When the Growbar is nearly dry, gently pour water into the base of the tray, not directly onto the bar as it may crumble. You can be sure your Growbar is perfectly moist if it remains the colour of a rich dark ginger cake! William Morris can be understood as an early forerunner to the modern environmental movement. His keen sense for nature’s beauty and the ability of industrialisation to destabilise it, led him to the co-founding of one of the first conservation agencies, the Commons Preservation Society (today the Open Spaces Society), in 1865. Even in his own factories at Merton Abbey, he concerned himself with preserving the natural landscape. Opposing a private bill brought to parliament seeking permission to tap springs of the River Wandle (which fed the Merton Abbey factory) at its source, Morris wrote to the MP for Tower Hamlets “such a loss of a beautiful stream would grieve me more on public than on private grounds.” All his wallpapers contained stylised fruit, flowers and foliage motifs. These expressed his love of nature, but his first designs also reflect his interest in medieval sources at the time. Now able to blend his own dyes and weave textiles in-house, it was at Merton Abbey that William Morris produced one of his most famous designs "Strawberry Thief" inspired by the fruit stealing thrushes from his Oxfordshire garden.

The design was inspired by the rose trellises in Morris’s garden at Red House, the home designed for him and his wife Jane by Philip Webb. Webb collaborated with Morris on this wallpaper design, supplying the birds which add a sense of movement to the composition. This early work reveals Morris’s interest in flat, abstracted patterns, which he layered to create depth.William Morris produced a wide range of designs for interiors and home furnishings. These included over 600 patterns for wallpaper, textiles, embroideries and over 150 stained glass windows. At the turn of the 20th century Lindsay Phillip Butterfield was one of Britain's most successful freelance pattern designers. Trained at the South Kensington National Art Training School in London, Butterfield sold his work to most of the country's leading wallpaper and textile companies. A keen gardener, he focused on producing naturalistic patterns of ordinary British flowers, making his work look stylistically similar to that of William Morris. Butterfield himself said he was inspired by the work of his near-contemporary Charles Voysey, which is characterised by more open, curving forms. A founder member of the Society of Designers (established in 1896), Butterfield taught at art schools including London's Central School of Arts and Crafts, and in 1922 published a book titled Floral Forms in Historic Design. In this video lesson, Hollie will show children different leaves, flowers, birds and insects; and she encourages children (ages 7-11) to try to create a symmetrical pattern on their own designs. MORRIS AND COMPANY are often asked "What is the advantage of hand-printed papers over those printed by machine?" /

Boost your children’s knowledge of William Morris with our fun and engaging KS2 (Ages 7-11) Wallpaper Video Lesson, featuring the following: Having developed his own particular taste from a young age, he began to realize the only way he could have the beautiful home he wanted was if he designed every part of it himself. As he famously once said, “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” Browse our carefully curated collection of William Morris fabric produced under a special licence from Morris & Co. Inspired by nature, William Morris prints feature floral and botanical designs in rich earthy colours and are instantly recognisable for their iconic design. Rachy72 Great quality & design A beautiful mix of soft pink and olive green colours in a William Morris design which suits our period home. The tone of the green matches the Farrow & Ball French grey of our painted walls. The bedding washed beautifully with no ironing needed. I am now looking at buying another set for our guest room.

Parry, Linda, ed. William Morris London : Philip Wilson in association with the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1996. Published to coincide with an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, 9 May-1 Sept. 1996, pp.206-207, ill. To William Morris- designer, socialist, environmentalist and poet- the image of the natural world as bountifully rich in the mysteries and highest pleasures of life cannot be removed from his hopes for a fairer, better society. This generous and fundamentally hopeful vision animates his enduringly popular designs for interiors, which take as their primary subject the “glorious drama of the earth”. By the 1880s, Morris’s designs had become even more stylised and he increasingly came to accept the mechanical nature of his pattern repeats. Many, like Wild Tulip(1884), also reflected his growing interest in weaving; they used the strong, diagonal, meandering stems that appeared in the 15th-century Italian silks and brocades that he studied at the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A).

