MA Research Aims and Objectives

Research Methodology: What Influence does William Morris have on Designers Today?

Aims and Objectives

My project aim is for me to produce a highly desirable collection of designs for fabrics and wallpaper with the intention of licensing my designs to companies such as Cole & Son, Harlequin, Sanderson and Westminster Fabrics .

Over the next two years of my MA I intend to increase my knowledge of wallpaper printing processes. This includes the history into the working practices of William Morris and whether I can apply these practices to my own work and as to what influence Morris has on wallpaper designers today.

To enable me to achieve my aim my objectives are to: a) Investigate the historical wallpapers of Morris and his working practices. This will be in the way of visits to the Victoria and Albert Museum’s archives, the Society of Antiquaries of London, William Morris Gallery and the William Morris Society, to carry out further reasearch into Morris’s designs, life and printing methods. I will visit Kelmscott Manor, where Morris used to live, Merton Abbey Mills where Morris dyed and printed his textiles, St.James’s Palace and Morris’s room and Chapel Choir at Exeter College, Oxford which contains wallpaper and tapestries by Morris and Morri’s friend Burne –Jones. My other resources for research will be to review relevent literature on the internet, in books and journals.

b) Visiting the manufacturers Morris & Co, Sanderson and Cole & Son to see the old wallpaper prints, wooden printing blocks and to see how William Morris appled his techniques. This research will provide me with first hand experience and knowledge of how these techniques are applied in order for me to assess whether these methods are suitable to my own practice as a wallpaper designer and will also provide me with further knowlede and experience which will enable me to pass on my knowledge onto others. Personal tours of these premises whill give me the opportunity to discuss in detail what influence William Morris still has on todays wallpaper designers. To collaborate the influences he had on designers of today, I will interview some designers and ask how and why William Morris has inluenced them.

c) I will investigate Artists with work inspired by Morris from the Art, Craft and Design department at the Macbeth Centre (a collaboration between the Macbeth Centre and the William Morris Society) whom have recently completed work. I will assess their opinions and motives into the methods they have used in their work, why they are influenced by Morris and the ways in which this influence has trancended into their work.

d) I will interview Jo Stevens, Fashion and Textiles Lecturer at Bath Spa University who has recently showed his fashion designs that were inspired by Morris and ask the same questions as in section c.

e) I will experiment with the printing and dying methods of William Morris to increase my knowledge and experience of his methods. I will use natural dyeing techniques using madder and indigo dyes and woodblock printing. I will also be using screen printing. transfer printing and relief printing, flocks and foils to add new textures and dimensions to my practice to achieve my aim.

f) To use design software such as Photoshop and Illustrator to produce repeated patterns using my watercolour paintings and illustrations. The final designs may be digitally printed or printed useing traditional methods depending upon research carried out.* This text will be in my MA research methodology written assignment and oral presentation.

Image one: ebooks@adelaide.com The University of Adelaide. (2015) William Morris,1834–1896 [Online] Available from: https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/m/morris/william/ [Accessed 9 October 2015]. Image two: Fabricsandpapers.com (2015) Fruit Wallpaper [Online] Available from: http://www.fabricsandpapers.com/item/view/1995-fruit-wallpaper [Accessed 9 October 2015].