For a production of The Imaginary Inualid at the University of Wisconsin LaCrosse, we gave our shop-built French Baroque furniture the necessary low-relief surface decoration with appliques of Anaglypta®, an embossed wallpaper manufactured by British Crown Relief, Ltd. The following list outlines the steps we followed.

1. Cut lengths and shapes of the desired pattern from a roll of embossed wallpaper.

2. Soak pieces of wallpaper in clean, room-temperature water for one minute.

3. Allow the wallpaper to shed excess water.

4. Apply a thin coat of flexible glue and water (2 parts glue: 1 part water) to the surface of the piece to be covered.

5. Adhere the wallpaper to the glue-coated area, and then top coat the paper with more of the glue and water mixture. Let all surfaces dry thoroughly.

6. Base paint the surface with a latex paint thinned as much as possible. (Thicker base paint will obscure the pattern.) The base color should be a tint since it will be revealed in step 7 as the highlight color. Let the paint dry.

7. Apply the shadow color, lightly wiping the paint from raised areas of the pattern with a damp sponge, leaving the paint in the recessed areas. Let the paint dry.

8. Brush the raised areas with a coat of bronzing powder suspended in clear latex to create an effective gilded appearance.

9. Apply a gloss latex or other finish coat.

Since Anaglypta® is a 100% cotton product, the coat of flexible glue which is applied to its surface in step 5 is crucial. On samples without this coating, the wallpaper was damaged by the application of multiple coats of paint.

Anaglypta®, an imported wall covering which may be a bit difficult to find in some locales, ranges in price from $20.00 to $40.00 per roll depending on the supplier. Treating the Invalids spinet and bench, armchair and matching ottoman, changing screen, side table, and two side chairs took less than half of a single roll. Anaglypta® is available from the following vendors among others:

Budget Paint & Wallpaper
4009 Minnehaha Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55406
(612) 724-7676

Norton Blumenthal, Inc.
979 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10022
(212) 752-2535

None of the materials used in this relief technique are toxic, and no special tools or skills are required. Perhaps one of this technique’s most attractive aspects is the fact that it can be accomplished by a relatively unskilled work force. Our staff is always looking for construction and finishing techniques which can be effectively undertaken by students fulfilling crew requirements in the shop. A noteworthy bonus is the fact that those students who applied this technique to our furniture felt a great sense of accomplishment — “Beats sweeping floors!”

Technical Director for this production was Ron Stoffregen.