York Racecourse Wall Murals
25/04/2008 by conrad.
We are currently producing 4 very large wall murals for York Racecourse. We were selected out of the many printer because of the knowledge we have of the decorative industry.
Full pictures of the wall murals in place will be posted soon.
We are also working with a big UK wallpaper company , trying to secure their business on the digital printing side. More details when the deals are done.
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Wallpaper and Canvas Pictures
17/04/2008 by conrad.
Canvas Dezign posted a really good article recently about canvas pictures and wallpaper. The basic idea is that you combine the two printed mediums to give an on the wall, off the wall feel.
On the one hand you have wallpaper, pasted to the wall and flat. On the other you have the canvas pictures that follows the pattern of the wallpaper. In many cases the canvas pictures change colour to give an extraordinary effect.
See the canvas pictures website, Canvas dezign for details
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Watercolor pictures to canvas - Sealed and Varnished
10/04/2008 by conrad.
There are two options when one paints in watercolor on a secondary support like the watercolor canvas prints or clay board. Precautionary steps can be taken to ensure that painting doesn’t go directly in to contact with the glass which is being framed with a traditional watercolor. Also, it can be ensured that there is a gap between the glass and the canvas picture artwork or else one can seal the work and even frame as an acrylic or oil painting. Since, painting comes out easily out of such surfaces, the safest to be considered would be varnishing and sealing.
However, there are certain advantages while painting on larger surfaces as it would be expensive to purchase the matted painting frame and also it would be heavy for hanging. On the other hand, few artists have remarked the importance of pictures to canvas that are sealed and varnished as they are easy to frame with no glass and also that they are sold better. Moreover, there exists a thought that oils are priced higher than the water colors. Perhaps, oil painting would be considered to add certain secret to the work in the long tradition or may be because of the advantage to frame without glasses. Watercolorists from Victoria have taken great pains in using gum Arabic and body color to enhance a painting to look similar to oil painting in order to be rewarded with higher rates for their work. For people with different views, it may look a frame without a glass and easier for transport and nothing more would be said as it is completely safe.
There are several methods for sealing which gives a glazed finish and the products which are mentioned further helps in achieving the goal. Clay board fixatives give a fine start to clay board as well as pictures to canvas and nearly three coats can be given permitting enough time for it to be dried between the coats. Also, Krylon triple-thick clear glass can be used where the “triple-thick” signifies that a single coat of the product levels three coats of various acrylic fixatives. Along with Krylon, UV tolerant varnish can be used and six consistent coats can be sprayed typically to end up the process. However, certain things are to be borne in mind while doing such a process and it is to be ensured that there lays a large space to carry out literal spraying and nothing lies near to it which may have the chance to be sprayed. One would need to remove the glasses in case they wear it. Of course, it needs to be ensured that good ventilation surrounds the room and since much of spraying goes along, necessary precautionary steps needs to be taken.
It is obviously rated high when the works done on the pictures to canvas are neat and elegant. Sealing and varnishing one’s work gives a glossy finish to the product once they are done. It really supplements a lot to the product as the painting reflects like the watercolor when they are initially applied wet and juicy.
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Digital Printing on Canvas
05/04/2008 by conrad.
Digital printing technology has revolutionized the way printing is done and uncovered a whole new world for everyone in general. Digital photography has been very convenient for photographers in order to enable them to not only take astounding photographs but also delete the unnecessary ones and take as many photos as wished with no extra cost added and also to edit the photos in order to add some special effects to make the photographs more presentable.
Digital prints can be made on canvas in order to make them livelier. By printing digital photos on canvas, memories can be made into wonderful pieces of art that have longer life and have special impact as well. Digital prints on canvas have become a good potion for interior decoration of offices, residence, restaurants and many other places. . There are numerous standard digital canvas photo printing companies that offer state of the art digital canvas photo printing services.
Digital photos are printed extensively on high quality exhibition grade cotton using full color inkjet printers and long-lasting UV proof pigment inks. Canvas fabric made of 100% pure cotton is prototypical for producing realistic images. Digital printing is done on canvas sizes ranging from 32 cm x 25 cm to 117 cm x 90 cm. The canvases are usually coated with latex in order to provide utmost durability and the canvas is laminated to ensure print permanency.
The quality of the print on canvas ultimately depends on the quality of the actual photograph, therefore in order to get a realistic print on your canvas it is advised to ser your camera at its highest resolution and opt for an appropriate canvas size for the image.
Artist’s original artwork has been emulated for a long time on to canvas using offset printing. Canvas printing since the 1990s has been associated with either dye sublimation or inkjet printers. With the help of these printers photographers and artist can transfer their work on to canvas quite easily.
Once the required image is printed on the canvas, it is trimmed to the actual size and stretched on bars or wooden panel and displayed. It is either displayed in a frame or a gallery wrap depending on how it is printed. Certain artists prefer to paint on the printed images so as to get a more individual image.
With the advancement in science and technology, printers can produce many meters of canvas every hour enabling suppliers to provide many frames per day. These advancements have not only made making of the frames faster but also quality of the output has also increased by leaps and bounds.
