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Welcome
The Decoupage Guild of Queensland meets 5
times a year at Chermside Library. If you are interested in seeing what we do
these days, why not drop in one day and meet us. For more information phone
Di Loxton our President on 07 3351 2640 or Barbara Chapple
on 07 3359 8937. Snippets, our
newsletter (now online at this website too), is sent to members approximately
2 weeks before the meetings. Our meetings are fun and fairly informal where
we mostly show each other what we've been working on, ask advice on problems,
and share tips we've happened across. From time to time we invite speakers to
give talks. We also organise special events and take part in regional
festivals and expos. Recently we have held some very successful weekend
workshops where we've had a lot of fun while learning more than you could
ever imagine about decoupage. A brief history of decoupage
Around about 1750, people living in Venice
started doing what was then known as 'lacca povera', or poor man's art. It happened after the
beautiful lacquer work from the East had become so popular, but that was very
expensive, having been shipped from so far away. Printers produced sheets of
engravings to be used in 'lacca povera'
These were then hand coloured,cut and pasted on to
furniture and varnished to look like the high gloss of lacquer. The popularity of 'lacca
povera' spread to other Italian cities and then
throughout Europe. The name Decoupage was given by the French. It comes from
the word 'decouper' which means 'to cut'. There
have been many famous people who have been keen Decoupage exponents. It is
said that no pictures were safe from Marie Antoinette and her ladies'
scissors. Mary Delany, an English lady, cut perfect replicas of flowers from
specially made coloured papers to use in her work. Queen Victoria loved the art
of Decoupage and became quite a collector. Unfortunately, the popularity of doing
Decoupage has faded over time. Venice, where it all began, has not produced
very much since the time of Napoleon. It ceased in France about the time of
the French Revolution, and in England it was the outbreak of the first World
War which changed everything. These days we do not use varnish as they did
many years ago. We have adapted to using more modern materials. New finishes
which do not alter the colour of our images have been a boon. Though we,
mostly, take our pictures from other people's art, we rearrange it to create
a totally different effect. Sometimes we use images from several different
sources on the one piece. Laser copying has been a great help to us. At least
we do not have to cut up everything in sight. Decoupage Committee for 2012
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