Little Pieces of History

The Annie B. Ryan house is our field school. Currently we have an interior surface materials class here in which we are learning about various materials and techniques, mainly lath and plaster repair, shellac and graining (see our previous post!). Here are some neat up close and personal pics of the Annie. B...

Annie B. plans atop decades of wall paper...most recently, someone was a fan of aqua shades. On the left is the old ironing board.

Corner block. We learn to recreate these in our architectural millworking class.

Redwood lath and plaster (see the sand and horsehair?!)

An Alice In Wonderland inspired shot of the front door.

This is a picture of a door molding in one of the back rooms. It's hard to tell what the original color was, but right now it's definitely pink with a little mildew!

Check back soon for a more detailed history of the Annie B. Ryan house.

Graining-photos are not real wood grain! They are paint!

Today we learned about "graining" in our interior surface materials class. Graining (and its stone equivalent, "marbleizing") imitates wood or marble on a surface. Sometimes, rather than stripping and refinishing a surface, it is more practical to grain. This is an art that was historically in great demand, now it must be consciously passed on. Graining consists of laying a ground color of primer and then tracing the pattern of wood grain in other colors with special tools. Tools include steel combs, rubber and leather combs, brushes, sponges, clean cotton and rollers. There are different ground and glazing colors for different types of woods. Above are some photos of graining done by Peter Santino.

HISTORIC PRESERVATION AND GREEN ARCHITECTURE: FRIENDS OR FOES?

Chicago Tribune writer Blair Kamin talks about the realities of the relationship between preservation and the new green trend.


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