Extensive research has been done on the ink being used in order to make them more durable and more effective, as a result high quality inks have come into market providing a longer life for the prints on the canvas. varnishing of the canvas is of vital importance in order to make them resistant to UV rays, as years have gone by better varnishing methods are formulated to further more protect the canvas from UV rays which causes yellowing or fading of the canvas print.
Digital printing gets away from the need of a rotary screen engraver
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Canvas Prints - Mini released
22/03/2008 by conrad.
CanvasDezign recently released a mini Canvas Prints. These canvas prints are regular 6×4inch in size and are a brilliant canvas prints gift idea.
Have canvas prints on your desk at work or even give canvas prints as a special gift to your loved ones.
Give canvas prints today and make somebody smile!!
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Wallpaper making in Darwen
22/03/2008 by conrad.
There have been Paper Mills in Darwen since the 1820s. This began at Darwen Old Paper Mill in around 1826 as a small-scale, family-run concern. Richard Hilton began making paper as an expansion of his bleaching business. He and his sons later diversified into making different types of paper including tissue and wallpaper lining papers in the 1830s. Papermaking required huge amounts of water and was usually supplied by local rivers and reservoirs. Darwen’s location and climate made it ideal territory for making paper, just as it was ideal for the textile industry. In the case of Darwen Old Paper Mill for example, the River Darwen and Jack’s Key Reservoir would have supplied water.
Papermaking is a fairly labour intensive process with many different processes. Associated trades sprang up in Darwen including bleaching and dyeing works and wallpaper making. There were mills in Darwen that made wallpaper, indeed there still are but the mills in Darwen also made other types of paper. Mills produced paper such as newsprint, tissue, coloured and enamel papers, linings, brown paper and wallpaper base paper. The raw materials required for papermaking were originally rags and esparto (a rough grass from Spain and North Africa needed to make fine quality paper). Today papers are mostly made from either wood pulp or synthetic pulp. Only very fine ‘hand-made’ papers are today made from rags. Collins Paper Mill in Darwen mainly produced brown paper made from rags whilst Grimshaw Bridge Paper Mill produced cap and biscuit papers. Mills then were powered mainly by water wheels and horizontal engines.
Many people were employed in the paper making industry. Hollins Paper Mill employed over 250 people. It was considered to be one of Darwen’s staple trades and even today people in Darwen are still employed to make paper and wallcoverings for the rest of the world.
However, this article is slightly out of date as there are now houses were the great wallpaper mill once stood.
The image/text was provided by Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council for use in the Cotton Town digitisation project: www.cottontown.org.
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Paint Making in Darwen
22/03/2008 by conrad.
Charles and Harold Potter took over Hilton’s Paper Mills, the largest paper making works in the world, in 1844. In 1864 James Huntington, a designer for paper stainers and calico printers, joined the company at the Belgrave Mills. In 1853 Belgrave Mill was burnt out and a few years later the Hollins Paper Mill was rebuilt and enlarged. It was there that a laboratory was set up to try and make a reliable water paint.Paint manufacture commenced in August 1906 and ‘Hollins Distemper’ was transferred twice daily by horse-drawn wagon to Darwen Station. By 1910 the company was employing six men to travel the country exclusively selling paint. By now it was know as WalPaMur after the initials of ‘The Wall Paper Manufacturers’ Company. In the same year depots were set up in other parts of the country to ease the pressure on the Darwen factory and speed up distribution. In the same year too the manufacture of oil based paint commenced.
In 1929 the Company took over the paint-making plant of Arthur Sanderson & Sons in London. This was developed into a branch factory to serve the South of England. Expansion in Darwen was achieved when Peel Mill and Cobden Mill were acquired. In 1933 the Walpamur Company (Ireland) was formed in Dublin.
During World War Two Walpamur was engaged on war work producing special paints and dope for aircraft. They were asked to produce 90,000 gallons of white paint for the D-Day landings of 1944. All Allied aircraft had to be painted with white stripes. 30,000 gallons were produced in a week and transported from the factory in a fleet of US Army lorries.
This was how the Walpamur Club got its name on the Anchor Estate!!!
The image/text was provided by Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council for use in the Cotton Town digitisation project: www.cottontown.org.
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William Morris History
21/03/2008 by conrad.
William Morris was born on March 24, 1834 at Elm House, Walthamstow. His father died in 1847 and soon afterwards the family moved to Water House, Walthamstow, now the home of the William Morris Gallery. Morris was sent to school at Marlborough in 1848 and afterwards went to Exeter College, Oxford, to study Theology where he met Edward Burne-Jones who became his lifelong friend.
It was on a trip to France where Morris and Burne-Jones decided not to take the Holy Orders but to dedicate their lives to art. Morris left college in 1856 and went to work for an architect G.E Street where he met Philip Webb. Burne-Jones moved to London and studied painting under the guidance of Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
Morris soon abandoned architecture and began to study painting under Rossetti’s guidance. He found his talents were more suited to decorative arts than painting and experimented with stained glass, ceramics, furniture, book design, wall papers and textiles.
The Firm
In 1859 Morris married Jane Burden and a year later they moved into Red House, Bexleyheath, Kent, a house designed for Morris by architect Philip Webb. Morris and a group of friends (Rossetti, Webb, etc) started to design and produce their own furnishings for the house. This led to the formation in 1861 of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.
