1 Styling: Soft Action by Leyla Model: Marisa Suáez-Orozco
Granado, Emiliano
Paper wall décor
Issue #33
Make it mod with woven blobs
By Jen Ng
Published: September 1st, 2007 | 12:00am
Cost
$90
Time
This is a leisurely one- to two-week project if you’re crafting on top of a full-time job. Quicker and cheaper alternative: If money and time are precious, both can be reduced with variations. Consider using larger “blobs” and less grommets and rings — covers the same surface area with less supplies and time.
Supplies
• 1 quart rubber cement (officedepot.com)
• one roll of paintable, “small squares”–textured wallpaper (grahambrown.com). Leave 6 feet unpainted and pre-cut into half-inch strips. You can vary width to change up design, but be consistent. Set aside to be woven into the blobs.
• 6 feet of unpainted wallpaper, pre-cut into strips and set aside (to be woven into blobs). Can vary width (for example, narrower strips for smaller blobs).
• 1/2 gallon latex paint
• 100 1.5-inch diameter loose-leaf rings (officedepot.com)
• 125 1/4-inch grommets + setter (available as a set)
• cardboard (like-new condition)
• 10 common wire nails
• brush (any cheap, wide brush will do; for use when applying rubber cement)
• hammer
• paint roller and paint tray
• pencil
• scissors
• self-healing cutting mat
• straight edge
• various-sized circular objects (CD, bowls, to-go food lids)
• X-acto knife
Editor’s Note: These instructions are tailored to fit an 8 feet-by-5 feet wall.
Reusable and easily storable, this ‘60s-style wall hanging can be dismantled and reassembled to quench the palates of fear-of-commitment decorators. The “blob” is expandable and retractable to suit any teensy or whopping space. Experiment with different colors, shapes, sizes, and weaves for different effects.
1. Paint wallpaper. Allow one hour to dry.
2. Draw 25 various-sized silhouettes of blobs on smooth, flat, and crease-free cardboard panels.
3. With an X-acto knife, cut out the cardboard blobs, using a large and flat piece of cardboard underneath as protection. Set blobs aside.
4. Unroll a few feet of the textured wallpaper, and lay flat upside-down on work area. Put a cardboard blob on top and trace the silhouette onto the wallpaper. Repeat until all various-shaped cardboard blobs are paired with a wallpaper blob. Number the cardboard blobs and wallpaper blobs to keep track of the pairs.
5. Use scissors to cut out wallpaper blobs.
6. Place wallpaper blobs upside-down and draw a circle within each blob. Leave at least 1 inch of space from the edge. Repeat with all blobs. (See figure 1.)
7. Draw a set of equidistant parallel lines throughout circles with a straight-edge. Repeat with all circles. (See figure 2.)
8. Place upside-down paper blobs on a self-healing cutting mat. With straight edge and X-acto knife, slice through all parallel lines and side arches, avoiding cutting into the last parallel line. (See figure 3.) Repeat with all blobs.
9. Flip paper blobs right side up. Starting with the longest part of the circle (the center), weave pre-cut wallpaper strips (exceeding at least 2 inches in length of your circle’s diameter) through the wallpaper slits, alternating with an “under and over” movement with each slit. (i.e. Row one starts with over, then under. Row two starts with under, then over.) (See figure 4) Work your way to the shorter ends of the circles. Be sure to leave strips “tucked in,” and remaining on the underside of the blob. The extra strip length allows a secure hold. Tighten strips throughout, until blob lays crisp and flat. Trim off excess length, leaving 1 inch exceeding the blob’s diameter. (See figure 5.) Repeat for all blobs.
10. Apply rubber cement on cardboard blobs and adhere with matching woven wallpaper blobs.
11. Lay out all blobs on large surface area and arrange to desired layout, accounting for the placement of grommeted holes and linking of loose-leaf rings. Mark Xs on areas where the grommets will go. Do not exceed five grommets per blob.
12. Follow instructions on grommet kit and set grommets near the blob edges, leaving the right amount of space for the loose-leaf rings to connect the blobs. (Tip: Test the spacing of grommets between each blob to see how loose-leaf rings connect with blobs before continuing.)
13. Link blobs with loose-leaf rings through the grommets, until all pieces are connected. Play around with layout as necessary.
14. Determine where blobs will hang from. Get a buddy to help you lift the wall-hanging, and another buddy to hammer in nails through various grommets into the wall, starting near the top and ensuring nails are placed evenly throughout piece.
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