What I Did With The Pattern

Inside the baptistry, Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Cattistock, Dorset.                                  Copy of the wall pattern

This repeat pattern has been drawn up and ready for use since I first saw it in Cattistock Church last January. I was particularly attracted by the nature of the geometry within the repeat - at the same time diagonal and square but disguised by the organic overall flow of the pattern. In my design work, particularly the ones for healthcare settings, I find that my own preference for a geometric framework is not necessarily what is required. So I have been reversing my usual practice and putting the repetitive geometry into the details which float on an irregular textured background.

Study for designs for Special Care Baby Unit counselling room, Yeovil District Hospital.

Pattern versions 2, 3, 4 & 5

The pattern has gone through a series of changes from the original at Cattistock to give it a more open and rounded appearance to suit  this commission. More changes resulted from feedback that leaf shapes were preferred to flowers - a bit of a blow as the pattern is essentially floral, but I believe that making changes to order is one of the things that drives my work forward.

Design for 4 ceiling tiles for Yeovil Hospital, SCBU counselling room

Harry Clarke, Sturminster Newton

Bottom right in window, HC signature and date                                                                 My quick sketch

The Harry Clarke window in St. Mary's Church, Sturminster Newton, Dorset is worth going a long way to see. I pored over poor quality illustrations of his work in stained glass catalogues when I was a student but never managed to visit any. It was worth the wait - better in real life than you could imagine, a reminder of all the best things about stained glass and a thrill to see the signature of my first favourite stained glass artist. To savour the moment that I saw my first Harry Clarke I did a quick sketch of some of the background details.

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Saints Elizabeth, Mary and Barbara                  Click to enlarge        Saint Elizabeth of Hungary / Roma Spencer-Smith

However, the figures interested me as much as the patterns, or maybe the way the figures get their strength from the way they are entwined with the patterns and sharp contemporary details. St. Elizabeth is based on a portrait of Roma Spencer-Smith in whose memory this window was commissioned and St. Barbara is based on Harry Clarke's wife, Margaret. The child is a portrait of Roma's son, under a year old when she died in the influenza epidemic of 1918. These figures sent me off to find out more about the combination of  people and saints portrayed - I like a portrait that looks you in the eye. 

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Details showing dedication and the shoes of the 3 main figures               Click to enlarge

The Glazier

The Glazier, the publication of The Worshipful Company of Glaziers & Painters of Glass, Issue Number 45 Spring 2015, arrived in the post today. It is interesting to me that the title of The Worshipful Company uses a better term than "stained glass", words which are a source of much confusion about glass techniques.

There are two articles inside that feature my work. The first is by Caroline Barnes, arts coordinator at Yeovil District Hospital where I have done a number of commissions - at the moment I am working on panels for a new counselling room for the Special Care Baby Unit. The second article, pages 7 -8 and below, is about my working methods.

Before and After

Before - inside the old marquee

When I took what I thought was a great picture on a rainy day at Kelmscott Manor last summer (above), I thought with regret that I wouldn't be able to use it. To me, the damp and mould on the marquee ceiling in combination with willow leaves & pink petals that have blown in from somewhere else make a spectacular pattern.  I know that this sort of grot, although often celebrated by artists, is not to everyone's taste. So this summer, a new marquee has arrived (picture below), and the patterns on the ceiling only appear when the sun shines through the willow tree outside.  Inside, there is new bunting made from Morris patterns and the perfect white wall on which to hang a panel made from last year's wallpaper printing activity days.

After - inside the new marquee

Panel made of 38 different wallpapers

I included all the wallpapers in the panel, hoping that there would be some return visitors as well as members of Kelmscott staff who would enjoy seeing their designs on display. I wanted to keep a fluttering feel reminiscent of the way they looked hanging from the drying line (below). I've sewn them together in an overlapping arrangement so you can open up the pleats to see a whole panel and they can move around as the marquee sides flap in the wind.

Wallpapers drying last October

WM in Wimbledon

Although I like to imagine William Morris walking through Wimbledon when he went from his house in Hammersmith to his works at Merton Park by foot, that is not really the subject of this piece.

In the background of my parents' lives and my childhood in Wimbledon were William Morris designs. The earliest one I remember is Marigold in olive green on the sitting room walls, it looked very good with the tartan sofa the great aunts are sitting on (below) and with my tartan dress. When I saw the Marigold design used on the cover of Volume II of WM's Collected Letters last year, the memory made me shiver.

Dagmar, Clara and Norah (the great aunts)                                                   Sasha - Marigold wallpaper designed by WM, 1875

The photograph below of my mother's best friend Inge and a dog visiting her top floor flat in Wimbledon for tea is quite a recent one. It would be fantastic even without Pimpernel on the sloping wall - this wallpaper has lasted for as many years as I can remember.

Dog and Inge - Pimpernel wallpaper designed by WM, 1876

Chrysanthemum, seen on the chair below, is not such a favourite of mine. Maybe it's because the fabric on this chair deteriorated over the years, ending up completely hidden by shawls and cushions covered in oriental patterns. Shoving lots of different patterns together is something I am quite used to.

Ray and Kate - Chrysanthemum fabric designed by WM, 1877

I found countless pictures of family members around the dining room table with the Golden Lily curtains in the background. When I brought home my college stained glass panel "Dual Carriageway" in 1985 (below right), where better to put it than next to another set of rich, clashing patterns. The stained glass remained, then moved house with my mother, but the curtains soon went and were turned into drapes for other armchairs.

Peter, Elizabeth, Kate - Golden Lily fabric designed by J.H. Dearle for Morris and Company, 1899