The ‘firm’ as it became known, set up in rented premises in Red Lion Square and soon prospered. Most of the early work was commissions from Gothic Revival architects for supplying them with stained glass and furnishings for church buildings.
In 1865 Morris and the firm moved to 26 Queen Square, Bloomsbury. The ground floor was converted into workshops and offices whilst Morris and family lived on the first floor. It was in the scullery where Morris and Thomas Wardle first started experimenting in the revival of vegetable dyeing, starting with embroidery silks.
In 1871 Morris and Rossetti took out a joint tenancy of Kelmscott Manor by the banks of the Thames in Oxfordshire.
Morris & Co
By the middle of the 1870s the Firm had started to run into difficulties. Morris wanted to expand but the other members found it more lucrative developing solo careers also Morris thought the other members profited from his labours so in 1875 Morris decided to dissolve the Firm set up under his own control as Morris & Co.
The new company soon expanded and opened up a shop at 449, Oxford Street. Morris was now turning his attention to woven fabrics and employed a French weaver named Louis Bazin who set up a Jacquard Loom in a new hired workshop at Great Ormond Yard, near Queen Square. After initial problems were overcome the first pattern, the Willow was produced at the end of 1877.
In the autumn of 1878 Morris and family moved to Upper Mall, Hammersmith, now the headquarters of the William Morris Society. Morris renamed the house Kelmscott House which was to become his home until he died. He set up several carpet frames in the coach-house and stables and started to produce handmade carpets which became known as ‘Hammersmith’ carpets.
By 1881 the Queen Square and Great Ormond Yard workshops were becoming cramped and were not able to accommodate the new looms Morris required. He decided to look for premises large enough to manufacture all his goods under one roof. He needed a works near a river suitable for vegetable dying, workshops for cloth printing, textile and carpet weaving, tapestry making and a stained glass workshop. At the time William De Morgan was also looking for premises to manufacture tiles which were sold at Morris’s Oxford Street shop. After rejecting premises in the Cotswolds and at Crayford, Kent, Morris visited the printing works at Merton Abbey and found it exactly suited his needs. William De Morgan also found premises at Merton Abbey and set up close by.
William Morris and the Merton Abbey Works
Morris purchased the site in June 1881. He refused to pull down any of the existing buildings and apart from some minor alterations they remained unchanged until the works closed in 1940.
The site Morris acquired was established in 1752 as a calico printing works and continued to produce calicos until the 19th century. The owners of the works before Morris acquired the lease were the Welch family who produced table-cloth.
Morris adapted the buildings to suit his needs. Next to the entrance to the works was the office and caretaker’s house, next door was the drawing and design room, next door again was the dormitory for the apprentice boys. The two-storey shed to the rear of the High Street buildings contained the dye vats on the ground floor with the stained glass studio on the first floor. Outside this building was a small single-storey weaving shed. On the south bank of the River Wandle was a large shed overlooking the millpond. The ground floor housed the carpet and tapestry looms with the first floor used for fabric printing.
Before Morris could start production a number of alterations had to be undertaken to the buildings. The sheds were strengthened, trenched and puddled to keep out the damp, roofs heightened and re-tiled to fit the looms, floors re-laid and eight (6- foot cubes) dyeing vats were sunk into the original floor of one of the buildings.
Furniture, tiles, embroidery and wallpaper were made elsewhere and not at the Merton Abbey works.
The Processes
Dyeing
Fabric dyeing was undertaken in the dyehouse in large sunken vats; smaller vats were used to dye the silk and wool yarns.
All the dyes Morris used were made from natural substances based on early herbal recipes. These dyes gave a softer tone to the textiles unlike the aniline dyes which gave harsh colours and soon faded.
One of the main reasons Morris decided to move to Merton was that he found the water of the Wandle ideal for dyeing. Many of the fabrics Morris & Co produced used the indigo discharge method. First the cotton cloth is dyed to a shade of blue in one of the large indigo dye vats and then the cloth is printed with a bleaching agent to remove the blue as the patterns requires. Mordants (fixing agents) are then printed on the white parts and the cloth dyed a second time with madder and again with yellow. The three superimposed colours gives green, purple or orange. The access dye was washed away and the colours set by passing the fabrics through soap at nearly boiling point. Afterwards the fabric was laid out in the meadow to dry.
Block printing
Block-printing was undertaken on long padded tables which ran the length of the workshop. The printer would first place the printing block on the dye pad and then press the block onto the cloth. The block was pressed down with the aid of a lead weighted mallet to produce an impression. The dye pads were carried on trolleys which the printer could pull along as he worked along the length of the cloth.
After the first set of impressions was dry a second set of blocks was printed on the cloth and the process repeated. Small pins projected from the blocks so each successive impression could be aligned. The early printing blocks were carved from pearwood which were later replaced by blocks with metal inserts padded with felt to hold the dye.
Stained glass
Morris based his stained glass on the style of the later medieval period which had an emphasis on rich glowing colours in a free-flowing pattern unlike the stained glass of the 17th and 18th centuries which were literally over-precise painted reproductions of medieval stained glass.
