applique

''One of the earliest examples of the art form is found in the Boulak Museum in Cairo, Egypt. It is a ceremonial canopy dating from 980 BC, which was part of the funeral tent of Queen Esi-mem-kev. The canopy is made of gazelle hide decorated with symbolic serpents and blossoms. The appliquéd pieces are dyed in various shades of pink, blue green and golden yellow. Appliqué usually decorated objects that were used in everyday life so not many examples have survived through the centuries. Surviving examples in museums include crusaders’ banners and cloaks decorated with appliquéd motifs.

For centuries in Europe crewel embroidery using wool yarn dyed in many colors was most often used to decorate household linens. Starting in the 15th Century appliqué began to replace crewelwork on bed curtains and other linens.

In America the use of appliqué to create household textiles began in the 18th Century. The first examples were in the style called Broderie Perse. This name, meaning Persian embroidery in French, is thought to have originated around the time of the Great Exhibition of 1851 held in London at the Crystal Palace, though the method was actually used for many years before the Great Exhibition.''

this is just a little of the history i found out about applique.

but i did find this piece of work where the girl has used paper as a background and think it works really well except with the skin project i would probably use a different maturial or even creating the image of scales and using that as the backing piece.