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Wallpaper History and Techniques
Feb
Essential Wallpaper History on Techniques
Wallpaper is a kind of material used to decorate and cover the interior walls of buildings. Wallpaper can be used from offices to homes, and is a great long term investment as it is durable and long lasting. Wallpaper is generally made in rolls. Wallpaper has been around since before the 1700’s, the main technique used for wallpaper in this time was hand painting, woodblock printing and stencilling. Let’s cover some more on Wallpaper History.
Woodblock printing
Woodblock printing is a special technique used for text, images or patterns and comes from East Asia and plays a role in Wallpaper History. How woodblock printing works is the areas that show white and have no print on them are cut out of a woodblock using a knife, revealing and leaving behind on the original surface level what will be printed and showcased on the wall paper. Similar to a stamp this pattern is then used along with ink to imprint the created pattern onto the clear paper.
Stencilling
Stencilling produces an image by applying some sort of ink or paint over an intermediate object which has gaps in it that form a pattern. A stencil is usually made from a thin sheet of material, whether it be paper, plastic, metal or wood. The biggest advantage of stencilling is it can be reused over and over again and is a fast, effective way of printing a reoccurring pattern. Stencils can be patterns, letters or pictures the list is endless and there is no limit to what you can do with your stencil.
Leaders in the industry
England and France were leaders in European wallpaper manufacturing. One of the oldest samples left to date was found on a wall in England and was printed on the back of a London proclamation of 1509. When Henry VIII stopped trading with the tapestries with the French they quickly turned to wallpaper as an alternative as it was easier to manufacture and readily available in England. See, wallpaper history can i fact be rather interesting.
In 1712 while Queen Anne was on the throne, she implemented a wallpaper tax which was around until 1836. By the mid-18th century England was leading the wallpaper manufacturing industry, exporting to various countries.
Machinery
In 1785 Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf had invented the first machine for printing coloured tints on sheets of wallpaper. In 1799 Louis Nicolas Robert patented a machine that could produce continuous lengths of wallpaper.
Wallpaper today
Today’s use of wall paper is much more vast than the wallpaper history we just covered. Offices, homes, and schools all make use of this easy to apply method that helps create an ambiance in a room. With machinery that prints 1000s of meters of wallpaper at a time, this is fast effective way of decorating your space. Custom designs are a frequent request in the wallpaper industry and allow clients to bring their own unique flare to their room creations.
Budget Banners has a variety of options available to you with regards to wallpaper choices. We offer custom design or you can choose from our collection. Our wallpaper collections are easy to apply and are made to size. Call us today we are ready to take your order.