William Morris Crafts

My dear friend Tess, of Midnight Muse, recently celebrated a birthday, and my gift to her was themed to go into her absolutely breathtakingly beautiful William Morris-themed dining room in her home. Tess has a beautiful and very unique antique Morris-style chair in the room, and she had mentioned that she'd love to recover it in Strawberry Thief. Well, the fabric itself can be darn expensive, so I used a book my mom had given me to make an iron-on transfer, paint it, and create a throw pillow!

For those of you who want accents of William Morris on a budget, and have a steady hand, this book is full of wonderful designs to transfer and use to create beautiful Morris accent pieces!


There are all sorts of books out there for William Morris crafters. The newest of these is a book on William Morris in Applique that looks extremely fun to try.


And of course there is Beth Russell...her book, her website, and her wonderful items for the needlepoint enthusiast.

I'm sure there are many others out there, so if I've missed something, please shout it out in the comments!

The Collaboration of Geniuses

I have an especially warm spot in my heart for collaborative art. Perhaps it's the side of me that thrilled to hear of the creation of Red House...the parties William Morris and Jane would host where all guests would be laughing, playing, and painting murals all over the walls, ceiling, furniture, etc. There's just something about art in which multiple incredibly talented individuals come together to create brilliancy that warms me to the bone.

A recent example of this would be the photo shoot done by Aurora of Grace Notes Photography (about whom I've previously blogged), featuring the jewelry of Parrish Relics, the hair styling of My Big Hair Day, and several quite talented models. Oh, and several of the costumes were created also by my dear friend Lisa of Arteffex.

Here is the complete credit list:

Jewelry by Parrish Relics - http://www.ParrishRelics.com
Set by Heather M Morris - http://www.hevart.com
Hair by Sarah Bortner - http://www.MyBigHairDay.com
Models:
Dreena
Judith Kalaora - http://www.JudithKalaora.com
Lara Jay - http://www.BlackCatStunts.com
Danielle
John


This is just a small selection of the amazing shots. Please....do not just gaze on these in small format...click and admire each one.

Today's OOL (Objects of Lust): Burne-Jones screens

Today's objects of lust are a couple of folding screens I found on ebay. The screens have canvas reproductions of Burne-Jones artworks on one side, and apparently wood stained a dark mahogany on the other side. Anyone have a spare $1,450?

Departure of the Knights


Sleeping Beauty

Rookwood Pottery

Punch Bowl, 1900 -- Rookwood Pottery -- Anna Marie Valentein, sculptor

Fountain of the Water Nymphs -- Rookwood Pottery -- Clement J Barnhorn, sculptor


This past weekend, I went to visit Tess Avelland, a dear friend of mine (and proprietress of Midnight Muse) who is a kindred Pre-Raphaelite spirit. She, her husband (a big admirer of William Morris as well) and I went to visit the Cincinnati Museum of Art together, and of course they knew exactly what sort of things would catch my eye. I'll do a post soon with some of the general items there that I thought were appealing to Pre-Raphaelite sensibilities, but I wanted first to do a post on the Rookwood Pottery.

Rookwood was founded in 1880, when Maria Longworth Nichols Storer wanted a way to market her hobby of painting blank tableware. The company consistently expanded until the Great Depression, and expanded to create architectural installations for many of Cincinnati's landmarks.

Personally, I admire that Rookwood was a place where a woman artist could create beautiful works and sell them. I'll admit I know very little else about this company besides what I could find on a quick search online, but I saw many beautiful figural works of art in the museum that seemed inspired by the romanticism of the Pre-Raphaelites.

Great Works of Art for Troubled Times

"People like you and me have to work even harder to create the best art...that we possibly can. And the rest, the children, the country kitchen, the domestic bliss, we leave to others who will have different regrets." --Wendy Wasserstein, The Sisters Rosensweig

We are all living in a really tough time right now. The economy is in trouble, unemployment is rising, and more and more people are looking at ways to cut corners and live on a smaller budget. Here at The Beautiful Necessity, I've tried to create a small sanctuary of beauty, a place to pause and admire those things which are both priceless and free...great works of art...without the outside world intruding too much.

