Unfinished Prints from the Morris Archives

 

I wish I could tell you this is me painting croquis of Morris & Company's unfinished fabrics. But I can't paint that well. The hands belong to an unnamed designer at the Sanderson/Morris & Company in England. (A croquis (crow-key) is jargon for an image to be translated into as fabric print.)

I do all my designing of Morris quilt prints for Moda using digital technology.

All of the design has to be there when I copy the old copyright-free fabrics, papers and photos.

In this unfinished design you can see how the 19th-c. artist intended to

 finish out the design into a repeat. I'm always amazed at their

design skills as I scan their prints.

I'm impressed by this new line of hand painted furnishing fabrics and wallpapers because not only are they repainting the original designs they are adding to sketches never finished, never translated in the 19th century into Morris & Company products. To do this you have to think like William Morris, John Henry Dearle or May Morris.

The new collection: The Unfinished Works includes 26 items of Morris-inspired decoration with wallpapers and fabrics, printed, woven and embroidered, a collaboration between Morris & Company and the Huntington Museum and Gardens in San Marino, California. Museum founders Henry E. & Arabella Huntington collected Morris books and artwork decades ago but these unfinished works were acquired in 1999 from collectors Sanford and Helen Berger. The museum is considered one of the top three archives of Morris & Dearle design.

https://www.wmorrisandco.com/fabric/the-unfinished-works-fabrics/

This floral is "Lent Lily" what we call a Hellebore around here. Love to see "Lenten Roses" in February & March.

You can buy this fabric as a print or an embroidered fabric.

The price is a bit off-putting, but it is a furnishing fabric produced to high standards for durability and color fastness and it is NOT something in the public domain that was merely scanned. Most of you are interested in more affordable quilt-quality cottons, which is what we produce at Moda. (Our new collection coming out in about 6 months.)

The Huntington's store near Los Angeles has a display of The Unfinished Works.

https://www.wmorrisandco.com/the-unfinished-works/?utm_source=the-huntington-museum&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-huntington-museum-shop