The designs for stained glass were first drawn on small sheets which were photographically enlarged to full size as a working drawing known as a ‘cartoon’. Different coloured glass was placed over the cartoon and cut to size. The stained glass artist would then place the individual pieces on his easel and paint on the design. These would next be fired in a kiln located next to the office. After firing the painted glass was leaded together to form the overall picture. The finished design was polished with linseed oil and bran polish to give a high gloss.
Edward Burne-Jones designed most of the stained glass made by Morris & Co but after Morris’s death Dearle became responsible for the artistic direction of the company’s stained glass.
Weaving
The looms Morris & Co used at Merton were the Jacquard looms invented in 1802 by a Frenchman, Joseph Marie Jacquard and became widely used from the 1820s. The advantage of using this type of loom rather than the more traditional draw-looms was that the Jacquard loom used a series of punched cards to lift the warp threads automatically, enabling a more accurate design. The cards could also be stored which meant that patterns could be easily and accurately repeated. The draw-looms were slower and the finished designs less accurate.
Morris spent much of his time in historical research at the Victoria and Albert Museum (then the South Kensington Museum) and was much influenced by the 14th century Italian textiles as well as Middle and Far Eastern patterns. Much of Morris’s designs were based on these early examples.
Carpet weaving
The carpets made at Merton Abbey were hand-knotted or tufted and continued to be known as ‘Hammersmith Rugs’ from their place of origin. This was to distinguish them from the machine-made carpets made by outside contractors.
Morris designed almost all of the firms carpets. He would produce a scale drawing, about one eighth of the full size. The design would then be transferred on to point paper, a squared paper with each square representing a single knot of the carpet. The point paper was hung on the loom and the design copied by the weavers. The loom consisted of two rotating horizontal rollers between which hung the vertical warp threads. Two inch long weft threads were knotted around the warp threads. A each row was finished the weft was beaten down and the process repeated. As the carpet progressed the upper roller unwound enabling a new section to be woven.
Mostly girls were employed in carpet weaving as their smaller hands were better suited to the intricate work. Each weaver would produce around two inches of carpet a day.
Tapestry
The tapestries were woven on high-warp looms. The high-warp or upright loom is a type of loom used in the late medieval period by Flemish tapestry weavers.
Almost all of the tapestry figures were designed by Burne-Jones. He would draw the figures around 15 inches high. The drawings were photographically enlarged full size, mounted, and Morris and Henry Dearle would draw in the foreground and background. The finished drawing was then placed against the loom and traced onto the warp. The tapestries were woven using the plain weaving technique which had a parallel set of warp threads interwoven across the warp with the weft threads. The weft treads were then packed down with a comb to hide the warp threads. Three looms were initially set up with three people working at each loom. Each weaver would sit facing the back of the tapestry with a mirror positioned in front to reflect the design.
Wallpaper
Wallpaper was not made at the Merton Abbey factory but by an outside contractor Jeffrey & Co. The process of printing wallpaper was similar to that of printing textiles. The paper was printed with wooden printing blocks, pressed down with the aid of a foot operated weight and the process repeated.After William Morris died in 1896 the Merton factory continued production under his junior partners Frank and Robert Smith, with John Henry Dearle promoted to Art Director. Burne-Jones died two years later and the majority of the designs for wallpaper, stained glass, textiles and carpets fell to Dearle.
In 1905 Henry Marillier joined the company as managing director and the new company was named Morris & Co. Decorators Ltd. In 1925 the company was renamed as Morris & Co Art Workers Ltd. With the death of Dearle in 1932 the company lost its artistic strength, the quality of work gradually fell and with the depleting market the order books shrank. The company continued to decline until it went into liquidation in May 1940.
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Canvas Prints new look website
19/03/2008 by conrad.
Canvas Dezign are about to launch their new canvas prints at the end of this month. Some of the newer features being offered on the canvas prints website will be :-
1. canvas prints featured designers
2. canvas prints blogs
3. canvas prints user groups
4. canvas prints stats on best selling designs and designers
5. canvas prints new preview section after upload
6. canvas prints customisable sizes and all new bespoke ordering section
7. canvas prints new shopping cart
8. canvas prints new checkout procedure, plus much more
Please visit our canvas prints website in the next month and see the changes yourself. They are going to be awesome
Visit www.canvasdezign.co.uk for your canvas prints
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Rotary Screen Engraving
15/03/2008 by conrad.
Rotary Screen Engraving
In an engraving world driven by yesteryear, are the tables/times finally changing???
Rotary Screen Engraving has been around in the UK for many a century now, but there are very few people left who know about Rotary Screen Engraving.
One of the biggest problems in the decorative/Rotary Screen Engraving industry is the amount of people that shy away from change. The biggest problem with change in the Rotary Screen Engraving industry, is that people fear it.
If you feel like a change today and want your Rotary Screen Engraving doing by a reputable UK Rotary Screen Engraving company, contact Planbseparations today.
Rotary Screen Engraving by Plan B
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Wallpaper Borders
09/03/2008 by conrad.
Wallpaper borders are a well-kept secret used by many interior decorators that I know. These simple and affordable narrow strips of wallpaper can add color and a theme to an otherwise plain-vanilla room.
Wallpaper borders are a true wallpaper product, but they differ from regular wallpaper in the manner in which they are installed and their relative size. Traditional wallpaper is hung vertically from the ceiling to the floor Wallpaper borders are hung horizontally.
