Stars comes out of the Cole & Son block print archives and keeps the character of block printing: a simple, evenly spaced motif with the slight irregularity of impression that hand blocks leave behind. There is no attempt at realism. These are drawn stars, small and regular, scattered across an open ground.
Its usefulness lies in behaving almost as a plain. From across a room it reads as texture on a coloured wall and only resolves into a motif close to. That makes it one of the few figurative papers that can line a whole room without dominating it, and it takes pictures, mirrors and furniture in front of it without argument. Simple archive papers of this kind are often the hardest to get right, since there is nowhere for a weak drawing to hide.
It comes into its own on a ceiling. Hung overhead, particularly on a darker ground, it does what stars do, which is to keep being found, and a small bedroom or bathroom gains height rather than losing it. A 64 cm repeat on a half-drop match sets the motif on a diagonal so no ranks form, and the 0.52 m roll is easy to work around cornices and awkward returns. It lines the inside of a cupboard or a wardrobe well.
