William Morris textile designs

With this goal in mind, he created his own workshop and designed dozens of patterns for hand-produced woven and printed cloth, upholstery, and other textiles.

[1] In a collection of essays by members of the Arts and Crafts movement published in 1893, he wrote that one of the aims of embroidery should be simply "The exhibition of beautiful material.

"[2] His first embroidery designs were primitive, but later, working with his wife Jane, he created a set of wall hangings for his residence in the London suburbs, Red House.

Morris and his workshop began making embroideries for the households of his friends as well as larger panels for some of the many new churches being constructed in England.

In these designs, Morris created the decorative elements, while his friend Edward Burne-Jones drew the figures, and a team of embroiderers manufactured the work by hand.

Later, he and his daughter May made designs for panels for "embroider yourself" kits for cushion covers, fireplace screens, doorway curtains, bedcovers and other household objects.

The workshops were next to the River Wandle, providing a source of abundant clean water, and also had a grassy meadow where dyed clothes could be dried in the open air.

These first textiles were recreations of earlier designs he had made from the 1830s, and were printed for Morris by the workshop of Thomas Clarkson of Bannister Hall, in Lancaster.

In 1875, Morris tried working with a commercial printer, Wardle and Company, using wood blocks with a reduced number of colours and modern chemical dyes, This time he was dissatisfied with the lack of quality control by the workers, and the uneven results.

Since fifteen or more colours might be used, It was an extremely laborious and long process, sometimes lasting several weeks, and the cost was higher than that of mechanical printing methods.

Large-scale tapestries were made in this way at Merton, mostly by the employment of boys ages thirteen and fourteen, who received shelter, board and a daily wage.

In addition to full-scale tapestries, the Merton Abbey workshop produced smaller works, designed as coverings for cushions and furniture.

His aim, he declared, was to make England independent of the Orient for the provision of hand-make carpets which aspire to the status of art.

[15] Morris explained his ideas about textile designs in a group of essays by members of the Arts and Crafts movement published in 1893.

In his essay on textiles, Morris wrote: "The aim should be to combine clearness of form and firmness of structure with the mystery which comes of abundance and richness of detail...Do not introduce any lines or objects which cannot be explained by the structure of the pattern; it is just this logical sequence of form, this growth which looks as if, under the circumstances, it could not have been otherwise, which prevents he eye wearying of he repetition of the pattern.

He wrote: "As in all wall decoration, the first thing to be considered in designing of Tapestry is the force, purity and elegance of the silhouette of the objects represented, and nothing vague or indeterminate is admissible.

Depth of tone, richness of colour, and exquisite gradation of tints are easily to be obtained in Tapestry; and it also demands that crispness and abundance of beautiful detail which was the especial characteristic of fully developed Medieval Art.

"These colours in fading still remain beautiful," he wrote, "and even after long wear, never pass into nothingness, through that stage which of livid ugliness which distinguishes the commercial dyes as nuisances, even more than their short and by no means merry life.