www.griffenmill.com

In earlier centuries, paper was not specifically designed for a particular purpose but rather fell into very broad general categories such as wrapping ,writing or printing papers. Consumers used whatever was to hand or simply chose whichever paper was best. Old wallpapers reflect the diversity of these choices.

Nowadays, choosing a badly performing paper can be costly; tighter specifications & understanding of potential conservation problems have become very important.

There are many different processes that occur in converting a plain sheet of paper into a printed wallpaper and these need to be taken into account when designing the specifications. Stretch, tensile & burst strength,printability, sizing strength,bulk, expansivity & degree of wet strength etc can make the
difference between success or failure.

Griffen Mill has worked with wallpaper conservators in Europe and England to provide a variety of handmade papers for wallpaper restoration projects.

Some years ago,Uppark House in the South of England caught fire.
The National Trust decided to restore the House & Griffen Mill was asked to reproduce the brown handmade paper acting as a lining paper underneath an early machine made wallpaper.The support for the paper was uneven & so it was important to design paper that worked on such a surface.

Handmade paper from the Mill has been screen printed succesfully and an example by Geert Wisse is shown here.

This coloured border was reproduced from a very small fragment of the original border. Close examination revealed that the original paper was not in fact blue but white with a blue fleck.Perhaps the papermakers found a source of blue & white pyjama cuttings!

Papers have also been block printed & even been converted into flocked wallpaper.

Griffen Mill wallpaper was used to cover the walls of the
Strawberry Room of new British Galleries of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London (UK).This is an example of the Verditer technique by Alysson McDermott.

To find out more information, please contact the Mill. We are more than happy to discuss your requirements & provide a quotation without obligation. Prices and volume discounts are similar to our standard papers.

In addition if you would like us to recommend a wallpaper specialist who can arrange for the printing & hanging of the paper, we can do that too!