Traditional rolls of wallpaper might be 21 inches wide and 20-30 feet long. A wallpaper border might be 20 or 30 feet wide but only 6 to 9 inches high. But this is perfect sizing since you want the border to dress up your wall surface in the same way as a ribbon adorns a gift box.
A wallpaper border is commonly applied to a wall surface where the wall meets the ceiling. However, I have routinely installed a border about 36 inches high off the floor. Wallpaper borders can also be used to separate two different wallpapers in a room.
For example, my basement bathroom has a tropical-themed border that separates a bamboo wallpaper from a light-colored wallpaper that has tropical plant leaves in its background. The border brings together two vastly different wallpapers making the three wallpaper products look like they were made for one another.
It is very easy to install wallpaper border material. The biggest reason, in my opinion, is that you are working with less material than a large sheet of traditional wallpaper. Furthermore, when you do have to match the pattern, you are working with a strip of paper often less than a foot tall. This makes matching a breeze.
To install a wallpaper border, you do need all of the same tools one uses for traditional wallpaper. My wallpaper toolbox has a special wallpaper razor knife I use to trim paper, a smoothing brush that flattens the border once it is applied to the wall and a broad knife that you may use to help trim the border material if the ceiling line is not consistent. You will also discover quickly that you will need a measuring tape, a stepladder, a sponge and numerous buckets of water. You might also need a 4-inch-wide paintbrush to apply a paste activator.
It helps to have a large pasting table that serves as a work platform in the event you need to apply a special adhesive or a clear paste activator gel to the back of the border.
If you want the border to stay attached to the wall for many years, you must pay very close attention to the type of adhesive you will be using. Some borders come pre-pasted from the factory, but that adhesive may not be suitable if you are installing the border on top of a vinyl-coated wallpaper. In these cases, you often must use a special adhesive that bonds borders to other wallpaper products. Be sure to follow the manufacturer’s written instructions, and use the correct adhesive for your situation.
Since you are applying your border to a painted wall, and you will probably buy a pre-pasted border material, the factory-applied glue will be fine. You can apply water to the border to activate the paste, but I have had far better luck with clear paste-activating gels. These gels are quickly brushed onto the back of the border.
Hanging borders requires the same techniques one would use to hang wallpaper. The biggest mistake often made by rookies is the failure to book the border. Booking is a process where you activate the paste and fold the border so the pasted surface folds back on itself. This process allows the border paper to relax. As the paper relaxes, it swells in size.
You want this swelling to happen on the pasting table while you are working with another piece of the border. If you activate the border paste, and then immediately try to hang the border, you will undoubtedly get all sorts of bubbles and blisters on the border as the border swells on the wall. This swelling action pushes the paper off the wall with each new bubble.
Avoid the temptation to wrap the border around inside corners where one wall meets another. The border may look good as you install it, but hours later the border may pull away from the corner as the adhesive dries. Run one piece of wallpaper border around the corner and trim it so there is just 3/16ths inch of border on the next wall. Then match up the pattern and start a new stip of border exactly in the corner. The second piece of border overlaps the small tab of border from the previous strip on the adjacent wall.
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Forest Wall Mural
05/03/2008 by conrad.
We recently completed a wall mural for a very happy customer. Steen Sorensen supplied us with his memory stick and we gave back to him his very own bespoke wall mural.
Here is what he had to say “Hallo Conrad McKee & Team!
You have done a good job on my wall mural.(Choice of border colour is perfect).
I will send you an e-mail, when it is put up (to show what it then looks like).
Yours Steen Sorensen.”
Please see pictures below of the wall murals
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What is Metamerism
05/03/2008 by conrad.
Metamerism is a psychophysical phenomenon commonly defined incorrectly as “two samples which match when illuminated by a particular light source and then do not match when illuminated by a different light source.”
In actuality there are several types of Metamerism, of which the first two described below are most commonly referred to and also most commonly confused:
Sample metamerism: When two color samples appear to match under a particular light source, and then do not match under a different light source this is “sample metamerism.” One can conclude that the spectral reflectance distributions of the 2 samples differ slightly, and their plotted reflectance curves cross in at least 2 regions. By illuminating them with lights with consideralby differing spectral power distributions you can witness and even exaggerate the visual differences between the 2 samples. The example below is how most remember this is the most commonly experienced form of metamerism.
Example: most people have experienced sample metamerism when putting on two socks that appeared to be black while in the bedroom (which may have incandescent lights), but later finding that one is black and the other is blue upon stepping into the kitchen (which may have fluorescent lights). The differences in the wavelength distribution between the incandescent and fluorescent lights interact with the differences in the spectral reflectance curves of the socks to make them appear the same in one light source and different in another.
Explanation: Incandescent light bulbs contain relatively little light in shorter (blue) wavelengths, and thus it would be more difficult to distinguish blue colors in such lighting conditions. The fluorescent illumination in the kitchen emits more short-wavelength light, and thus the dark blue can be more easily distinguished from black. In incandescent light, the socks are a “metameric match”; in fluorescent light, they do not match.
Illuminant metamerism: Illuminant metamerism is witnessed when you have a number of spectrally matched (exactly the same) samples, but when each is independently, yet simultaneously illuminated and viewed under lights whose spectral power distributions differ. You can perceive significant variations of the color.This phenomenon is rarely witnessed, unless you have a light box that allows you to see both lights separated by a divider, and your 2 identical samples illuminated by the different light sources.
