I've been very bad at blogging for my specialist research project, and its not because I can't be bothered, rather the contrary - I just don't know where to start! I come in from SLS (for those who don't know thats Spiers Lock Studios where I spend most of my time painting in the scenic department) and I go online to blog about my day. Once I've finished blogging, my fingers automatically type into google 'hand painted wallpaper.' Typing that into google is lethal for me, literally I could look at opulent wallpaper all day every day; I get lost thinking about one day painting my walls in a Chinoiserie style, I look at hand painted wallpaper companies one after another and then when I log back onto blogger I just don't know how to begin blogging about them!
However, I have to bite the bullet and get blogging about hand painted wallpaper as after all I am getting graded on this! So I thought I would start of about the exquisite fine wallpaper and fabric company - A.L Diament & Co. website (CLICK HERE FOR THEIR WEBSITE), an American Fine Wallpaper and Fabric company. They are based in Philadelphia founded in 1885 and are one of the leading companies in their fields. They've supplied handpainted wallpaper to The Vanderblits, The Rockefellers and even painted the walls of the White House! Today the company is ran by Deborah Diament (fourth Generation) who sells the original wall papers printed in the late 19th to mid 20th century. The companies designs are beautiful, ranging from traditional Chinoiseries to floral landscapes, and have been printed with so much care. To make a scene several wall panels look it took about 6 to 9 months and may have been printed with up to 3,000 printing blocks! It was really interesting to find out that they still only sell originals, and their prices, well not as extortionate as one may think seeming as their wallpaper is truly a piece of art that cannot be reproduced (many of the printing blocks have been damaged/lost/destroyed.) From looking at the sizes, its seems that to cover just one feature wall it would cost you about $1000, but yeah okay maybe their rarer wallpaper is rather expensive such as a 12ft by 7ft made up of 30 strips depicting French boulevards would set you back $59000!
A. L Diament & Co Wood Block Printing method
- A thick woodblock is made up of several pieces of wood has the designed carved into the top layer of pearwood which i know for in sustainability due to its tight grain.
- The colour tub is very big (about 75cm by 90cm) and is covered with a felt colour pad
- Firstly, if there is a shaded sky background this is brushed onto the paper. Then the darkest and largest colour are printed first, and lastly fine detail is added (this may result in many layers)
- During the printing process the woodblocks are placed down onto the felt colour pad either by hand or with the aid of a pulley, then the block is printed on the paper - this can take up to two years to create one large scenic paper!
No comments:
Post a Comment