In the spring 2025 semester, RISD students in a Printmaking course are learning from the current exhibition The Art of French Wallpaper Design. Using traditional hand-printing methods, they will create their own designs on-site in the museum's Common Room.
About the Class
Printed Walls: Wallpaper Design, Technique, and History
The RISD Museum has an extraordinary collection of historic French wallpapers on view through May 2025 in the exhibition "The Art of French Wallpaper Design." Led by Professor Andrew Raftery, RISD students in Printmaking, Textiles, Interior Architecture, Furniture and other disciplines will interact with the exhibition and with other wallpapers at the museum and in archives and interiors in Providence. Skills will be shared at every step and a broad view of pattern and ornament will draw from printed art, textiles and sculptural/architectural ornament from many cultures. Students will develop new designs to be realized using reconstructed historical and innovative contemporary printing methods.
About the Press
This printing press was donated to Andrew Raftery by Adelphi Paper Hangings, a small, artisanal producer of historically accurate block printed wallpapers. Adelphi re-printed our 1799 wallpaper by Manufacture Bon for the exhibition gallery.
This 19th-century-style press is used with carved wood blocks. When in use, a long arm is attached to the press and used as a lever to apply pressure to the inked block. Watch this process implemented with a similar press at Adelphi's workshop:
