When William Morris Meets The National Trust – Latest Designs

Anyone who spends anytime at all working in or researching the area of textile design will have heard of William Morris. He is something of an icon in the industry and his work still has influence on designers today. He is probably most well known as being the leader of the arts and crafts movement which took off in 1860 and ran right up to the turn of the century and beyond. It was said to be a reaction to the poor state of the decorative arts at the time and sought to see a return to simple and traditional hand crafts. Morris formed his own company Morris & Co (originally called Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co) that produced wall hangings, glass wares, wall paper, tapestries (above) embroideries and soft furnishings for churches and private houses. He wasn’t a man who sat on the fringes but a man who got stuck right in. He wrote:

“Almost all the designs we use for surface decoration, wallpapers, textiles, and the like, I design myself. I have had to learn the theory and to some extent the practice of weaving, dyeing and textile printing: all of which I must admit has given me and still gives me a great deal of enjoyment." 

One person who still thoroughly enjoys all of this today is our head designer Diz. She has been working on a range of designs for the National Trust property, Sissinghurst Castle. For this project she decided to try something a little different than the traditional type of designs for heritage properties, which are mostly figurative and strongly feature the building on the property. Having been heavily inspired by William Morris’s use of natural forms as patterns, she has created a more decorative approach to the subject.

This prospective design for Sissinghurst incorporates many of the plants and flowers that the Castle gardens are well known for. When brought together they create a bold and striking pattern that is highly decorative and very unique to this property. As the pattern is very symmetrical it can easily be used across a wide range of products such as aprons, bags, tea towels and oven gloves (right).

At the moment we are currently working with the National Trust to develop this design further.

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