#HTE

Hand Block Printing Wallpaper

I dislike wallpaper, but this 1963 film almost makes me like it. It’s not the aesthetics that appeal to me but the artistry and craft that go into making the product. Except for reproductions of William Morris designs, I don’t suppose much wallpaper is made this way anymore.

I particularly enjoyed seeing the woman using a router to cut patterns into the wooden printing blocks. The video is worth watching if for no other reason than that the Pathé films of this period were shot in technicolor and have awesome jazz scores.

Contrast the methods used for small batch hand-printed wallpaper with the mass-production methods shown in the video below (shot in a now-defunct factory in Upstate New York).

http://www.core77.com/posts/68243/Hand-Block-Printing-Wallpaper