Decoupage Workshop With 50 Young

I have always been interested in decoupage art. It is very simple to make, all it requires is patience and innovation. The best part is that we can use almost any thing, tissue paper, greeting cards, fabric, magazine clippings, newspaper, photographs, etc. All you need to do is to cut, paste and then cover with several coats of varnish or lacquer. Some of the decoupage work that I have done in the past……

Lately I attended a decoupage workshop to get into the groove and re-hone my creative skills. 50-young group had organised the decoupage workshop and Sangeeta Pardeshi was our mentor.

All the things that were required for this session on decoupage were neatly assembled on the table. Colorful tissue paper, glue, sponge, sandpaper, Mod fudge, latex white paint and wooden pencil holder.

We started by painting the wooden pencil holder with latex white paint and kept it for drying.

The printed tissue paper was a special kind and it had three layers. We separated the three layers, discarded the plane ones and worked on printed layer only. The border had to be torn off. Tearing the paper is better than cutting, the rough edges of the tissue blends easily with the back ground.

For 3d work that I had work on some time back, a very sharp scissors was used to cut the prints separately, the white edges were painted black before I could use it. Three layers of same print were placed one over the other to give depth by folding the second and third layer. (well that is for advance work)

Coming back, the three layers of tissue paper were separated, and the colorful printed top layer was used for the project.

Working slowly, we applied glue to the white pencil holder (that we had painted earlier)…stuck the tissue paper with the brush and applied glue neatly (inside and outside of tissue) in one direction only over the print. Care must be taken to avoid crease and to iron out the bubble (if any). Left it to dry

To give the gloss, it was covered with few layers of ModPodge, drying each layer before applying the next coat.

Sandpaper is used to smoothen the rough edges and give a good finish.

The decoupage session was of two hours, but time just tick by. There was a lucky draw and I won one more article.

I was excited to share this art with my friends. We met over lunch at friend’s home and then sat down to work on making more things.

It was an enjoyable evening creating designs on drinking glasses.

There are many videos on decoupage available on line. If you seriously want to practise this art, you could watch tutorials on U-tube. One link that clearly explains this art, gives step by step tutorials. Do visit it at http://www.wikihow.com/Decoupage

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100 Happy Days: Day 13 Chopping Veggies

Happiness is ‘Chopping vegetables the way you wish’.

Chopping Vegetables is a skill and an enjoyable activity. I can never understand why people depend on helpers to do this task. Some even dump their veggies into the food processor to get the quick results. Okay, I agree, I do that too sometimes. But chopping vegetables is an art. The act of slicing through the soft flesh with sharp knife, and getting the sweet fragrance of the veggies is a pure joy.

There are different ways to chop vegetables. When you wish to make Chinese fried rice, veggies should be chopped very fine and slant wise. When cooking for noodles, it needs to be chopped lengthwise. For biryani it is in big square pieces, and in curry, you can just dump it whole after slicing off the ends.

With carving knife, we can give good shapes and make artistic visual presentations on salads. There is art everywhere that only chef understands. Chopping veggies is the extension of cooking because only the chef knows what taste will emerge from the veggies chopped in a certain way. If done wrong, there are chances of veggies half cooked or overcooked and soggy.

Chopping veggies is an art that I love as much as the art of cooking itself.

So here I am, with the project of ‘100 Happy Days’I am posting pictures each day here on my blog then sharing the link on my page on FB too. You can enjoy my work either here or on my page at FB at Pushee’s World