ARGOS DECOUPAGE

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Decoupage is a craft technique where cut out paper pictures are used to decorate another surface. In Paper Tole this is used to build up a 3 dimensional relief image by gluing multiple layers of identical cut out sections of a paper picture on to a complete base picture. As it is necessary to have multiple versions of the same image to create this effect I decided to take advantage of Argos, a British high street retailer that gives away a free catalogue to shoppers. I’ve always had a fondness for the Argos catalogue, ever since I was a small child when I’d spend many happy hours leafing through it’s pages of incredibly thin glossy paper to decide all the things I would like. Not just toys; but also sofas, kitchen appliances and bathroom fittings.

Decoupage and Paper Tole are very traditional crafts, often used to create clichéd decorative images of flowers or country cottages and it appealed to me to use the tawdry and brash Argos catalogue to make my own pictures. Also none of the Argos staff seemed to mind (or perhaps are simply not paid enough to care) about me taking dozens of them at once.

IMAGES

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