Decoupaging

Decoupage—from the French word découper, meaning to cut out—is a craft or art form that entails pasting cut-outs to an object and then covering them with several coats of varnish or lacquer. Up to 40 coats of varnish used to be applied as the greater the depth of varnish then the more integrated and authentic the images look. Normal papers can be used, even news paper. However the thinner the paper the more it will look like it was hand painted onto the object. Specialist papers can be purchased for this but you can also use papers such as patterned paper napkins or tissue papers.

On the above unit I used a high quality wrapping paper which was fairly heavy. I then applied about six coats of water based varnish.

The technique is very simple. Here I began by preparing the unit with an antique paint finish. The instructions for this can be found on our shop website
                                   http://www.iekoenvironments.co.uk/special-finishes/

Then first make sure that you have planned out where the papers will go. Avoid overlapping if possible as the ridges will look ugly and spoil the effect.

Below is how to acheive the decoupage effect:

Paste the back of the paper and leave to stand for 5mins to stretch. Add more glue if it has dried too much. Smooth down in place, making sure that you remove any bubbles as you stick.

When you have completed your decoupage and it has dried then it's time to apply the varnish. The more varnish you apply the more integrated and authentic the images will look. Tradition has been to use up to 40 coats but this is rather excessive. I used just 6 coats here which was enough.

Do natural paints work and why use them?

I started using natural paint after a long period of using conventional paints and them making me feel ill. I would constantly have mild and often not so mild flue like symptoms, sore throats, aching muscles and feeling exhausted. I was also often getting depressed in the day for no apparent reason and also often confused to the extent that I didn't think it safe to be driving. It came to a head when I almost backed my van into a clients lake, only to be winched out by a local farmer and then almost doing it again. I thought then enough!

So what to do? I knew next to nothing about natural none toxic paints and was very suspicious about whether they could match the performance of chemical based paints. I had this vision of hippies mixing up this stuff from liquidised vegetable matter and used chip oil into old peanut butter pots in garages across the nation. Not that I have anything against hippies, having had a stint of that myself in the 70's but the concern was 'would these paints get the job done?'.

So I experimented and at first found out a number of things. Firstly, that some paints claiming to be natural and none toxic -and even organic, were nothing of the kind! Also that some of them had a lovely aroma of natural oils when you opened the can but when you applied them to walls were so overpowering that it became very unpleasant. Also it was costing me so much and taking so long to order them online that I was despairing.

A friend (thanks Jayne) then told me of a shop in Forest Row that stocked this fabulous paint called Earthborn. I started to use it and have never looked back. I threw out all of my horrible smelling clothes and dust sheets (even after washing the smell of chemicals pervaded) and started anew. It really was like my life had changed. Painting became a rewarding experience again and no ill health! Where as before I had come home feeling exhausted, getting showered and changing immediately, now I had my energy back, didn't have that constant smell around me and loved it. I've since found out that all of the symptoms I had experienced whilst painting with petrochemical paints had been distinguished in various studies as being dementia like in experience and that these symptoms were even named in a study in Holland as Dutch Painters Syndrome.

I have also since discovered that the dangers of modern paints not only apply to our health but also to the environment and damage our homes.

So do they work? Yes!!! Earthborn's clay paint has the best coverage of any paint I have ever used, looks beautiful in a way that just can't be matched by conventional paints and is a joy to apply. The water based eggshell is the most durable paint I have ever come across and therefore ideal for painting kitchen units.There are also lots of other natural products that match or surpass the performance of their toxic equivalents.

We will be exploring in this blog how to use them and how to apply special effects to your furniture and walls and give your home a beautiful toxin free look. It's easy and so rewarding!