Example: When you visit a lighting department of a major home improvement store they will have a bank of lights with dividers in between. Grab a number of identical sample swatches from the paint chip department and place one identical sample under each light. Stand back to winess how each illuminant affects the sample.
Observer metamerism: Every individual perceives color slightly differently. (Assuming the individuals posess adequate color matching aptitude.) This can be demonstrated in many ways, but suffice it to say, observer metamerism is the reason there were 31 individuals tested to derive the 1931 “standard observer” values adopted by the ISO and are still used as the basis for the majority of color science study today.
Geometric metamerism: Identical colors appear different when viewed at different angles, distances, light positions, etc. It can be argued that one reason men and women often perceive color differently is that the distance between woman’s eyes is, on average, slightly less than a man’s, and that slightly different angle of stereoscopic viewpoint also falls under the category of geometric metamerism.
Graphic arts and color reproduction considerations: In the printing industry, metamerism is the source of great frustration. It is perceived as a negative characteristic of color, and if it did not exist, color reproduction problems would be eliminated . In actuality, it is this phenomenon of metamerism that allows for mass color reproduction of an artwork.
Explanation: Artists paint with oils, pastels, crayons, and various dyes and pigments, and each medium has unique spectral reflectance curves. The majority of color reproductions utilize cyan, magenta, yellow, and black inks or colorants. In some cases printers incorporate a few additional colors to expand their gamut. But none of these inks are exact spectral matches to the media originally used to produce the original art. Therefore, a printed reproduction of an original artwork reproduction is a metameric match to the original. Inks used to create a color reproduction can be combined to simulate an artwork, but can only be made to accurately match the reproduction under only one (D50 or D65) light source. Because of metamerism it is impossible to generate a color reproduction that can match under every light source. But without the phenomenon of metamerism, mass color reproductions would not be possible and the color reproduction industry as we know it simply would not exist.
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Sports mural success
26/02/2008 by conrad.
Today we completed a wall mural for a working mens club that was stunning. The sports wall mural fearured lots of sports figures and the feedback so far has been overwhelming.
See below for before and after pictures of the wall mural
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Athelhampton House & Gardens
26/02/2008 by conrad.
Today we completed a wallpaper restoration project for Athelhampton House & Gardens. The 15th century estate required 2 rolls of vintage wallpaper. We were contacted regarding reproducing the vintage wallpaper by the customer and we got the order.
This is were digitally printed wallpaper wins over conventional wallpaper because if you were going to do this project using a rotary screen engraver in the UK, they would sting you for a bill for a few grand .
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Photos onto canvas new site
20/02/2008 by conrad.
Our sister site Canvas Dezign is launching its new site in the next few weeks. Initial design ideas can be seen, but the main focus will be on the ordering system for your photos onto canvas.
In the meantime if you need your photos onto canvas visit http://www.canvasdezign.co.uk
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Flexography or Surface Printing
20/02/2008 by conrad.
Flexography (also known as surface printing), and often abbreviated to flexo, is a method of printing. Flexo or surface printing is most commonly used for packaging (Labels, Tape, Bags, Boxes, Banners, Etc). Over the last few years surface printing has become very popular as a “high end” wallpaper printing method
A flexo or surface print is achieved by creating a mirrored image of the required image as a 3D relief in a rubber or polymer material. The required amount of ink is deposited upon the surface of the surface printing plate (or printing cylinder) using an anilox roll. An anilox is the same as a Gravure roller but has a much finer screen ruling.The surface print roller then rotates, contacting the print material which transfers the ink.
Originally flexo / surface printing was extremely basic in quality and setup. Labels requiring high quality have generally been printed Offset until recently. In the last few years great advances have been made to the quality of flexo printing presses. Finer screens have been used for flexo engraving and developments in software have meant that the “Dots” are barely visible now.
A great method for removing dot structure from a halftone screened flexo roller is to apply what is called a mezzo dither dot. Mezzo’s have no mechanical structure to them and use clever software techniques to apply the patterns to the artworks. (A full demonstration and instruction manual on this will be published shortly and can be achieved using only Photoshop)
The greatest advances though have been in the area of PhotoPolymer Printing Plates, including improvements to the plate material and the method of plate creation. This is achieved using photographic exposure and some chemical etching technoques. Direct laser engraving is also used.
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Canvas Prints at Canvas Dezign
12/02/2008 by conrad.
Canvas Prints price cut
Canvas Dezign have reduced the prices on quite a lot of the canvas prints they produce. Canvas prints now start at £10 and the most expensive canvas prints are £99.
For more detailed information on the canvas prints price reductions, see here http://www.canvasdezign.co.uk
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Linocut print making technique and wallpaper
07/02/2008 by conrad.
Linocut is a printmaking technique and is a variant of woodcut. In woodcut printmaking a sheet of linoleum (often mounted on a wooden block) is used for the relief surface. The design is then cut into the linoleum surface with a sharp knife or scalpel, with the raised (uncarved or embossed) areas representing a reversal (inverse or mirror image) of the parts to be printed. The cut areas can then be pulled from the backing. The linoleum sheet is inked using a printing roller (known as a brayer), and then pressed onto paper or fabric. This printing method can be done by hand or by a machine.
