I love a good repeating wallpaper or textile print and it's been way too long since I attempted one.
The pattern is based on classic Nordic wallpapers from around 1900. For papers of this period the pattern would have been much smaller and most commonly in more muted colours. I wanted to enlarge it and make a bold, bright print.
For previous wallpapers I've printed them on the fabric table. For this wallpaper I wanted to try something I'd seen on instagram and try printing it on the vacuum table.
In an ideal world or at least in a commercial wallpaper studio you would have several 20 meter (or longer) tables with the paper rolled out and you would print alternating repeats of the pattern, letting them dry and filling in the gaps. Our fabric table in the studio is only 7 meters long so this makes the process a very lengthy one.
On the vacuum table you can print each repeat and then pull the paper through before printing the next. This adds in the possibility of smudges and mis-prints that a fabric table set up avoids but it makes the process quick and the results, although not perfect, are excellent. It's hand printed not machine made so I don't mind the imperfections.
I made the wallpaper, primarily for our summer house in Finland, my wife is Finnish and her family has a beautiful log built summer house in the forest by the coast. The house was built by her great grand father around 1910 and has not been redecorated since her grand parents redid it in the 60's.
The paper is now hanging in the kitchen, and I'll be back in Finland later in the summer to complete the renovation.
It's been fun to work on a wallpaper print again, and really great to bring something from the print studio in London to the summer house. As with all side projects something else unexpected has come out of it. As I was all set up to print, I put the wallpaper print on some canvas and overprinted that with some cranes.
I like how it's turned out, I like the idea of an artwork that blurs the boundary between the wall it hangs on and the piece itself. The first one is a proof of concept really, but it's an idea I will pursue.
