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Centre for Rare Arts and Forgotten Trades acknowledges the Wadawurrung people as the Traditional custodians of the land on which we operate. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, and to all of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who live and work on Wadawurrung Country. We acknowledge their unceded sovereignty over Wadawurrung Country, and the ongoing hardship and trauma as a result of colonisation. The history and continuous culture of the Wadawurrung people is an important part of our shared story.

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<h2>New display cases have arrived at the Rare Trades Centre.</h2>Now host to a suite of display cabinets donated by the Art Gallery Ballarat, the Rare Trades Centre and Centre for Gold Rush Collections have opportunities to liven our spaces by exhibiting the tools and works celebrated through our programming.The first entry is a display of screen printing equipment and heritage hand-printed wallpapers. The wallpapers in this display were specially created for the Sovereign Hill Museum by Maree Wilding through her Interior Productions design and printing consultancy. Inspired by traditional Victorian designs, the range of papers were hand-printed in Maree’s studio and can be seen throughout Sovereign Hill’s many heritage buildings.

Screen Printing Display Case

<h2>The history of screen printing</h2>Screen printing originated in China around 221 AD as a means of transferring designs onto fabrics.The practice soon spread to Japan, where paper stencils were used to provide both pathway and resist for inks used to create designs on textiles. At that time, the screens used were woven from human hair, and stiff brushes were used to force the ink through the mesh and into the fabric.Stretched silk mesh was introduced in 17th-century France. Stiff brushes were used for printing until squeegees were invented in the early 20th century to push the ink through the screen.  The art of serigraphy was developed in the mid-1930s, enabling multiple prints of an image to be recreated on paper.

Applying ink

<h2>Learn more about Interior Productions</h2> <blockquote><h4>"...designed for longevity, beyond mass consumption, trend or the season, and informed by an ethos of being mindful, ethical and ecological."</h4></blockquote> Interior Productions evolved from the family company Paperhangings: Classic Interiors, Wallpaper Design and Production, established in 1986 by Maree’s mother, Barbara Wilding.Paperhangings was a boutique company producing handprinted art wallpapers. The company was known for its archival collection of historic classic patterns (1830 - 1960), reproducing historic wallpaper designs for the niche heritage market and for consulting on historic interior decorative schemes.

Screen printing supplies

A key contributor to the significance of Paperhangings was Phyllis Murphy AM. Phyllis was a pioneering contemporary architect from the mid-1940s who helped introduce European modernist architecture to Australia at a time when women were discouraged from entering the field. Phyllis established an award-winning practice with her husband John – John &amp; Phyllis Murphy Pty. Ltd., gaining commissions as diverse as small houses for returned servicemen through the Commonwealth War Services Home Scheme to the 1956 Olympics Swimming Stadium – considered one of the most significant modernist structures in Australia.Encouraged by Robin Boyd, Phyllis and John joined the nascent National Trust in 1958. As the Trust’s honorary architects for over a decade, the Murphys were instrumental in the preservation of significant heritage buildings across Victoria.In 1978, Phyllis became aware of a shed full of old wallpapers that had belonged to the OJ Price painting and decorating business. Established by Joe Perkins in 1859 and run by Oswald J. Price until 1967, the shed contained hundreds of wallpaper rolls and a glimpse into more than a century of evolving tastes in colour, texture and pattern.Rather than consign the trove to the tip as originally planned, Phyllis undertook custodianship of what was named the O J Price Collection, becoming an expert and curator of historical wallpaper in Australia. In 1981, she curated The Decorated Wall: Eighty Years of Wallpaper in Australia c. 1850–1930 at Elizabeth Bay House, one of Museums of History NSW’s heritage properties.

Drying prints

One of the many legacies of Phyllis Murphy’s vision and passion for heritage conservation was her partnership with Barbara Wilding’s Paperhangings and the ongoing work of daughter Maree Wilding. That collaboration is the genesis of Interior Productions’ creating exclusive bespoke quality decorative papers and fabrics designed for longevity, beyond mass consumption, trend or the season, and informed by an ethos of being mindful, ethical and ecological.

Screen Printing: Colouring Our World

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