What Is Decoupage? The Cut-Paper Art on Glass Ornaments
Some of our glass ornaments carry a picture so detailed it looks like a tiny illustration: a snowman peeking out of a snowy tree hollow, a winter village, a bunch of roses. Look closely and you'll see crisp printed shading under a hand-applied finish of glitter and snow. That combination is decoupage, a decorating craft that is several centuries older than the glass bauble itself.
What is decoupage?
The word comes from the French découper, to cut out. In decoupage, a picture printed on paper is cut out, arranged on an object and glued down, then sealed under coats of varnish until the paper looks less like something stuck on and more like part of the surface. Britannica describes it as cutting and pasting to imitate painting on wood, metal or glass.
Traditionally the work came in four steps: cut out the pictures, arrange them into a scene, paste them down, then varnish. Up to 12 thin coats can be applied, although the most traditional methods going much further, with 30 to 40 layers of varnish sanded back to a smooth sheen.
A short history
Cut-paper decoration is ancient. Decoupage drew on Chinese paper cutting, the felt appliqué of Siberian nomads and Polish folk paper cutting (wycinanki). As a craft of its own, it took shape in 17th-century France, where it was used to decorate bookcases, cabinets and other furniture.
In 18th-century Venice it became a fashion. European buyers loved Asian lacquerware but few could afford it, so Venetian workshops developed lacca povera, literally "poor man's lacquer": printed engravings were hand-coloured, cut out, glued onto furniture and buried under layers of varnish to look like costly lacquer painting. Despite the name, it quickly won over the wealthy, and by the end of the century decoupage had spread across Europe as a pastime at the Italian, French and English courts, decorating fans, screens and dressing-table boxes. Printers even sold sheets of pictures made especially for cutting out.
The craft never really went away. It was revived in the United States in the 1960s and is still a favourite home craft today.
How decoupage works on a glass ornament
A decoupage ornament starts the same way as any of our glass ornaments: the glass is blown, silvered on the inside and coloured (our article on how glass Christmas ornaments are made walks through those steps). Then, instead of a painter building the picture with a brush, a printed motif is cut out, laid onto the glass and smoothed so it follows the curve of the ornament. It is sealed under varnish, and the edges are hidden with hand finishing: glitter, snow paste or painted details that blend the picture into the glass around it.
The result sits somewhere between a printed bauble and a hand-painted one. The printed picture gives a level of fine detail that would take a painter hours, while the hand-finished layer on top gives texture and sparkle. Run a finger lightly over a decoupage ornament and you can usually feel the raised glitter and snow sitting on top of the smooth picture.
Our decoupage hearts
Our heart-shaped decoupage ornaments are a good example. Each one is a frosted white glass heart about 14cm tall, with its own magical scene framed in gold glitter and soft white snow. They are generous in size and make a striking feature on the tree, or hung in a window where the light catches the glitter.
Caring for decoupage ornaments
Because the picture is paper under varnish, keep decoupage ornaments dry: dust them with a soft, dry brush or cloth rather than wiping them with water, and keep them away from steamy rooms. Store them wrapped, in a box, away from heat and damp. Our guide to storing glass Christmas ornaments has more tips.
Prefer the look of the brush? Browse our hand-painted baubles.
Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Decoupage"; Cabana Magazine, "Lacquered Illusions" (Venetian lacca povera).