Morris, William: Some hints on pattern designing: [a lecture delivered ... at the Working Men's College, London, on December 10, 1881] (London, 1899)

words on designin
painting*
Asto embroidery designing, it stands midway be/ on Pattern/
tween that for tapestry and that for carpets; but Designing*
as its technical limits are much less narrow than
those of the latter craft, it is very apt to lead people
into cheap and commonplace naturalism r now,
indeed, it is a delightful idea to cover a piece of
linen cloth with roses, and jonquils, and tulips,
done quite natural with the needle, and we can't
go too far in that direction if we only remember
the needs of our material & the nature of our craft
in general: these demand that our roses and the
like, however unmistakably roses, shall be quaint
and naive to the last degree, & also, since we are
using specially beautiful materials, that we shall
make the most of them, & not forget that we are
gardening with silk and gold/thread; and, lastly,
that in an art which may be accused byilhnatured
persons of being a superfluity of life, we must be
specially careful that it shall be beautiful, & not
sparelabour to make it sedulously elegant of form,
and every part of it refined in line and colour*
In pottery/paintingweare more than ever in dan/
ger of falling into sham naturali Stic platitude, since
we have no longer to stamp our designs with a
rough wood/block on paper or cotton, nor have we
to build up our outlines by laying square by square
of colour, but, pencil in hand, may do pretty much
what we will* So we must be a law to ourselves,
f 33

g for embroidery & for pottery/ Lecture III*
Some Hints