As the material being carved has no particular direction to its grain and does not tend to split, it is easier to obtain certain artistic effects than with most woods, although the resultant prints lack the wood character of wood block printing. Linoleum is also much easier to cut than wood, which must be carved away, but the pressure of the printing process degrades the image plate much faster. It is also more difficult to create larger image works due to the material’s fragility.
Linoleum as a floor covering dates to the 1860s, but the linocut method was invented by the artists of Die Brücke in Germany between 1905-13. At first they described their prints as woodcuts, which sounded more respectable.
Colour linocuts can be made by using a different colour block for each colour, as in woodcut. But, as Pablo Picasso demonstrated quite effectively, such prints can also be achieved using a single piece of linoleum in what is called the ‘reductive’ print method. Essentially, after each successive colour is imprinted onto the paper, the artist then cleans the lino plate and goes back into the linoleum, cutting away what will not be imprinted for the subsequently applied colour.
Due to ease of use, linocut is widely used in schools to introduce children to the art of printmaking; similarly, non-professional artists often use linocut rather than woodcut. Wallpaper / Wallcovering where made like this once but are now replaced by Flexo Printers and Surface Printers.
More recently digitally printed wallpaper has been used to replicate this effect as with a computer anything can be achieved. The advantage of a digitally printed wallcovering is that you do not have to engrave a single roller, which dependent on where you go can be in excess of £1000.
You could also have a rotary screen engraver engrave you a rotary screen and this effect can be made to look like Surface or flexo printing.
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125 jobs are gone as Keating Group closes
03/02/2008 by conrad.
Engraver Closes
The UK’s “largest” gravure cylinders engraving facility has closed, with “around 125″ jobs across the country left hanging in the balance.
Staff at Keating Group, which also specialises in repro and cylinder production and is headquartered in Mold, Flintshire, were told on Friday morning that they were redundant and would not be paid for the last four weeks.
Ex-owner Mike Keating, who sold the business to Mike Samuel and Paul Musto in July last year, called the collapse “disgraceful”.
He claimed Ernst & Young had been appointed administrators this afternoon, “nearly a week” since the directors “pulled the plug”.
A source at one site said there had been “absolutely no expectation” of the shutdown, which the directors blamed on a bank changing its mind about releasing money for the company.
Keating Group’s sites include a cylinder engraving facility in Bradley Fold, Lancashire, a printer inplant facility in Livingston, Scotland, a repro site in Letchworth, Hertfordshire and a site in Dublin.
According to Keating, he was working with Ernst & Young to “trying to arrange something at Bradley Fold”.
“I’m just looking to see if any jobs can be saved,” he said, but admitted that he had “no power or control” to save “people he’d worked with for 20 years.”
KEATING FACTFILE
Sites
• Mold, Flintshire repro, gravure cylinder engraving and production
• Bradley Fold engraving
• Letchworth design and repro
• Livingston engraving
• Dublin design, repro, engraving
Staff
• 125
Established
• 1987
Customers
• Amcor
• Alcan
• British American Tobacco
Comments
When will the Printing Industry open up there eyes to the real world?
All print companies should take on board the `right` business people and business models to be successful in the 21st century.
There will be more companies going `bust` due to closing there eyes to the 21st century requirements.
Colin Thompson
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Our Wallpaper goes to Greece
31/01/2008 by conrad.
We have recently completed some wallpaper for a client that is going to be hung in a Pharmacy in Greece. It goes to show that even in Greece we are being found and wallpaper is still fashionable all over Europe.Please see example below of the wall covering we did.
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A Gift That’s Personal
30/01/2008 by conrad.
It’s not always easy finding the perfect gift that is also personal. Well it’s just become a bit easier. There is a great way for you to combine personal and stylish to your gift giving list whether it is for a birthday, house warming gift or anniversary it’s called a photo canvas.
You can easily make a picture into canvas, or you can have a company do it for you. I suggest that you make a picture into canvas on your own because it is going to save you a great deal of money doing so and it is much more personal as well. Let’s look at how you can accomplish this.
The first and most important thing that you are going to need is a high quality digital picture. This is important for the quality of the picture. You don’t want to use a photo that has very low quality because it is going to show when you print it onto the canvas.
Now choosing the photo that you plan on making into a canvas is just as important as well. This is going to be displayed on the wall of their home, and you want it to brighten up the room. You are creating a piece of wall art.
Alright now that you have found or taken the high quality digital picture that you are going to use now you will need to learn how you are going to get this photo from your computer onto the canvas. It’s much easier than it sounds so don’t worry.
You are going to need to purchase a few things, and you will need to know what size canvas you plan on putting your photo on. Unless you know the exact spot that your gift receiver is going to put your wall art I suggest that you don’t make this photo canvas that large.
Here is a small list of the things that you are going to need to buy to complete your picture onto canvas for one of the most personal gifts that you can give.
Fabric that you will use to cover the canvas. Make sure that you get enough, you can determine how much you will need when you know how big the canvas is going to be.
One box of canvas and a staple gun and staples.
Alright now that you have your items let’s begin to make a picture into canvas.
