The Floral in Textile Surface Pattern Work

Illustration: Textile design, 1851.

To understand the history of surface pattern in textile design is to understand that each pattern will have a personal, cultural and regional dimension as well as that of a general historical perspective. This perspective will inevitably bring in aspects that are seemingly diverse, but fundamental to the characteristics of human life such as social, political and religious movements and upheavals. All of these elements can often be read into a particular pattern style, and even sometimes a specific and individual piece of work. However, there are also aspects to pattern work that can seem unchanging, familiar even, to generations irrespective of their cultural affiliations and time line.

The four textile designs chosen for this article were produced in Britain between 1849 and 1851. Although to some extent they do fit into a framework that denotes the early Victorian period of decoration and design, they could equally have been placed within another era, region, or culture, largely because of their subject matter. 

Illustration: Printed textile design, 1850.

Floral work in surface pattern work seems to us to be ageless, and to some extent it is. It has had a near continuous appeal from the beginning of human decorative ideas concerning pattern work. It is also a near universal inspirational tool, with practically every culture, both historical and contemporary, using anything from simple motifs to complex interdependent ideas to produce pattern work based on the floral world that we constantly see around us.

Florals have always been a particularly important aspect of textile design work, whether historical or contemporary. They give ample excuse to experiment with colour, form and dimension. The four examples shown here give some idea as to the scope of floral pattern work produced in one small period of the mid-nineteenth century. Some examples appear particularly accomplished and sophisticated, while others take a much more simplistic approach to pattern. However, each has a charm and comfortable approach to the floral, with pattern work appearing confident and intrinsic without being too studied or formal. 

 Illustration: Woven textile design, 1850.

Pattern without a floral dimension is of course possible and much highly creative work has been produced in the geometric and abstract fields across many generations. It could well be argued that this form of pattern work derived long before the floral was used, with many early ceramic pots using an endless arrangement of geometric and organically sourced abstract pattern work. However, without the floral based dimension to pattern, despite the rich variety produced by the abstract, human decorative history would be much the poorer and the perhaps the link with the natural world might be that little more ephemeral. It is the strong belief in the connection between the human species and the natural world that can be seen as being symbolised in the endless variations of floral pattern work.

Illustration: Printed textile design, 1849.

This perhaps is part of the appeal of the floral. Whatever the situation of the human world, whether it be contemplative or material, benign or oppressive, compassionate or aggressive in character, the relationship with nature has always been constantly present, a relationship that we are all intrinsically aware of. Therefore, floral pattern work within the context of surface pattern is a form of comfort, an old friend if you will. The diversity and plenitude of the natural world in both colour and style has always intrigued us and intrigued the designer especially. The sheer range of styles, produced on an individual and cultural level and over endless generations, from a seemingly simplistic source material, the flower, is near beyond contemplation. It has never really failed to appeal and will very likely continue into the future of our species as long as we are aware that we have an intrinsic and practical connection with nature, and even if that is lost through various forms of high urban living, the memory of the relationship with nature, the flower, colour and form will no doubt linger for many generations, even though the original inspiration may well be forgotten and the real practical relationship severed.

In a practical sense, we have used the floral motif as a pattern base because it is attractive and adaptable. It serves a seemingly endless source of variation which helps to overcome the problem of endless copies in the same format. However, the use of the floral motif goes much deeper than contemporary short-term practicalities. It is a part of who we are, it is our connection with our past and with the planet around us. It constantly reiterates our place and our role as a natural species in a natural world. 

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The Creative Interpretation of Nature

Illustration: William Morris. Rose textile design, 1877.

One of the most consistent and widely reflected inspirational points used by creative individuals of any discipline is that of the natural world. It has stimulated untold generations of work and continues to do so, and will no doubt be the source of countless future generations. There is something about the world around us that constantly reconnects in our creative experiments. This connection can be interpreted in a number of ways, but mainly through ideas of observation and empathy. 

Observation can never be a truly group experience but always an individual one. Every human sees the external world around them, as indeed they do the internal, differently from the next individual. A tree for example, will appear in seven billion ways depending on the eye construction of each human on the planet and the connections to the brain from the eye, and also the links within that brain. We may all think that we share the same experience, but of course we never can, nor should we. It is our uniqueness, despite a world population of seven billion that allows us to interpret and reinterpret in so many ways and levels, the world we inhabit and see around us. 

Illustration: William Morris. Tulip textile design, 1877.

In that respect, creativity can only ever be personal and identified to the individual through their own practical observations and experiences. The way this is then interpreted externally through art, design or craft is yet another unique level of understanding between the individual and their surroundings. Line and colour are just as personal as initial observation and there are just as many variations of colour and line as their individuals on the planet.

Therefore, all art, design and craft by its very nature is unique and individual and although mass production has taken humans beyond the realm of a contained connection with each individual product, there is still the initial individual and unique connection with the original. In textile design for example, the surface pattern may well be printed or woven in staggeringly large numbers through mass production, but the pattern itself will always have a small and intimate connection between the original human creative and their surroundings. This relationship is an important and often vital one for creative people, the connectivity between themselves and their surroundings being a lifelong one.

It is sometimes hard for us to see ourselves within the midst of the complexity of nature, rather than standing aside from it as we are often portrayed. We tend to regard nature as an entity that we are somehow excluded from. This disconnection has led to a belief that the natural world is a commodity that needs to be both exploited and coveted. In some respects, the process of commodifying everything around us, whether it be plant, rock or fauna, ultimately reflects back in on ourselves and we start to see our species not as seven billion fellow individuals, but as a conglomerate mass, a market to be as equally exploited and coveted as the external natural world.

Illustration: William Morris. Evenlode textile design, 1883.

The creative interpretation of nature brings us both comfort and a sense of belonging. Whether expressed through tapestry or embroidery, through surface pattern or lace, or indeed any other discipline where decoration or ornament is used. It would be very hard to find an individual that did not own something within their home or amongst their personal belongings that did not reflect the natural world in some form or another. 

This connectedness and obvious emotional relationship that we all have in some form with the natural world around us, whether we see that world as a creative or not, begs the question as to why then can we be so dismissive and destructive of that same world that we admire so much when seen in a small piece of fabric.

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