Tag Archives: William Morris

William Morris Exhibition, Dovecote Studios, Edinburgh

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On Saturday we visited the Dovecote Studios in Edinburgh, which is “A landmark centre for contemporary art, craft and design built around a leading international tapestry studio”. At the moment they have a William Morris exhibition on. I really like his designs although I don’t think that I would want an entire room done out in one. Years ago I had a friend (now deceased) who had one of his very dark designs in her back living room which was dark at the best of times. It was like sitting in a coal hole! I do have ‘The Strawberry Thief’ curtains in our bedroom though, with a nice duck egg blue background.

William Morris pattern,

William Morris patterns

William Morris

I think this might be the third coming of William Morris in my adult lifetime, he was all the rage in the 1970s and every 20 or 25 years or so he seems to be taken out and dusted down. It’s quite a large exhibition which features mainly framed samples of his designs and designs by some other people around at the time.

William Morris patterns

Some of the woodblocks used in the printing process were on display.

printing block

They had little room ‘sets’ which featured some of the contemporary fabric which can be bought today. That Willow leaf design which is covering the long stool always makes me think of Mary in Gogglebox!

William Morris textiles

William Morris textiles

William Morris textiles

It’s definitely worth seeing, although unfortunately you have to pay to see the exhibition. it was my first visit to the Dovecote Studios and our 14 month old granddaughter Isobel enjoyed getting out of her buggy and stretching her legs. Her favourites were the more colourful designs. Sadly the cafe was full up – well it was a Saturday. It seemed quite weird being back in a busy city location again after avoiding such places. I think it will be a long time before I think of removing my mask in such locations – if ever.

Sanderson and Liberty Fabric

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I am a bit of a fabric hoarder and if I see something I like and it’s priced at what I regard as a bargain, I just have to buy it, thinking that I’m bound to find a use for it at some stage in the future. That’s exactly what happened when I saw this lovely William Morris design fabric, by Sanderson. It’s called Blackthorn and it’s very similar to a Morris design which I first saw in the 1970s, when Morris had a bit of a resurgence. That seems to happen once every 20 years or so, usually because an institution like the V&A has put on an exhibition of his work. I plan to make a wallhanging from this length of material, I’ll back it with something nice but plain and maybe sandwich some wadding/batting material in between, just to give it a bit more weight and make it hang better. Mind you that may not be necessary as the fabric is quite a sturdy linen type.

Wm Morris blackthorn

I remember in the 1970s when we got married I quite fancied buying a sofa in a very similar Morris fabric, but Jack said bloody hell – he’s really not a floral fabric sort of chap – and we ended up buying a very bland and boring sofa covered with beige dralon fabric.

This stripe fabric is completely different but I love it. It’s a shame that the colours haven’t come out so well, believe it or not, the sun was shining brightly on it when I took the photograph and it seems to have had the effect of draining the colour. It’s two shades of green, two of blue and a gorgeous warm yellow, unusual combination but it works. This is a Liberty design, which was a surprise to me as I always associate Liberty with florals, again it’s a heavy linen and the design is called Boughton.

Liberty stripe

Luckily this is a good length of fabric and I’m planning to use it to make curtains for the new house – whenever we get there, and wherever it may be. I’m determined that the next house will not have high Victorian ceilings like the house we live in now. I’ve had 25 years of them and I want something cosier next time, which will have the advantage that I won’t have to buy or make curtains with a drop of 108 inches, which is what we have at the moment.

This is all for the future though as Jack has been told that he can’t retire this year as they need his experience in the classroom. It’s an absolute pain in the neck, but as I said, the best laid plans o’ mice and men gang aft agley. Oh all right – Rabbie Burns said it first!

How exactly are young teachers supposed to get any experience if they can’t get jobs in teaching because older teachers aren’t allowed to retire just one year early, without taking a big hit to their pension?

Anyway, I’m keeping calm and taking the attitude that if we can’t move house this year then their must be a good reason for it. Well, there’s not a lot else we can do.

Library Loot (and mobile phones)

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I had a phone call from my local library the other day letting me know that a book which I had requested was ready to be picked up so I strolled along there and had a look around to see if there was anything else worth taking out. It’s often quite slim pickings but this time as you will see I ended up borrowing quite a few.

1. The Brandons by Angela Thirkell (Joan Kyler mentioned this author and I thought I’d give her a go.) This is the one I requested.

2. A Matter of Trust by Robin Pilcher. I’ve enjoyed quite a few of his mother Rosamunde’s now so I thought it would be interesting to see what he is like.

3. Still Midnight by Denise Mina. I’ve been meaning to read something by her for ages because she’s from Glasgow and sometimes appears on the Friday Newsnight review.

4. An Expert in Murder by Nicola Upson. Jo at The Book Jotter is reading this author so I thought I’d give her a go.

5. News From Nowhere by William Morris. This one was on a prominent stand shouting ‘borrow me’. I knew that Morris wrote poetry but this is ‘Chapters from a Utopian Romance’ – could be interesting.

6. Secret Gardens (the Golden Age of Children’s Literature) by Humphrey Carpenter. He wrote the Mister Majeika books which were so popular when our sons were wee. I keep having to get this book out to check information, I think I’ll end up buying it.

So, as you can see, quite a haul. Now I just have to read them all.

Making my way to the crime section I had to go past a chap who was just beginning a call on his mobile/cell phone, a bit strange I thought because I assumed that people wouldn’t use them in the library. Silly me! I actually turned away from him and walked to another area because I didn’t want him to think I was listening in!

However he proceeded to yell into his phone whilst walking all around the library. The first thing he said was ‘Hello, it’s about consolidating a loan!!’ I was flabbergasted, he continued to answer all the personal questions that were obviously being put to him – the upshot of which is that and I everybody else within the library couldn’t help hearing it all. Name, address, employment details, personal numbers, how much debt he had – the lot.

Talk about being cavalier with your own security! I couldn’t believe it. I’m not a great one for speaking on the phone much and to me a mobile phone is for emergency use only. It’s beyond me why people use them for such inane conversations, like the people who block up the aisles in supermarkets while they phone someone to ask what sort of frozen peas they should buy. Birds Eye or Tesco’s own brand? they yell. Make a bloody decision, I scream. In my head.

For some reason a lot of people who have their phones clamped to their heads most of the time seem to think that nobody can hear what they’re saying and so they’re completely unaware that they are invading other peoples’ space.

I think it’s similar to people who think that nothing bad can happen to them because they have a camera in front of them, or they think that they can’t get in the way of people, like that idiot photographer who jumped in front of a marathon runner to get a photo of him and tripped the poor runner up.

Heigh-ho! I just felt the need to share that and have a bit of a rant. Now I’m off to get some reading done.