Decoupage calls

Every few months I feel the call to craft.  I was taught by my mother and grandma almost every craft know to womankind.  However, I never called any specific craft my own.

That may have changed.

I find myself drawn to decoupage.  Why?  Because there is no correct/right/expected way to do it.  Each time I tear paper, mangle magazines, glue photos, cut quotes I am forging a new road, a different path from all those crafters who have patterned before me.

I cull images from the past to apply in an unexpected way to unsuspecting items.  Whether it’s a piece of deconstructed house ( a wall panel that is unloved and dated), an old lunchbox or an apartment bathroom- I am making a conscious /semi-conscious decision to place this photo/image/word/note/color/joke/item/ in new configurations.

I am the master of all I survey. I am the Empress of the Universe. I am also the designer of a new view of reality; an altered perspective, a shift in the visual paradigm of my world.  The prankster called Loki seeing humor in placing a magazine ad for vacations next to a1960's landing on the moon.  I take pleasure in having two cars run into each other in the corner of the room,a toilet paper ad from the 1950's next to the commode, smoking ads adjacent to the smiling healthy smile of a baby, deodorant, toothpaste, and a WWII bombing article next to the bathroom sink . Ahh, the giggle I get when putting a Oscar Wilde quote about women next to an ad for tatoo’ing or a Jane Austen line next to a photo of Lil' Abner.  Maps with mixed up photos of far-away places as the back drop to items for sale in our antiquing booth - Neferttiti in front of Kansas, camels in front of Bali, English teapots in front of India's Taj Mahal.  An oak leaf attached to a box w/ gold leafing and then lavished w/ silver sheen.  A photo layered over other photos and scanned to make tags for old paper goods.  All ways for me to express my iner tumoil, my humor, my jouyeau de vive.

I began w/ a little cardboard box, trying out my fledgling  skills.  Afraid that I would make a mistake, unsure how it would be received if I were to allow it to be seen.  Half way finished I set it aside.  Life was overwhelming and it seemed a burden.  More important than it should be; this insignificant box, it sat, untended, unmentioned, unseen by others for more than a year.  Sold at a yard sale for a pittance, reaffirming my need to be un – undone, unnoticed, unfinished, underwhelmed.

Next, I saw an opportunity to express my turmoil where only family and friends would be able to critique my view of reality.  I took a box of old magazines and newspapers I had collected over a 6 months.  I chose to  decorate the small studio space above our garage. It has 1950’s “pepto bismal “ pink floors splotched w/ color. (read: bubble gum pink w/ drops of cream, teal, black, charcoal, jadite) This seemed like a fun way to balance out the intensity of the floor and wall colors I chose.  I wanted to make the visitor’s neck snap backwards when they entered.  It worked.  Males walk in and say “What the heck were you thinking?”  Females coo.

While not a quick process, it was life altering.  I cut and glued and cut and glued.  When I was up there above the noise of my life I sighed, I relaxed, I prayed, I rested.

  I also bribed friends to cut paper with me.  (There were lots of pictures to be carefully cut.)  We gossiped, we commiserated about life, we bonded, and we laughed.  While I glued it all on the walls – I listened to music that soothed me, woke the inner humorist, and roused my creativity.  I spoke to God about how life was tiring me, how my family was needing assistance, about our friends who couldn’t see his hand in their needs.  I heard his reassurance; I saw his care for my heart’s needs.  I was rejuvenated.

The Bubble Gum bathroom wall:  

The kitchenette – all food/dining/kitchen connected

Skipping  a few overwhelming “times” forward I now found myself craving a craft fix again.  Not for me the little box, the small corkboard or lunchbox.  Not for now the room unseen by others.  No, now it was time to decoupage myself in public.  The October Expo Antique show in Portland was my “coming out party.”  Our booth was 10’x20’ and I decoupaged 5 wall panels and placed them behind our shelving.

The booth panels before we set up the October show

The panels after we loaded the shelves with merchandise

I wasn’t sure if the panels would be too busy behind all the various antiques.  Some items JUMPED forward craving attention from passing customers.  Other items shrunk back afraid of being noticed amongst the noise of images.  Customers had mixed reactions.  While some were noticeably taken aback by the visual impact, others commended me and made “wise purchases of treasures” from our booth.  (side note: one week later I noticed a newly decoupaged wall in our local antique shop- just sayin’)

Next?

I am collecting and collating the scraps I’ve located. I will cover a piece of furniture with the past so another lover of history can go into the future with a giggle.