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Left Hugh Dunford Wood block printing Right Wallpaper Peggy Angus SELVEDGE 60 ‘imperfections’ are a crucial ingredient in the tactile appeal of his designs. “I like hand-made objects that reveal something of the maker,” he says. “It’s so much nicer than a machine-made thing that’s perfect but perfectly dead.” Following in the footsteps of William Morris, twining plants are a recurrent theme in Dunford Wood’s designs; but some of his other patterns have surprising imagery, such as Shoebaloo, featuring an array of vintage footwear, and Field of Hares, depicting a family of hares in the countryside. Although wallpapers remain his speciality, he also produces a range of block-printed linen cushions called Peaceable Kingdom, decorated with characterful illustrations of wild animals such as badgers and owls. Katherine Morris (another of Peggy Angus’s assistants during the 1980s) got to know the designer through her father, a family friend. Morris had originally planned to pursue a career in architecture but changed tack after becoming frustrated by the lack of opportunity for spontaneous creative expression. Having been initiated in the art of wallpaper-making by Angus, who she praises as “a most extraordinary, lively and inspirational woman”, Morris decided to set up her own workshop, in the 1990s using the same lino block and emulsion paint technique to print her two-tone designs. As she points out: “This method of printing produces a softness and subtlety of variation which cannot be achieved mechanically.” Some of her patterns are decidedly Angusesque, especially those incorporating circle, star and triangle motifs. Others conjure up the spirit of the Arts and Crafts Movement, such as CatsandBirds,
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a lively design featuring a moggy and its prey, recalling the gothic playfulness of William Burges. Morris also produces thematic designs such as Lundy, juxtaposing illustrations of lighthouses and puffins. “In my representational designs I always aim to illustrate the chosen subject accurately and, secondly, to inject life, character and meaning into that representation,” she says. “Abstract designs, on the other hand, can be pure fun – the shapes meaning different things to different people.” What soon emerges when you delve into the world of hand block printing is that, because of the individual character of this medium, it particularly appeals to non-conformists who prefer doing their own thing. Chiswick-based Marthe Armitage, whose wallpapers are marketed by the high-end interior design firm Hamilton Weston, is a case in point. Consciously bucking the trend towards digital design, Armitage is an enthusiastic advocate for the art of drawing, the starting point for all her designs. “If you design on a computer, you’ve got a readymade image and you don’t have to do all this hand work,” she admits. “But what you miss is the ideas coming while you’re drawing… I would love to inspire people to go back to the drawing board.” Armitage originally studied painting but took up lino printing after starting a family, as she found this activity easier to combine with the demands of looking after small children. Several decades later her daughter Jo now assists her in the studio. Although the design process starts with drawings, cutting the lino blocks is a different process altogether: “You’re working blind because you’ve got no idea what it looks like,” she says. A small hand printing press is used to apply pressure to the 4 Left: block prints by India Rose Bird, Graduate Leeds College of Art 2013 Right: Cameron Short printing SELVEDGE 61

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Left Hugh Dunford Wood block printing Right Wallpaper Peggy Angus

SELVEDGE 60

‘imperfections’ are a crucial ingredient in the tactile appeal of his designs. “I like hand-made objects that reveal something of the maker,” he says. “It’s so much nicer than a machine-made thing that’s perfect but perfectly dead.”

Following in the footsteps of William Morris, twining plants are a recurrent theme in Dunford Wood’s designs; but some of his other patterns have surprising imagery, such as Shoebaloo, featuring an array of vintage footwear, and Field of Hares, depicting a family of hares in the countryside. Although wallpapers remain his speciality, he also produces a range of block-printed linen cushions called Peaceable Kingdom, decorated with characterful illustrations of wild animals such as badgers and owls.

Katherine Morris (another of Peggy Angus’s assistants during the 1980s) got to know the designer through her father, a family friend. Morris had originally planned to pursue a career in architecture but changed tack after becoming frustrated by the lack of opportunity for spontaneous creative expression. Having been initiated in the art of wallpaper-making by Angus, who she praises as “a most extraordinary, lively and inspirational woman”, Morris decided to set up her own workshop, in the 1990s using the same lino block and emulsion paint technique to print her two-tone designs. As she points out: “This method of printing produces a softness and subtlety of variation which cannot be achieved mechanically.”

Some of her patterns are decidedly Angusesque, especially those incorporating circle, star and triangle motifs. Others conjure up the spirit of the Arts and Crafts Movement, such as CatsandBirds,

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