{"id":36064,"date":"2017-07-22T04:43:46","date_gmt":"2017-07-22T04:43:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=36064"},"modified":"2017-07-22T04:45:48","modified_gmt":"2017-07-22T04:45:48","slug":"graphic-inspiration-wallpaper-fabric-brought-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/lifestyle\/graphic-inspiration-wallpaper-fabric-brought-life.html","title":{"rendered":"Graphic inspiration: wallpaper and fabric brought to life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Graphic inspiration: wallpaper and fabric brought to life<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Graphic inspiration: wallpaper and fabric brought to life:- call it a punked-up version of history,\u201d says Maxine Hall as she admires her dramatic wallpaper, lining the red-carpeted stairway of her Derby home. Viewed from a distance it has an abstract feel, but draw close and intriguing elements from the past emerge from the velvety-black depths. There\u2019s the famous carved imp which peers down inside Lincoln Cathedral, a \u201cnetsuke deity\u201d, a flash of butterfly wing and a bird skull, glowing like relics revealed on a river bank.<\/span><\/p>\n

This painterly effect draws on digital skills which Hall has developed since studying photography at the University of Westminster in the late 80s. \u201cI was their first student to specialise in digital imagery. I sensed that technology was going to change everything.\u201d After college she worked as a fine artist and university lecturer until, in 2012, she \u201ctook the mid-life plunge\u201d and set up her home furnishings business, Blackpop. \u201cI\u2019d always worked digitally, mixing graphics and photography. It struck me that wallpaper and textiles would be the perfect canvases.\u201d A first collection of \u201celegantly distressed, non-chocolate-boxy\u201d designs led to commissions from shops and restaurants. In 2015 a collaboration with the National Portrait Gallery, inspired by X-ray imagery of the museum\u2019s Tudor portraits, won a best product award at Decorex.<\/span><\/p>\n

All the designs begin life in her studio, tucked under the eaves of the terraced house she bought 17 years ago with her partner, Paula Moss, an artist and Blackpop\u2019s studio director. \u201cThe arts and crafts bones of the house appealed to our imagination,\u201d says Moss. \u201cAnd it was all we could afford at the time,\u201d laughs Hall.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over time, the couple have put their epoch-mixing seal on the interior, juxtaposing Gothic paint hues with mid-century lighting, swapping carpet for time-worn floorboards and offsetting stained-glass windows with abstract paintings for an Edgar Allan Poe-meets-Jackson Pollock effect.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve made changes when funds allowed,\u201d Hall continues, pointing to the kitchen, which is cupboard-free, inspired by the couple\u2019s rustic cottage in Spain. Provisions are stored in the original pantry. The solid-looking worktops were made from inexpensive floor tiles; the gleaming metro tiles are another thrifty cheat. \u201cOur builder cut squares into rectangles because at the time it was hard to find an affordable version.\u201d In the dining room, the curvy Hans Brattrud chairs were an eBay steal. \u201cPaula started bidding at midnight and wouldn\u2019t stop until she\u2019d won,\u201d says Hall. The dramatic wallpaper, a recent design inspired by a New York jazz club, sits well with a painting by local artist Lewis Noble. In the sitting room, where the curvy art deco sofas travelled with Moss from her previous home, the pendant was handblown by Curiousa & Curiousa, based in nearby Wirksworth. \u201cThere\u2019s a great tradition of making things here which stretches back to the Industrial Revolution,\u201d says Moss.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t acquire things for the sake of it,\u201d insists Hall, as we plunge into the Gothic shadows of the hallway where a stained-glass door, salvaged from neighbours, replaced the \u201cawful\u201d plastic one. The oak card-filing cabinet was rescued from the Derbyshire Records office where Moss was artist in residence. A Foscarini Bit 1 lamp, found in London in the 90s, glows on the landing. Upstairs, the brooding black fireplace in the bedroom is offset by an Edwardian wardrobe, a present from Moss\u2019s father, an antiques dealer. Next door, a 70s chair was reinvented with a Blackpop fabric inspired by a portrait of Henry VII.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been fascinated by pattern-making,\u201d says Hall. She traces her creative DNA to her father, Mike Hall, who was chief engine designer at Cosworth. \u201cOne of my earliest memories is of crawling and being transfixed by the swirls on the carpet. At school, girls weren\u2019t allowed to do woodworking or technical drawing and I\u2019d gaze into the workshops, wishing I could be there. When I was 13, I decorated my room with newspaper, adding layers of postcards and concert tickets.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She is looking forward to her next collaboration: a collection inspired by material at Sir John Soane\u2019s Museum in London. Soane, architect of the Bank of England, delighted in plundering the past for his designs; an approach which resonates with Hall. \u201cI subscribe to the postmodern philosophy. There are no new ideas \u2013 it is all about mixing up the familiar to make it appear unfamiliar.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0\u00a0https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/lifeandstyle\/2017\/jul\/16\/graphic-inspiration-my-real-digital-home<\/span><\/p>\n

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