Lizzie Allen - Hand Screen printed wallpapers

A very interesting lecture by UK Wallpaper Designer Lizzie Allen who hand screen prints her beautiful, and fun illustrations of London Street Scenes.

Lizzie Allen's philosophy is Originality, Novelty and Quality. She hand mixes inks and hand prints her innovative wallpapers in her own studio. Inspired by her love of travelling, cultures and traditions. she uses mainly four to seven colour ways in her designs as more is costly. Her rolls of wallpaper sell for approximately £500 per roll which takes into account the cost of production, studio rental rates and an hourly wage. Lizzie's wallpapers are hand made and totally unique so are in the high end price bracket. They are sold in Liberty London, Hamilton Weston, John Lewis, and in Paris, Germany, Switzerland and New Zealand.

Lizzie's lecture was very informative and eye opening into the wallpaper printing business using the hand screen printing methods. The initial outlay costs and mark up applied by companies, hard work and dedication required to run your own business, investments, funding, publicity and finding a gap in the market.

She discussed the decline in hand screen printing facilities and that 'Made in England' is a definite selling point.

After Lizzie's lecture, my decision to hand screen print my designs changed. Due to the printing costs and the fact that my watercolour paintings are more suitable to digital print, as they have many fine details, shadows etc that I decided screen printing them would not be suitable. I will continue with screen printing for larger scale images and flocks, foils and devore prints.

Digital is more economical and environmentally friendly as less water and ink is used in each production.

Allen, L [2006] Lizzie Allen Hand Screen Printed Wallpaper

[Online] Available from: http://www.lizzieallen.co.uk/wallpapers_2008/wallpapers_2009.html