The Arts & Crafts Movement

Before going ahead and creating a floral wallpaper, I felt I should first do some historical and contextual research into why we have floral/decorative wallpaper hung up in our homes, which is largely due to the Arts & Crafts movement of 1880. This will add some really concept and meaning behind my work.

The two most influential figures were the theorist and critic John Ruskin and the designer, writer and activist William Morris. Ruskin examined the relationship between art, society and labour. Morris put Ruskin's philosophies into practice, placing great value on work, the joy of craftsmanship and the natural beauty of materials.

By the 1880s Morris had become an internationally renowned and commercially successful designer and manufacturer. New guilds and societies began to take up his ideas, presenting for the first time a unified approach among architects, painters, sculptors and designers. In doing so, they brought Arts and Crafts ideals to a wider public.

 

I love the calming nature of William Morris's patterns and colour palettes (as seen above). Morris himself summarised the key qualities for a designer, which I found in William Morris: making the best of it, he said;

 you must fully understand nature and study it closely, know your history and then develop and use your imagination.

and 

Ornamental pattern work...must contain three qualities: beauty, imagination and order.

and 

Above all, avoid vagueness...definite form bounded by firm outline is a necessity for all ornament...do not be afraid of your design or try to muddle it up so that people can scarcely see it; it if it is arranged on good lines and its details are beautiful you need not fear it looking hard so long as it covers the ground wel and is not wrong in colour. 

The was a movement was born of ideals. Grown out of a concern for the effects of industrialisation: on design, on traditional skills and on the lives of ordinary people. So response, it established a new set of principles for living and working. It advocated the reform of art at every level and across a broad social spectrum, and it turned the home into a work of art. For that reason, for my wallpaper I want to draw inspiration from Morris's floral wallpaper patterns but bring it up-to-date for the new modern comsumer to hang in his or hers bedroom. So it is their personal, unique "work of art"/decorative piece of artwork.