This cold and breezy autumn day seems like a good time to finally finish the story of how I made my Morris & Co-themed works for ‘Tangled Yarns’.
To recap: My idea for these pieces was to interlace classic Morris & Co patterns with images of the machines that powered the cotton mills which supplied the grey cotton for Morris’ prints (see post of 15 October). In my research I kept seeing these great Victorian illustrations of machinery used in the spinning and weaving mills; many of them came from the trade magazine “The Textile Manufacturer”. I was interested in machines that would have been used or coming on to the market from the time Morris started his dye and print experiments with Wardle until Morris’s death. Conveniently, The Textile Manufacturer Journal started in 1874. As it happened, the only place where I could access the early years of the journal was University of Manchester’s Library, so I made this part of a research trip to Manchester and Bolton in February this year. I ended up spending a surreal, dark, stormy evening in University of Manchester’s Joule Library leafing through the years 1874 – 1895 of the magazine, whilst gales were howling outside. There was hardly anyone in the library – severe weather warnings had been issued telling people not to venture out after 5 pm because of the increasing gale forces expected that evening. I had been dimly aware of this – there were multiple train cancellations as I travelled back from Bolton that afternoon, and it was indeed kind of very windy… but I wasn’t going to change my programme was I? I was on a schedule! I made it into the Library just after 5 PM and then got completely carried away looking at images of Victorian mill engines, boilers, looms etc, and only when I looked at my watch to check how much time I had left before the library closed I noticed that the wind really sounded a bit scary out there (the reading room was on the 6th floor I think). Never mind, when I got out at 8 pm I stuck to my original plan of walking to the place I was staying, about a 20 minute walk away through town… in ‘normal’ weather. It was an interesting walk – I was nearly swept off my feet a few times, and had to stop ever so often because the storm was just stronger than me. Not to speak of the biting cold, for which I was of course quite ill prepared. The few other intrepid walkers that were out there were struggling too, and we must have all looked quite comical. I made it eventually, frozen but in one piece, and had fun next day seeing the newspaper reports with images of people who were indeed swept off their feet. Turned out that the library had been the best place for me to be, as the storm apparently peaked between 6 and 7 PM. Talk about good timing!
And it was well worth it too. I was very pleased with my haul of wonderful images, but although I took lots and lots of photographs it took me no time at all to decide which machines I wanted to use for the two large wall hangings I had in mind for the stairwell of the William Morris Gallery:
My next mission was to select the Morris & Co patterns and colour ways for the two hangings. I decided to focus on patterns developed by Morris during the pre-Merton Abbey period and which were actually printed on cotton at the time. Many of these patterns are still in print today, so still a lot of options to choose from. The Wardle Pattern books were a great reference for colour ways used during Morris’ lifetime. In addition, I accompanied William Morris Gallery Staff to take a look at a Morris & Co sample book from the early 20th century held at the V&A Clothworkers’ Centre for the Study and Conservation of Textiles and Fashion, open since October 2013. It was really exciting to be there because the V&A’s textile collection had been closed for so long. We walked by long rows of storage cupboards …to imagine they were all full of textile treasures!
The sample book held a few surprises – seeing the classic patterns in some really quite high-octane, daring colours and colour ways that couldn’t be more different from what we typically see in the books and catalogues about Morris & Co textiles.
Somehow I doubted that the man himself would have approved…
Anyway, the colour ways in print by Morris & Co today are, generally speaking, much closer to the colour palettes used during Morris’ lifetime. Certainly the red “Brother Rabbit” I chose is quite a classic, and the “Honeysuckle & Tulip” I used for my Morris’s Dilemma hanging feels broadly similar to the examples in the William Morris Gallery and textile publications like Linda Parry’s wonderful book.
I did have a great time checking out all the patterns and colour ways in the Sanderson showroom in Chelsea. When I got there I felt like an illegal alien – surrounded by all these well-heeled customers who would never even look at price tags. I wonder what they thought of me, manically draping lots of samples on the floor and taking pictures … (Luckily, Morris & Co sample books were in a corner of the shop, not in a main ‘thoroughfare’, and no-one else wanted to look at Morris & Co then.) The staff, however, could not have been more helpful. I was afraid I’d be a nuisance – seeing as I was not a paying customer – but they were more than happy for me to get on with my research for as long as I wanted. And when I mentioned that Morris & Co were sponsoring materials for my exhibition at the William Morris Gallery, they were positively ecstatic. Which reminds me : must send some exhibition flyers to the showroom and invite the staff to see the end result of my search!
