I must confess that I am a hoarder of fine bits of paper. I am reminded of this each Valentine's Day, as I pull out my many bins full of scraps to make cards. I love textured paper, brightly colored hand-made paper, and translucent vellum ~ but most of all I love patterned paper.
So imagine my delight when I found a trove of reproduction wallpapers online at Trustworth Studios, which sent me down a rabbit-hole searching for the original illustrations. I am quite sure that could I afford to, I would be squirreling away rolls and rolls of it. Oh, such complex valentines I would make, with the rich and intricate repeating patterns!
I have always loved the style and sentiment of the Arts and Crafts movement ~ the modern steampunk movement has borrowed much of that doctrine, certainly in the appreciation for the finely crafted and the hand-made. While it's the organic curves and sensuality of Art Nouveau that inspire me most, there's something glorious in the simplicity and utility of Arts and Crafts that is dear to me as well, and in some designs, as the ones here, the line between the two is blurred.
Most of these wallpaper designs are by British architect C.F.A. Voysey, who had an eye for whimsy and playfulness that I find irresistible. In his late career, Voysey focused almost completely on fanciful designs for children's nurseries.
Design movements aside, I could just lose myself in the worlds of these papers, like this seemingly odd and lovely combination by French designer M.P. Verneuil, of bats and poppies ~ which were both motifs used to suggest altered states of consciousness...
Learn more at The Textile Blog or the Arts and Crafts Home.
Posts
9 comments:
Yeah, that devil paper... I WANT it. NOW. Lovely. Too bad they don't make it like they used to... :)
Gorgeous stuff! Thanks for sharing.
I like "I love little pussy" -- the little mice at the border are sweet.
When I purchased my arts & crafts home, I nearly put wallpaper like this up. I had once toured an historic home with a very complex design of interlocking borders and papers on the ceilings, and I wanted to replicate the look. In the end, I didn't go for it (went in a simpler direction for decor), but the William Morris company sent me a catalog with bits of paper; then a bunch of pretty large sample pieces at one point when I was semi-serious about which ones I wanted. Certainly, there was plenty there for cards (though those papers weren't quite as cool as some of the designs you ferreted out!)
fantastic selection - tho it makes me want to draw on them!
I want that bats and poppy one! So cool!
After spending a night fixing the ones I found so they actually repeated, thinking that would be great to have available to people... it occurred to me that since the internet has been around a while and often has these sorts of things - that someone has already done the same thing.
I found these: http://www.artsandcraftsdesign.com/Voysey/VOYSEYTEXTILESDETAILS.html
I've checked a handful of them, and the graphics I have checked *do* repeat entirely. They aren't print resolution, they are however nice web resolution repeaters. The company with this page also offers these as textiles and a variety of other things - may be worth looking into.
... Just realized that the Trustworth Wallpaper site shows fully repeating images as well. I guess I thought I clicked the images there and didn't.
Anyway Good Show and Thank You ^_^
I am actually selling lots of Art Nouveau, Jugendstil, Arts & Crafts wallpapers in The Netherlands. But I could export the materials too! Let me know if you want more info!
Have a look here: http://maisonartnouveau.nl/interieur-advies/het-mooiste-art-nouveau-behang-ter-wereld/
Post a Comment