But I cannot help but think of how very applicable to our troubled times William Morris' life and philosophy truly are. The other day, while perusing a file of images I have stored on my computer to share here at the blog, I came across an image from a biography of Morris. The sketch shows a design for a small country cottage decorating scheme William Morris created. (click above to see in detail) I will quote the book the image comes from:

"Morris's second attempt to provide inexpensive ideas for furnishings came with the design of 'a model workman's small house' displayed in the newly opened Art Gallery in Queen's Park, Manchester, in 1884. This was commission by Thomas Coglan Horsfall, a Manchester philanthropist for whom Morris had visited Manchester in February 1879 to speak on 'Working Folk and the Future of Art,' a lecture in which he expounded his now famous advice '...do not have anything in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful'. At first Morris was very unhappy about Horsfall's proposals for displays in the newly opened museum, believing that 'what furniture a workman can buy should be exactly the same (if his room be large enough) as a lord buys'. However, he was persuaded and the room he designed included chairs from the Sussex range, a Madox Brown designed wash-stand and numerous wallpapers and chintzes."

I recently watched a British show on decorating with pattern, and the host observed that the reason why the Victorians chose such large-patterned wallpapers and home textiles was because the homes themselves were larger at the time. The host went on to further say that this is why most companies now reproduce these patterns in smaller formats, for the smaller homes we live in now. And granted, in the above image, William Morris chose one of his smallest, simplest patterns for this small country home plan, but his concept of beauty being accessible to people of all classes is aptly remembered. In fact, perhaps one of the biggest tragedies of Morris' life is that even though he accomplished more than ten men could in his lifetime, he never was able to make the beautifully crafted works of art affordable for the working classes, as he desired.

“In 1876, a wealthy industrialist whose house Morris's company was redecorating asked him why he was pacing up and down and muttering to himself. Morris replied "It's only that I spend my life in ministering to the swinish luxury of the rich."

William Morris understood that sometimes the harder life is, the more important it is to have something beautiful to hold on to. I read another article online the other day that marveled at how during this time of recession and economic trouble, handicrafts are enjoying quite a revival. I believe that this is not only because people feel the practical need to create things more affordably, but also because the process of creation is soothing, and also the idea of purchasing, giving, and owning items that were created by someone else's hands creates a link between us that we need during such a difficult time. Beauty is universal.

And boy do we need beauty now.

William Morris tiles

Inspired by Morris' Pimpernel design:I know, Mucha isn't Pre-Raphaelite, but this is a beautiful pin you can purchase on the site.
4x4 tile of a Strawberry Thief-inspired bird.


Lately I've been on a serious home decorating/nesting kick, and one thing I've been pondering is inexpensive ways to inject more direct influence of William Morris into my home. One of the things I've recently considered is tiles...such an important product for Morris & Co. Edward Burne-Jones especially created so many gorgeous artworks on tile.

One modern artist whose work I really admire is Verdant Tile Co./Mary Philpott. Her tiles are absolutely beautiful, and I love the glazed, deep colors she uses, so reminiscent of the Arts & Crafts movement. To purchase just one of her tiles at a time would be a special treat for gifts and holidays.

She has several tiles directly inspired by William Morris. Sadly, there is one labeled "William Morris motto tile" that I'd love to see larger, but the link appears broken :(

There are so many more amazingly beautiful tiles on her site too.

April Love

Stephanie over at Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood posted this today, and I just had to share it here too!

Everything we're seeing about the Lady of Shalott film just has me giddy as a schoolgirl. As a wonderful addition to the film, in the scene in which Tennyson reads his poem, one of the audience members will be dressed in the gown from Arthur Hughes' famous painting, April Love. I just get so elated when I see people recreating the gowns and poses of the Pre-Raphaelites so perfectly!!