Museum News

Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory Soars
Unique Digital Wallcovering Media Makes A Statement

by Ed McCarron
Product Manager
Display Electrographics
& Grand Format Media
InteliCoat Technologies
South Hadley, MA

The Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory & Gardens in Western Massachusetts provides visitors with a variety of live and symbolic butterfly displays that aim to inspire, educate and entertain. The one-of-a-kind facility contains a 4,000 square foot glass conservatory filled with butterflies, moths and tropical vegetation. Sun shines through the glass walls and heats the conservatory and its heart-shaped pond to tropical-like temperatures year-round.

Complete with butterfly videos and displays, an atrium and outdoor garden, gift shop and food court, Magic Wings attracts more than 200,000 visitors for weddings, class trips and weekend fun throughout the year. However, this butterfly safe-haven recently found a way to make its conservatory really soar.

In an effort to boost attendance and further promote awareness and preservation of native butterfly habitats, Magic Wings enlisted the help of InteliCoat Technologies, manufacturer of Unusuwalls, a new breed of digital wallcovering substrates, to create a 400 square foot, floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall butterfly-themed mural for its exhibit and display area. A high-traffic area, this part of the building provides visitors with a glimpse of what's to come and directs them into the conservatory.

"Due to the unique subject matter and the mural's level of exposure in the building, the role of media was extremely important to the outcome of the project," said Alan Rulewich, president and general manager of Magic Wings.

The first step in creating the wallcovering was finding just the right image to grace the entrance way. Rulewich chose from a number of butterfly pictures taken by Lightworks photography studio in Hatfield, MA. InteliCoat's graphics specialist, Larry Delesio, organized the art direction and image manipulation.
"We focused the picture around the conservatory pond and the surrounding gardens, which we agreed would capture the essence of Magic Wings and create the most attractive mural," said Delesio.

The image was then electronically prepared for digital printing. In addition, Delesio chose from a library of 35mm butterfly macro photography provided by Magic Wings, and digitally overlayed larger-than-life sized butterflies onto the mural. He then built into the image file an entrance sign directing visitors towards the conservatory. The pictures were imaged onto Magic® brand digital wallcovering substrate DMiBOP10, a wet-strength latex-saturated, nylon-reinforced base featuring a unique coating for thermal ink jet imaging. Imaging was done with a Hewlett-Packard DesignJet 5000 using UV pigmented inks. After imaging, the media was overlaminated with Magic DMFTP, a 0.05mil protective laminate with Fluorex® to provide additional protection at installation and throughout the life of the mural.

"We coordinated the colors, design and butterfly pictures into a stunning, eye-catching display," said Rulewich.

The Magic Wings mural was then installed by Heidi L. Johnson, a 22-year veteran of the wallcovering industry and owner of Fine Interior Finishing in Western Massachusetts. Fine Interior Finishing offers professional paperhanging, custom paint effects and color-consulting for residential and specialty commercial sites.

Installation was divided over three evenings and took about 12 hours total. Johnson set aside the first night for preparing, priming and engineering. The second night she installed the 10'6" high by 40" wide wall panels, and the third night she engineered and installed the door panels. Johnson cleaned and scraped the previously painted sheetrock wall, primed, dry hung the product and double cut the seams.
Separate panels for the three doors were installed last, ensuring there were no visible seams on the doors and adequate trim allowance in the wall panels around the door casings.

"Unusuwalls product strength puts it far above the quality of photo murals of the past," said Johnson. "Not only is the media difficult to tear or crease, the image match is maintained from panel to panel. The mural substrate reacted well to the adhesive, and remained stable and non-curling while exhibiting minimal expansion. The seams did not split and the material has excellent wet strength. I expect this install to last several years."

Rulewich is very pleased with the image quality and durability of Unusuwalls. In addition to brightening the Magic Wings exhibit and display area, the wallcovering makes an excellent picture backdrop for his customers, said Rulewich. Since the mural's installation, several Magic Wings visitors have been spotted posing and snapping pictures in front of the wall, positioning themselves with the butterflies seemingly landed on their heads and shoulders.

"People are surprised when they enter the building because they feel as if they're already looking into the conservatory, it's so lifelike," said Rulewich. "All of the comments we've received on the mural have been very favorable, and we're extremely happy with it. It was a very big project for us and it's already worked wonders." eb