Decoupage chairs in Sutton science center creatively display photographs

International experiences are being documented in the neatest and most useful way possible. Decoupage is a type of art where pictures are cut out, put on a surface and then have mod podge spread over it to be able to keep the pictures in place. It’s the same thing as a collage, just on any surface.

Brenda Eingle, Administrative Assistant of Natural Sciences and Math & Computer Sciences, has taken this idea to the next level. With the assistance of her student worker Laurel Woodward, a junior Biology major, Eingle is able to get the chairs done sooner rather than later.

These chairs are made for students from the help of a student. There is a picture selection process from international experiences, and then the chair making process begins.

Everything first started when Drew Crain, professor of Biology, had calendars from a photography class left over from a couple of years ago. Eingle found chairs in storage and started with her student assistant at the time, Rachael Taylor, to help.

She is the one who assisted Eingle for the first four chairs made, which are used on the first floor of Sutton. Eingle fixes up the chairs, then Taylor would place the pictures and mod podge them.

“I found the idea on Pinterest,” said Eingle. With this idea she is now able to take pictures from international experiences and make multiple chairs out of them.

Eingle and Woodward start out by cleaning and sanding down the chair. Then Eingle takes them to her home and fixes up anything else before then painting them. Once she is done painting them, she brings them back to Sutton so that Woodward can get started on how she thinks the pictures should be placed.

The most difficult part of making the chairs, Woodward said, is that “You see something in your mind that would look good then it either doesn’t look good or you try to put it on the chair and put pictures in the right places and make it all cover the chair. I think that’s the most time consuming… doing this [decoupage] is a great stress reliever.”

Eingle and Woodward both put a lot of time and effort into making these chairs. They both hope to be able to do more chairs for the second floor of Sutton. At this time, they are in the process of making a chair with pictures from the Bonaire trip last year. Later on, they both hope to make more chairs based on international experiences to display in Sutton.

These beautiful chairs are used by students every day and can be found on the first floor of Sutton Science Center. The most recent chair made has pictures from the Costa Rica trip last year.

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