Design Inspiration & Background

Design Inspiration, Influences & The Designer's Background.

Nearly all my inspiration comes from simple daily living and my very humble roots of growing up next to the sea in the Lake District in England. The Western fringes bordering the coastal seaboard and the Southern Lakes, where the poet Wordsworth 'wandered lonely as a cloud', have given me my enduring creative imagination and lifelong passion for art and design. I've never been able to quite escape without pining to go back to such a beautiful coastline.

Growing up in such a spacious and rural back yard, everything was far more simple. There was a rustic purity about everything being homegrown and homemade as well as make do and mend. Nothing was ever wasted and recycling was second nature.

Home especially, was a welcome retreat from the wind battered shoreline. At other times, the gulf stream blew zephyrs of warm air across the Irish sea and we enjoyed hot summer days and simple picnics sat on the beach against the backdrop of huge sand dunes as we watched fishing boats safely return to their moorings at sunset from a long day's fishing on the water. 

Homemade food, washing on the line, the smell of baking, growing vegetables in the garden, herbs in pots and orchards full of apples, plums and pears, making jam, collecting shells, beachcombing and watching the tides ebb and flow, these were the things that nurtured, comforted and inspired us. 

Art and design in those days was sewing, knitting, embroidery, mending and crafting, using whatever materials were to hand. Mostly the textiles were cotton, linen and wool. It was decorative but it also had to be practical and functional and it had to last. Homemaking was a skill rather than a trend and the priorities were practicality. After this, it didn't matter what colour it all came in. Even the linens were repaired in patches of non matching fabric but the stitching was so neat and often decorative, crafted as though the hole underneath was hidden by a handsewn work of art. Embroidered edging and handsewn stitching as a repair method, formed it's own beautiful tapestry. Everything became an heirloom from christening gowns to quilts. Even if they were aged and worn, things had a nostalgic memory value. They were sentimentally precious. Someone's heart and soul were still present in the work.

Much later, when I studied art and design, I learned that decorating the home was never just a trend. There were skills and ceremonies involved, leaving a trail of time honoured traditions, clues and history for us to later discover.

From the beginning of time, interior decorating, even in the most simple form, began as an innate desire to carve one's imagination into their surroundings. Early man painted images on cave walls revealing symbols, life and rituals. When Tutenkhamuns mummified remains were discovered, many items of art and domestic items depicting Egyptian daily life were also found. Everything was decorated even the most basic of pottery elevating them to works of beauty and art.

The Romans perfected the art of home comforts with sumptuous cushions, ornate carved details on furniture, murals, plasterwork and fine living, surpassing grace and elegance even by todays standards. Borrowing from the ancient Greeks, they introduced style, classical lines and timeless sophistication.

These same classical ideas were brought to England by famed architects Inigo Jones and polymath and true Renaissance genius, Christopher Wren.

Later on Queen Victoria and Prince Albert launched Britain onto a world stage displaying our unparalleled industrial and design might during the 1851 Great Exhibition. Today we have Prince Albert to thank for many Christmas traditions not least the tree bauble. 

As well as poetry, fantasy and tradition, William Morris also brought us the Arts and Crafts Movement and with it came emotion and empathy for everything designed and made by hand along with disdain for everything mass produced by the never ending grind of the Industrial Revolution. At 16 years old, he was taken to visit the 1851 Great Exhibition and he hated everything about the mechanisation of what he considered pure craftsmanship produced by the hands of men. He made it his life's ambition to oppose such a soulless industry and his designs and life's work are still influential today. 

One of my most important influences in surface pattern design has been Moses Eaton. Born in the late 1700's in New Hampshire, New England in the US, he was a stencil artist turning humble abodes into original painted works of art inspired by family, friends, home industry and the warmth of the hearth. Despite wallpaper being readily available, no machine could produce the layers and blends of colour both the stencil artist and the apprentice, his son, could achieve by hand. Unlike block printing, which is limited in both detail and the use of colour, Moses found he could use his artistry to create patterns of layers and depth using many colours along with clever blending and shading techniques, all by hand using a single template. It was hugely liberating and not nearly as laborious and time consuming as block printing. As well as on walls and wood, this technique was also used on fabric.

Throughout history and culture, design and decoration around and within the home has always been directly linked to people wanting to feel nurtured and comfortable along with a strong connection to their daily routine and surroundings.

And so, knowing all of this, my inspiration comes from the curated art of daily life and the surroundings in which we live. I've also learned from the very best of teachers. My handprinted fabric methods are completely inspired by the work of early original surface pattern designers such as Moses Eaton, dovetailing neatly and seamlessly into the ethos of my own designs.

I was so very fortunate. I grew up in possibly the very best, most unspoilt part of England, the coastal side of the Lake District bordering the South Lakes, treading in the footsteps of great artists, poets and writers including our very own storyteller and artist, Beatrix Potter, Arthur Ransome, ( Swallows and Amazons) and another great polymath, John Ruskin.

On my doorstep were stunning country houses, fine mansions, stately homes and heritage sites of historical interest preserved and rooted forever in the depths of British history. I also had an excellent art teacher at school who encouraged me and gave me the run of the art room during break times so I could practise my drawing skills.

I attribute my sewing skills and knowledge of textiles to my late mother in law who did her apprenticeship for bespoke tailoring at none other than Savile Row in London.

This is where my inspiration still comes from today and I am always grateful to both art and design history, the people who have been my teachers and to growing up in one of England's most stunning national parks, the timeless and enduring Lake District in Cumbria.

Nina Wornham, designer.