The William Morris Gallery, Walthamstow, London. Based in Morris’s childhood home, this gallery is devoted to his life and works The firm initially focused on making expensive, one-off pieces of painted furniture, embroideries and stained glass. But Morris’s move into wallpaper design underlines his early understanding of the importance of making economical, more mass-produced work that could reach a wider audience. William Morris was unusual in his choice of flowers. In the Victorian era, the fashion was for ornate wallpapers which included exotic flowers, but Morris chose to champion varieties of wildflowers The machine-printed papers are placed at the end of one of the books or in a msall book by themselves. / Victoria and Albert Museum, Department of Engraving, Illustration and Design & Department of Paintings, Accessions 1919, London: Printed Under the Authority of His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1921

The Arts and Crafts movement reacted to the industrial revolution at the time. William Morris wanted people to have beautiful things in their homes to improve their quality of life. However, ironically most of his products were unaffordable to the everyman. This was mainly due to their laborious craftsmanship. Morris liked to use traditional methods and natural dyes with his designs. Granglam Beautiful Beautiful bedding,easy to wash and iron.Looks fabulous on the bed and very soft material While always politically conscious, at 49 William Morris crossed ‘the river of fire’ and became a revolutionary socialist. Throughout his life he felt uneasy about the disparity between his comfortable lifestyle and the conditions endured by most of the British working classes. In the 1880s Morris began to take action, hoping to overthrow the system that enabled the rich to profit from the labour of others. He attended marches, wrote articles and lectured all over the country. William Morris' first designs were Jasmine Trellis and the famous Tulip and Willow, although he was forced to adapt his designs for the limitations of the chemical dyes used by the manufacturer Clarkson in Lancashire. Staying true to his love of tradition, he moved production of his fabrics to Staffordshire where Thomas Wardle produced natural dyes. Use of the natural dyes allowed him to create more complex designs, often featuring ordinary garden flowers. Gently remove the plastic wrapping and place the Growbar with the protective paper facing upwards in a container which has plenty of space so it can expand; a takeaway food tray is ideal.

These William Morris patterns would be great for home decor crafts, such as these DIY tile coasters. He described it as a ‘makeshift’ decoration and a cheap substitute for the richer embroidered hangings, tapestries and woven textiles that he preferred to use in his own homes. Nevertheless, his wallpapers proved extremely popular with a fashionable, middle- and upper-class clientele. Morris’s political activities began when he joined the Social Democratic Federation at its inaugural meeting in June 1881. However, the organisation soon became factionalised and Morris broke from the Social Democratic Federation in 1884, disagreeing with its leadership. Morris established his own political group, the Socialist League, a more radical collective that sought a revolutionary overturn by the mobilised working classes. First, we want to say a little more about William Morris, his gardens, and his creative partnership with nature. Oman, Charles C., and Hamilton, Jean. Wallpapers: a history and illustrated catalogue of the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. London: Sotheby Publications, in association with the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1982.William Morris was remembered for being a highly skilled designer who could somehow turn the sprawling, tangled beauty of the English countryside into a form of pattern that was both clear but also beautiful. He had an inate love and devotion for this environment but was also a highly articulate artist who could carry his illustrations over into a number of different mediums. The qualities of his work have since inspired off-shoots of art movements across the world, and his reputation was certainly strong in the UK, but not restricted to this region. Many of his floral patterns have been reproduced from their date of conception all the way up to the present day and there remains a continued support for the Arts and Crafts Movement, a group in which his role was pivotal. Disclaimer: Please be aware that some of the resources used in this KS2 (Ages 7-11) Art: William Morris Wallpaper Video Lesson may have been updated or changed. In this instance a link to a similar resource will be provided to allow learning around this skill to take place. Cattersue William Morris design Bed linen in a William Morris design. What a privilege. Pleased with good quality. HDK57 Quality bedding Subtle relaxing colours. Great quality, feels nice next to your skin. Washes well.