i seem to be suffering a bit of a blur… not only from overdoing it with last night’s bubbly, but also because i was attending a design show and although i don’t know what came first, i started thinking about the whole arts and crafts thing. i’ve read through many discourses on the subject but as a creative jack-of-trades, i still revere the profound commitment of william morris; from the literary works he published and his utopian-socialist views along with his belief in an active creative life to that which he is most properly renowned for…his design company, morris and co. which became a cornerstone of the british arts and crafts movement. he produced books, tiles, stained glass, decorative furnishings, textiles and papers; it is this vision of collaboration between art, craft, design and business that intrigues me…
while morris and his ideals typify the aspirations and dilemmas of victorian britain in microcosm, his importance in shaping twentieth-century culture, both as a critic of it’s emergent mercantile failings and as a model for its innovators in design, cannot be overestimated.
Dr. Claire I. R. O’Mahony