There are a few things that you will need to do in order to ensure that everything works perfect, and the first thing is to ensure that the fabric is wrinkle free. So you will need to iron the fabric before you cut it to size for the canvas. Before you cut it it’s important that you cut it to size but leave extra to cover the sides.
When you are putting the fabric on the front of the box canvas you want to be sure that the fabric is tight before you begin stapling it. You don’t want to have any wrinkles on your wall art. If you are making a big picture on canvas you might want to ask someone to help you put the fabric on the box. It will make it much easier, and ensure that there are no wrinkles.
As you can see it is fairly easy for you to make a picture into canvas. If you don’t think that you can handle this on your own there are many websites that you can use that will charge you a fee to make your picture into canvas. The websites are very easy to use.
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What is Anaglypta Wallpaper
19/01/2008 by conrad.
Anaglypta Wallpaper is an embossed paintable wallpaper made from a form of cotton pulp. The word anaglypta is from the Greek language and translates as raised ornamentation. This style of wall covering is more than 100 years old and began to increase in popularity as well as availability outside of Europe in the late 1900’s.
Anaglypta is not a wallpaper that is ready to hang on the wall because it is thick and very heavy. It requires a strong wallpaper adhesive because it is so heavy. The wallpaper is beautiful as it is, but it has good followings in the decorative world because of its ability to hide wall imperfections as well as the ability to paint it in any colour you like.
Anaglypta, like any regular wallpaper or blown vinyl wallpaper, should be hung then allowed to dry for a day or two before you paint it. IYou should always prime the wallpaper first with a primer that is a lighter shade than the final wall colour will be. The main reason for using a tinted primer and not a white primer is that the Anaglypta wallpaper is already white and you run the risk of missing areas. Some paint suppliers now offer a pink when wet and white when dry paint. These are very good for painting Anaglypta wallpaper.
This uniquely textured wallpaper from the Victorian era adds charm and style to any room. Because it is paintable and comes in many beautiful styles, it is perfect for faux finishes, such as mimicking a hammered tin ceiling or creating a mock tin backsplash. These looks are achieved with metallic paints. Anaglypta is also frequently used to imitate stone or as a less expensive way to achieve the feel of intricately carved moldings.
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Wallpaper Color Space Fundamentals
11/01/2008 by conrad.
Computer monitor screens emit color in RGB colour space (red, green, blue) light. Although all colors of the visible colour spectrum can be produced by mixing red, green and blue, computer monitors are capable of showing only a limited colour gamut. Colour gamut is the visible spectrum.
Where monitors emit light, printed paper absorbs or reflects specific wavelengths of light. Cyan, magenta, yellow inks act as filters, subtracting varying degrees of red, green and blue from white light to produce a selective gamut of spectral colour. Like monitors, printing inks also produce a color gamut that is only a subset of the visible spectrum, although the range is not the same for both. Consequently, the same art displayed on a computer monitor may not match to that printed in a publication. Also, because printing processes such as offset lithography use CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) inks, digital art must be converted to CMYK color for print. Many printers now prefer digital art files be supplied in the RGB color space with ICC profiles attached. Images can then be converted to the CMYK color space by the printer using color management methods that honor profiles if present; this helps preserve the best possible detail and vibrancy.
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Refer to the Instructions for Authors for your journal to determine if files should be supplied as RGB or CMYK. Some printers may prefer your files be delivered in RGB with ICC profiles attached, as this allows the printer to use color management methods when converting to CMYK. Other printers may prefer your files in the CMYK (Cyan/Magenta/Yellow/Black) mode, as this is the mode required for the printing process. If an RGB (Red/Green/Blue) file is submitted, it must be converted to CMYK for print. When the conversion takes place, color shifts can occur and TSG will do our best to reproduce as close of a match to your printed output as possible.
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Most desktop scanners, digital cameras, and video capture systems save files as RGB and the conversion of RGB files to CMYK can be done in many ways. RGB converts to only CMY directly. However, when printing, we must add black ink and in doing so must cut back on some color. The Undercolor Removal (UCR) setup will help control this ratio so that a maximum ink density for the four colors will be 280-300% when printing on a coated paper printing stock.
Digital art that is comprised of spot colors (e.g., special colors: any colors that are not CMYK process colors), generally require conversion to the CMYK color space to enable file use. Because color gamut’s for spot color libraries, such as those associated with the PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM, usually extend beyond the ranges of the CMYK color gamut, some spot colors may not be represented effectively using CMYK process inks.
In offset lithography, the density of CMYK inks can not be varied in continuous fashion across an image, so a range is produced by means of halftone screening. In halftoning, translucent CMYK ink dots of variable size are printed in overlapping patterns. Patterns are placed at different angles for each of the ink colors. Smaller halftone dots absorb less light; thus, as a result of an increase in the amount of reflected light, apparent density is decreased and the object appears lighter.
| Halftoning screen angles (133lpi 40% screen enlarged) |
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Wallcovering Feedback
08/01/2008 by conrad.
Conrad
Apologies for not getting back to you sooner, but our client was away for some time. I spoke to her recently regarding the border wallcovering , and they are very happy. The wallcovering hasn’t yet been put up, but so far they like it a lot.
Thanks for your help.
Regards
Albert
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