Marthe Armitage

Recently, via Flightless Boyds blog, I was delighted to discover English wallpaper designer Marthe Armitage. Wow! I am smitten, completely inspired by this wonderful designer who still, in her 70s, prints her own wallpaper from lino cuts. I especially love her botanical designs (of course!). See all her work here. She does do some designs as fabric too.

Seriously, how cool is she?! Her wallpaper design and printing began after art school when she married and had a family. The house they moved to needed work, cracks in the wall needed covering - so she printed her own wallpaper (as you do). This was during the Second World War mind you.

Marthe was featured in the November 2009 issue of Gardens Illustrated (the current issue here in oz) where these pictures come from. I rushed out and bought it yesterday (not that I need an excuse, it is my very favourite mag, I have about a hundred back issues I can't bring myself to throw out!)

Marthe still prints on a press that she's used for 40 years (photo above) but before that used to stand on the blocks :-) She also thinks there should be more shows about sewing and making things. She thinks "it's terrible that people aren't taught these things any more."

But I especially love this quote from Marthe:
"Pattern has an abstract quality - it hits you in a way you don't quite understand, I can't tell you why it moves me but it does. It's like music, in a way".

more vintage wallpaper

I know I'm not the only one who loves a bit of vintage wallpaper. Here's a site I've been meaning to post for a while, Secondhand Rose. I love the wonderful graphic and printy qualities of these and the pattern design. The collection covers a wide range of styles.

"Wallpaper in the attic of the store, represent the world's largest collection of vintage wallpaper. This impressive wallpaper collection, spanning the 1860's to 1970, has been featured on Martha Stewart and is in the collections of museums throughout the world. Kitchen, bathroom, geometric, and floral wallpaper prices range from $70 per roll (60'sq) to $1,200 per roll for original Frank Lloyd Wright designs (90'sq)"

p.s. I've added some tags so if you click the wallpaper listing at the right you can see all the other lovely examples :-)

vintage wallpaper

This German site 5qm has vintage and vintage inspired wallpaper for sale, lots of it. I love it, definitely worth a browse if you like pattern. Some of these are vintage and some new, see if you can guess.
I found this link on lovelydesign, while admiring Sharilyn's beautiful calico drawstring goody bags which she made for her daughter's birthday (below).
So simple and lovely, and there is a downloadable pdf pattern for them.

I love - paper cuts

Just lately I've come across some beautiful examples of paper cutting. What amazing skill and patience it must take. I've had one small go at cutting and it is as hard as it looks. If you want to have a try you should definitely check out Skinny Laminx's wonderful papercut tutorial which is really well explained.
Here is one of the amazing series Elsa Mora has made for a new exhibition. I love the image as much as the technique. She is a wonderfully talented artist and her blog is full of inspiration.

Kirigami is a new term to me which I discovered when I followed a link to Kanako Yaguchi's site. We did some in the guise of snowflake cutting in my sons' art class a few weeks ago :-) but who knew it could be so beautiful. This is definitely something I'm going to try again. Below are some of the images from her work.


Oh and I love this wallpaper which reminds me of papercutting:

vintage block print wallpaper

One of my favourite tv shows is 'Grand Designs' an English program which follows couples as they build their dream home. Thursday night's episode was an old one which followed a couple as the renovated the most amazing Georgian house in the centre of London. In one part of the show they visited a shop where they sold block printed wallpaper designs from the period. I fell in love with the design they chose 'Regency Tile'. Alas I can't seem to find a picture of it online. It was a really simple pattern which nevertheless was printed with a number of blocks and a batch of rolls would take someone three weeks to print. And the price reflected that!
Wandering online I found this beautiful site Adelphi Paper Hangings which has similarly exquisite reproduction wallpapers, in the most fantastic colours and designs. Here are some pics
of some that caught my eye.


Wonderful that these dramatic wallpapers are back in vogue. Of course Australia was home to one of the most amazing wallpaper designers Florence Broadhurst whos designs are having a renaissance at the moment (her designs below).