4. Tessellate the cut outs, ensuring there are no bare sections and cover the entire object.

5. Brush a layer of glue over the top and let it dry.

6. Apply another four or five layers of glue, waiting for it to completely dry between each layer.

Decoupage is terribly easy and because there are no rules, the possibilities are endless. You could have your own original piece of furniture within a few days of hard work.

And who needs to wait for the movie when the words of Tolkien can be shared as art?