Archive for August 2007

Canvas Prints Uk Website

24/08/2007 by conrad.

Our partner company Canvas Dezign has just launched a new website selling canvas prints from the Uk. I say new, the company was launched 4 years go and has been selling canvas prints online ever since. The canvas market place is a very competitive one now so we are embarking on a new project of getting the site ranked on google. Canvas’ are brilliant with wallpaper and a new groovy idea we have come up with is to have the same pattern on the canvas as is on the wallpaper. Not only can you get more colours out of the wall, but the effect of the canvas print fitting to the pattern on the wallpaper is amazing.

If you would like more information on canvas prints from canvas dezign email sales@canvasdezign.co.uk

Pop art canvas prints and your photo ’s to canvas can also be ordered online

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Historical facts on wallpaper

13/08/2007 by conrad.

History

Wallpaper, using the printmaking technique of woodcut, gained popularity in Renaissance Europe amongst the emerging gentry. The elite of society were accustomed to hanging large tapestries on the walls of their homes, a tradition from the Middle Ages. These tapestries added colour to the room as well as providing an insulating layer between the stone walls and the room, thus retaining heat in the room. However, tapestries were extremely expensive and so only the very rich could afford them. Less well-off members of the elite, unable to buy tapestries due either to prices or wars preventing international trade, turned to wallpaper to brighten up their rooms.

Early wallpaper featured scenes similar to those depicted on tapestries, and large sheets of the paper were sometimes hung loose on the walls, in the style of tapestries, and sometimes pasted as today. Prints were very often pasted to walls, instead of being framed and hung, and the largest sizes of prints, which came in several sheets, were probably mainly intended to be pasted to walls. Some important artists made such pieces, notably Albrecht Dürer, who worked on both large picture prints and also ornament prints intended for wall-hanging. The largest picture print was the Triumphal Arch commissioned by the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I and completed in 1515. This measured a colossal 3.57 by 2.95 metres, made up of 192 sheets, and was printed in a first edition of 700 copies, intended to be hung in palaces and, in particular, town halls, after hand-colouring.

Very few samples of the earliest repeating pattern wallpapers survive, but there are a large number of old master prints, often in engraving of repeating or repeatable decorative patterns. These are called ornament prints and were intended as models for wallpaper makers, among other uses.

England seems to have been always a leader in wallpaper; the earliest known sample found on a wall comes from England and is printed on the back of a London proclamation of 1509. It became very popular in England following Henry VIII’s excommunication from the Catholic Church - English aristocrats had always imported tapestries from Flanders and Arras, but Henry VIII’s split with the Catholic Church had resulted in a fall in trade with Europe. Without any tapestry manufacturers in England, English gentry and aristocracy alike turned to wallpaper.

During The Protectorate under Oliver Cromwell, the manufacture of wallpaper, seen as a frivolous item by the Puritan government, was halted. Following the Restoration of Charles II, wealthy people across England began demanding wallpaper again - Cromwell’s regime had imposed a boring culture on people, and following his death, wealthy people began purchasing comfortable domestic items which had been banned under the Puritan state. By the mid-eighteenth century, Britain was the leading wallpaper manufacturer in Europe, exporting vast quantities to Europe in addition to selling on the middle-class British market. However this trade was seriously disrupted in 1755 by the Seven Years War and later the Napoleonic Wars, and by a heavy level of duty on imports to France.

In 1748 the English ambassador to Paris decorated his salon with blue flock wallpaper, which then became very fashionable there. In the 1760s the French manufacturer Jean-Baptiste Réveillon hired designers working in silk and tapestry to produce some of the most subtle and luxurious wallpaper ever made. His sky blue wallpaper with fleurs-de-lys was used in 1783 on the first balloons by the Montgolfier brothers. The landscape painter Jean-Baptiste Pillement discovered in 1763 a method to use fast colours. Towards the end of the century the fashion for scenic wallpaper revived in both England and France, leading to some enormous panoramas, like the 1804 20 strip wide English one showing the Voyages of Captain Cook, which is still in situ in Ham House, Peabody Massachusetts. Like most of eighteenth century wallpapers, this was designed to be hung above a dado.

During the Napoleonic Wars , trade between Europe and Britain evaporated, resulting in the gradual decline of the wallpaper industry in Britain. However, the end of the war saw a massive demand in Europe for British goods which had been inaccessible during the wars, including cheap, colourful wallpaper. The development of steam-powered printing presses in Britain in 1813 allowed manufacturers to mass-produce wallpaper, reducing its price and so making it affordable to working-class people. Wallpaper enjoyed a huge boom in popularity in the nineteenth century, seen as a cheap and very effective way of brightening up cramped and dark rooms in working-class areas. By the early twentieth century, wallpaper had established itself as one of the most popular household items across the Western world. During the late 1980s though, wallpaper began to fall out of fashion in lieu of Faux Painting which can be more easily removed by simply re-painting.

“Wallpaper” is also a term for computer wallpaper, referring to an image used as a background on a laptop screen, usually for the desktop of a graphical user interface. “Wallpaper” is the term used in Microsoft Windows, while the Mac OS calls it a ‘desktop picture’.

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Wallpaper - troubleshooting problems & special papers

12/08/2007 by conrad.

Wallpaper edges and seams

To make sure the edges of paper are firmly stuck down, use a seam roller. Do not be too vigorous with this as it may damage the paper or leave a sheen on it, which will show when the paper is viewed from an angle. It is, however, not suitable for use on certain types of paper such as flock or embossed.

Air bubbles or blisters under wallpaper

Despite your best efforts to remove air from behind the paper as it is hung, you may find a blister remaining afterwards. There are two ways of dealing with this: Inject adhesive into the blister and use a seam roller to smooth it. Or, make a neat incision with a craft knife, and lift the edges enabling paste to be reapplied before smoothing back down.

Vinyl wallpaper adhesive

When hanging vinyl papers, you will need to use a special “vinyl to vinyl” adhesive along any overlaps, since vinyl will not stick to itself.

Pasting the wall

Some papers like Digimura, require the wall to be pasted rather than the paper. In this case, use a roller to apply the adhesive to an area slightly wider than the strip to be hung. This will enable you to paste the next section without having to work right up to the previous piece.

Embossed or relief wallpaper

Embossed papers need to be handled with care to avoid flattening the pattern – particularly at joins and corners. Many people prefer the durability offered by ‘blown vinyl’ relief papers.

Ready pasted paper

Ready pasted papers. You will rarely see professional decorators hanging this in the way suggested by the manufacturer, as it often leads to difficulties with misses or dry spots in the adhesive. They will normally paste it up as they would ordinary papers, but make their paste mix a little weaker to allow for the paste already on the back of the paper.

Fabric wallpaper

When hanging these, it is common to paste the wall rather than the fabric. By suspending the roll of fabric on a strong pole between two ladders, it is possible to work the fabric against the wall starting at the bottom. In this case you will need to smooth out upwards rather than down. Overlap successive drops (unless the edges are pre-trimmed) and cut through with a sharp knife, discarding the offcuts to produce a perfect joint.

To protect surfaces when smoothing, hold lining paper over the section to be smoothed.

Smoothing tips for wallpapering

Depending on the type of paper or material being hung, some professionals use a plastic spatula to smooth with. On strong surfaces, this is very efficient and dispels air from beneath the surface very speedily. It is an excellent tool for use with lining paper.

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