Stencil, Washable, and Flock Paper-hangings.
In some of the cheaper papers, the preparation of the carved wooden block, and the time and attention necessary in using them, would be incompatible with the charge made for the finished article: an alteration is therefore made in the mode of proceeding. The principal outline is printed on the paper by means of a carved block in the usual way; but the remaining colours are put in by stencilling. A stencil, or stencil-plate, is a piece of leather, oil-cloth, or thin sheet metal, with any required device cut in it. Such a stencil is laid down flat on the paper, and is covered with the required colour by means of a brush. This colour of course passes through the holes in the stencil, and falls on the paper, while the uncut parts of the stencil prevent the colour from falling on any other part of the paper. A device is thus painted on the paper in a much easier manner than by the use of a carved block. But from the nature of the process it is found that the delicate parts of the pattern cannot be represented by this means, as it is difficult to ensure the passage of the colour through small perforations. But for the purposes to which stencilling is applied—viz., the preparation of cheap paper-hangings, this delicacy is not required. One or more carved blocks are used with the stencil plates according to circumstances, the choice between blocks and stencils depending both on the nature of the pattern, and on the value of the paper when finished.
Some of the more costly kinds of paper-hangings have gold as one of the materials forming the device. This is effected by using a wash of gold powder, instead of a pigment, on one of the carved blocks. There are also washable paper-hangings, in which the surface is of a glossy or varnished nature, by which it may be washed free from dirt and grease without removing the colours with which the paper is printed. There is likewise a kind of paper-hangings called flock paper, which has been much in use, and of which the following description has been given.
The flock is woollen cloth reduced to great fineness, and laid on with varnish. After the coloured portions of the paper are finished, a carved block representing the device which is to be flocked, is laid down on a flat place coated with wet varnish, and an impression of the varnish is transferred to the paper, just as if it had been a coloured pigment. A quantity of the powdered flock is then strewed over the whole paper, and pressed on it by a flat board, a roller, or some other convenient means. The paper is then left to dry, after which the dry flock is brushed off from those parts where no varnish had been applied, leaving an appearance much resembling that of coarse woollen cloth, which our readers may frequently have noticed. The flock is prepared in various ways. Sometimes pieces of woollen cloth of the proper colour are taken, and chopped up by means of a bill or knife; but this is a rude and imperfect way, now probably out of use. Another mode is, to place the pieces of cloth in a flat box, and cause a sharp knife, moved by machinery, to pass rapidly, with a chopping motion in every direction over the various pieces of cloth. In some cases, also, the cloth is reduced to flock by a kind of grinding process.