Digital print on a linen textured vinyl surface. The shape pf the sidewall is a vertical rectangle. The top of the vinyl sidewall is a deep gray color then gradually shades to a terra cotta at the bottom with a blend of two colors where they eventually end up meeting. The bottom color is a soft, light orange hue.

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Object Timeline

-0001	We photographed this object.
2014	Work on this object began.
2015	We acquired this object. We photographed this object.
2024	You found it!

Sidewall, Aurora Ray

This is a sidewall. It was designed by Calico Wallpaper. It is dated 2014 and we acquired it in 2015. Its medium is digital print on linen-textured vinyl. It is a part of the Wallcoverings department.

Cooper Hewitt has received a gift offer of two designs by Calico Wallpaper which includes Wabi and Aurora. Wabi is a large-scale, non-repeating marbled pattern, and Aurora contains a subtle color change from gray to orange. Each paper is a mix of new technology and traditional craft, being a digital print of a handmade original.
To create the original marbled paper for Wabi the designers studied ancient marbling arts developed in Japan and Turkey which both involved floating a pigment on a water bath. Drawing elements from each of these techniques Calico created something uniquely different. The designs are created using mineral pigment-based paints which are floated over a methocellulose (seaweed-based) bath. The floating pigments are then manipulated to achieve the desired marbled effect. Working with the Dieu Donné paper workshop in New York City, they created large 40x60 inch sheets of cotton fiber paper which are carefully laid over the surface of the bath. The paper is coated in alum so that the marbleized patterns are ‘fixed’ to the paper surface. The paper is then cleaned and cold-pressed to dry.
To produce the Wabi wallpaper from the handmade original the marbled 40x60 inch sheets are divided into sixteen quadrants and each section is then captured with hi-res digital photography. The quadrants are then rejoined in Photoshop and enlarged to create a continuous non-repeating marbled “landscape.” The digital printing allows the papers to be scaled to fit the desired wall, and also allows the design to be printed on paper stock that meets safety codes for both residential and commercial buildings.

The studio’s technique for producing the Aurora ombré paper was developed after researching the arts of fabric dying. To create the ombré effect organic linen is painted or dipped with a liquid containing a suspension of organic mineral pigments such as ultramarine and indigo. After the fabric dries similar photographic and printing techniques are used to create the wallpaper panels from the dyed linen original.

Calico Wallpaper is a Brooklyn-based studio founded by Rachel Mosler and Nick Cope in 2013. Mosler is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and has exhibited her artwork in galleries in New York, Philadelphia and Paris. Cope is an interior designer by trade and owner of the design/build firm Dark Green that produces projects in the luxury residential interiors market and has collaborated on custom commercial projects that include Opening Ceremony and Paul Smith.

The Calico wallpapers would be a good addition to the collection because of their mix of ancient craft techniques and state-of-the-art digital technology. They would increase the number of craft-based wallpapers in the collection, of which three are currently on view in Making Design. Calico is a young design studio and the addition of these papers would add to the collection of contemporary American wallpapers.

This object was donated by Calico Wallpaper. It is credited Gift of Calico Wallpaper.

Calendar with pixelated background of a photo of a large apple. It has a color gradient, beginning green on the left, yellow in the center, and ending red on the right. The colors are muted by some grey pixels that add more depth to the image. The pixels range in size, with the highlight of the apple showing the smallest pixels, and the shadows showing the largest. The top tenth of the image shows fourteen columns and four rows of black, bolded, and serif text. The top row reads, “S S M T W T F S S M T W T F,” with numbers below, counting up to 31. The final row also reads, “AUGUST 1970.” In very small print, in the bottom right, it reads, “Thirty second of a series by/ S. D. Scott Printing Company Inc./ Designed by Russell S. Winricms”

Calendar, August 1970, 1970
lithograph on paper.
Gift of Unknown Donor.
n-d-1632

Book plate from a trade catalog showing a spectrophometer, a device that can detect two million shades of color and reproduce them, in the bottom left corner, shown in greyscale. It overlays a colored vertical border which gradiates the color sectrum from purple at the top to blue to green to yellow to orange to red at the bottom. Just above the spectrophometer is a passage of black text explaining what it is. While a column on the right-hand side explains other industrial uses of the spectrophometer.

Trade Catalog, Electronics, A New Science for a New World, 1942
offset lithograph on paper.
Smithsonian Libraries, 005041.
92.2016.54

A computer ink on paper drawing of an aerial view of a cube split into eight floating blocks. Each block is comprised of 49 microcubes. Each cube and is graded in color creating a three dimensional color chart. The cube at the leftmost bottom corner red to orange, the one above yellow to green. The cube at the bottom next to the red to orange cube is pink to violet, the one above is white with tinges of pink and blue. The cube in the right most bottom corner is deep blue to violet, the one above cyan to bright blue and the one beside it light green to dark green. Black text at the bottom details author, title and date.

Drawing, The Chromo Cube
computer ink plotter print on paper.
Gift of Beck & Jung.
1981-19-1

Our curators have highlighted 1 object that are related to this one.

A computer ink on paper poster of a blue sky with wispy clouds on which a three dimensional cube floats in the bottom right corner. The cube is made up of sixteen square gridded panels, each panel in various chromatic colors so that when viewed all together it represents a gradient of the color spectrum. The panels at the back in the red, orange and violet spectrum, the ones at the front in the yellow and white spectrum, the ones at the bottom in the green and blue spectrum.

Poster, Chrome Cube
computer ink plotter print on paper.
Gift of Holger Backstrom and Bo Ljundberg.
1985-9-1

Its dimensions are

L x W: 243.8 × 132.1 cm (8 ft. × 52 in.)

Cite this object as

Sidewall, Aurora Ray; Designed by Calico Wallpaper; digital print on linen-textured vinyl; L x W: 243.8 × 132.1 cm (8 ft. × 52 in.); Gift of Calico Wallpaper; 2015-24-2

We have 1 video that features Sidewall, Aurora Ray.

Aurora Wallpaper: Process

An example of the Aurora Wallpaper is on view as part of 'Making | Breaking New Arrivals.

Short URL http://cprhw.tt/o/75FVi/
Accession Number 2015-24-2
Object ID 68813711