Project Report.

The status of wallpaper has always been largely questioned. Is it for decoration or purpose? Is it a form of art? Should it be noticeable? All of these have been considered when producing wall coverings throughout design history.
The idea of wallpaper is to take any image and transfer it onto the walls of your home. The paper can reflect any kind of pattern or texture and also imitate materials such as wood or fabric. It can be an all – over design that covers every wall of a room, or a feature wall that is taken from an illustration that would not necessarily work as a repeat pattern. The wallpaper in which you choose to decorate your home is a personal statement which others may or may not agree with. This could depend on the time period and your own social status and lifestyle. For example, a Rachel Kelly piece using stickers to design your own wall coverings would not be considered appropriate in the 1970’s. The wallpaper over this period of time concentrated more on the repeat, using bright floral designs to catch your eye. I find these very over-powering and would feel uncomfortable living in a room with such a heavy wall covering. Contemporary designs perhaps reflect this, with the familiar idea that less is more.
The original wallpapers in England were handmade using woodcut patterns.
They were also hand-coloured; this was considered around the harvest. They were produced as single sheets which would be more expensive to buy because of the craftsmanship that went into their production, as well as their reflection of popular fashion at that time. These expensive pieces would only ever be hung in the main rooms of the house that would be seen by others. We were shown some of this early work during the visit to the wallpaper archives at the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester. The colours often over-lapped, evidently because the equipment to mass produce to a high quality standard was not available. Another technique which was used in early wallpaper manufacturing was to paint tassels onto the design to make the whole piece come alive. This links to the idea of illusion and using paper to convey an image from anything in the world and bringing it to life on your walls. Wallpaper was no longer used as a covering, but was the main focal point in the consideration of decorating a room. It was no longer a necessity, if one could afford it, but a fashion statement.
Wallpaper developed in the 18th century, when manufacturers began to paste the single sheets together before printing to allow for a bigger pattern as well as a more professional and even look. Flock was also introduced by the late 17th Century. This dyed woollen was glued onto a background of a similar colour in large stylised floral patterns which were extremely popular during this period.

This survived longer than the paper, as it was harder to disintegrate and fade. We saw some examples of this at the Whitworth Art Gallery, along with foiling in the ‘Putting on the Glitz’ exhibition which also exhibited wallpaper foiling, another wallpaper technique used. The effect this has is to make the wall shine and to me, makes it look more expensive and richer in colour.
Rather than printing and hanging, Chinese designers hand painted their wall coverings. These were extremely popular and sought after because of the importation of such unique designs. There were many Kimono’s displayed at the Whitworth Art Gallery which the curator explained were used as a design basis for such hand-drawn designs.
Whilst the English followed a busy floral design with repetition as a popular theme, the French employed manufacturers to create luxury designs for a smaller market. These political and symbolic designs tended to show botanical or architectural illustrations which were somewhat time-consuming. The introduction of the steam-driven surface roller in the early 19th Century changed this.
Wallpapers could now be mass produced, meaning more was available at a cheaper price as well as the possibility of creating multi-coloured designs. With the introduction of screen printing at the end of the 20th Century, you could now do just about anything with wallpaper.
I looked at a range of wallpaper designs at the beginning of my project, many of which I would put on my own walls. I like both the traditional William Morris, which we do in fact have on our bathroom walls!
As well as the more contemporary work of Hanna Werning. It is interesting to see how designs have changed, as well as their reappearance into fashion decades later.
There are also many different techniques to consider when creating a design for your own wall covering. As well as the traditional development using drawings, Adobe Illustrator is now used widely in development as well as final design. Its professional outcome is very modern and stylish, appealing to a very different market to those who prefer the tradition of a Sanderson design.
I chose the theme of Hortus Botanicus as I appreciate both the traditional floral as well as the more contemporary stylised designs. I wanted to develop the idea of a less typical floral design using plants such as nettles or thistles as well as insects. I visited the Botanical Gardens in Durham City where I photographed cactus plants as well as other unusual plants that I wanted to use in my designs.
From here I began drawing, all the while keeping in mind my alternate floral theme. Although I concentrated on floral from photographs of the ‘typical’ flower at the beginning, I began to look at ferns and bulrushes as my work progressed. There were aspects of my drawings which I began to combine to create surface designs, such as the linear cactus and the continuous line daffodil drawings. I experimented on a large scale to vary my drawing style and techniques, which I found very helpful to do.
A design I decided to focus on for further development, was a black linear drawing from a photograph of barbed wire. I felt the shape and pattern on the design was in itself very floral. This gave way to a new theme of using unusual objects to create floral patterns. In this sense, I looked at the work of Timorous Beasties whose designs reflect violent and disturbing scenes in a Toile du jouy form, making them look a lot prettier than what they really depict. From this I considered using insects, with the shapes from their wings for example, to create a floral effect for a wallpaper design. Although I tried a Hanna Werning approach to the design, by using brightly coloured animal silhouettes, I felt this was not the direction in which I wanted to go.
Because of my visit to the Botanical Gardens I felt my whole theme was more organic, with the use of greens and browns, therefore the brightness of a Hanna Werning themed design just would not work.
As well as the barbed wire pattern, I developed a fern design using lino prints which I printed in green and black. This developed my colour scheme to include the organic greens as well as some black and white designs which I am happy with as a collection.
My final designs include laser cuttings of the cactus as well as the barbed wire. I thoroughly enjoyed laser cutting, as it is a new technique that I had not previously used. It allowed me to layer my designs to create a more professional and stylish look. It also improved my Adobe Illustrator skills.
Screen printing also played a main part in my final pieces as I prepared a screen with the barbed wire design on it. We have been shown how to prepare and expose a screen previously; however this was the first time I created the screen myself.
Overall I am pleased with my final designs; the barbed wire and fern designs in both a black and white and two shades of green. I am pleased with the colour palette, as I struggled with this towards the end of the project. Although it was the barbed wire pattern itself that created the floral theme, I felt perhaps the colour would help the theme along. It was then I introduced a red and burgundy whilst screen printing. However this did not work with my designs and would have clashed with the green organic feel of the fern designs.
The black and white designs are more of a mixture of ideas presented in a linear fashion to give an idea of what the coverings could look like if developed further. It is the combination of the fern lino prints and linear flowers that I feel work the best, as well as the laser cut designs which give a professional outcome to a project in which I have thoroughly enjoyed.

Jenny Callan