Read all about it here: https://www.dwell.com/article/renovated-airstream-travel-trailers-4ceccab3
Read all about it here: https://www.dwell.com/article/renovated-airstream-travel-trailers-4ceccab3
WMSC Holiday Party 2022
Historians have demonstrated awareness of William Morris’s environmental ideologies yet have widely ignored this aspect of his work. Morris’s writings on the environment have commonly been described as romantic, escapist, and utopian; if this remains how they are interpreted, historians risk losing valuable insights into the innovative and progressive qualities of Morris’s environmentalism. William Morris’s environmental ideologies were innovative for his time and applicable for today. Through an exploration of his designs, in which he employs the Thames River as a tool of ecological commentary, it will become clear how Morris’s concerns for environmental preservation, freedom, and justice were embedded within his art.
Dr. Elysia French is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Visual Arts at Brock University. French is trained as an art historian and studies contemporary environmentally and socially engaged work. Her research is focused on intersections between art and the environment with a particular interest in climate change, the culture of oil, and multispecies relationships.
She is interested in how cultural producers—those operating within the realms of art and visual culture, community and participatory arts, and activism—are making climate change discourse accessible and relevant to the growing public concern. In recent work, French demonstrated how art is a vital field of inquiry in understanding environmental loss through an exploration of the connections that exist between species and stories. Her current multifaceted and collaborative project, Making (Eco)Logical, brings together diverse perspectives from contemporary artists, activists, curators, scholars and theorists, who explore the ways in which art informs perceptions and communications of environmental and social injustices associated with environmental change.
An illustrated lecture by Lawrence Kreisman following our A.G.M.
During his 1909 lecture tour to America’s West Coast, British architect and designer C. R. Ashbee wrote in his journals that Seattle was “the only American city I have so far seen in which I would care to live.” His wife, Janet, remarked on the city’s cosmopolitanism, its “well-appointed restaurants decorated with the latest Arts and Crafts distinction of line and colouring.” Their comments reveal that the Pacific Northwest was participating actively in the design reform movement that had roots in nineteenth century Britain and was taken to heart by America.
Encouraged by exposure at two world’s fairs that put the Pacific Northwest on the national and international map, significant contributions were made to a broad range of design arts, influenced by the remarkable setting, climate, local raw materials, crafts of native inhabitants, and exposure to Pacific Rim cultures.
Based upon his award-winning book with co-author Glenn Mason, Lawrence Kreisman examines architecture, interior design, furniture, decorative and applied arts, photography, and fine arts that demonstrate the remarkable variety of progressive, architect-designed residences, bungalows for everyone, and all manner of artistic and practical furnishings and accessories that were the handiwork of anonymous amateurs and significant regional artists alike.
Lawrence Kreisman, Hon. AIA Seattle, was Program Director of Historic Seattle for 20 years, He has been recognized for significant work in bringing public attention to the Pacific Northwest’s architectural heritage and its preservation through courses, tours, exhibits, lectures, articles, and 11 books. In addition to The Arts and Crafts Movement in the Pacific Northwest, publications include Apartments by Anhalt; The Stimson Legacy: Architecture in the Urban West; The Bloedel Reserve: Gardens in the Forest; Made to Last: Historic Preservation in Seattle and King County, Dard Hunter: The Graphic Works, and Tradition and Change on Seattle’s First Hill: Propriety, Profanity, Pills, and Preservation, as well as hundreds of design features in The Seattle Times Pacific Northwest Magazine and national magazines Style 1900, American Bungalow, Arts & Crafts Homes and the Revival, Old House Journal, Old House Interiors, and Preservation. Kreisman and his husband, Dr. Wayne Dodge, have been members of the UK Decorative Arts Society 1850 to the Present since the mid-1980s and collect 1890-1930 furniture, decorative, and applied arts, books and design journals of Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria, and the US.
It's a beautiful day to hear all about Morris, Tolkien, and Sigurd the Volsung!
David Parr House
We’re hosting a giveaway!!!
We’ve partnered with August Berg to gift one follower a stunning William Morris Strawberry Thief watch in silver/green!
Head over to our instagram page for full contest details!
@williammorrissocietyofcanada
Ars Longa, Vita Brevis
William Morris had a passion for English hedgerows and an affinity to the natural world, so it’s crucial to me that the garden works with nature. I want the planting to reflect a natural, countryside setting and provide a welcoming environment for wildlife.
Morris was an early advocate of using native species and long-cultivated non-natives to attract birds and bees, which is an approach I use in all of my garden designs. So, I’ll be mixing cottage garden favourites such as iris, peony, dianthus, geranium, foxglove and the soft velvety foliage of Stachys byzantina to achieve blue, purple, earthy red and apricot tones. The garden will also feature shrubs chosen to provide shelter, shade and food for wildlife.
Look out for weeping, twisted and pollarded varieties of willow in the garden. This choice was inspired by Morris’s famous ‘Willow Boughs’ design, alongside hawthorn foliage that appeared in his ‘Jasmine’ design.
Elsewhere, cotoneaster, Berberis and viburnum will feature, while roses, which were another of Morris’s favourites, will grow in both rambling and climbing varieties. I’m particularly excited about the spectacular ‘winged thorn’ rose (Rosa sericea subsp. omeiensis f. pteracantha), with its translucent red thorns which glow like rubies in the morning and evening light.
Of course, the naturalistic world that inspired Morris was largely to be found in the rural landscape, while our Chelsea Show Garden will be in the heart of London. So, to create the sense of being immersed in a country garden, I’ll use plants in abundance. For me, whether urban or rural, a garden should always have a far greater proportion of soft planting over hard surface. The Morris & Co. Garden, much like all of my projects, will work on a ratio of 3:1 planting to hard landscaping.
Central to the design is a quadrant, inspired by another of Morris’s iconic designs, ‘Trellis’. This will consist of a series of inter-connecting pathways forming the shape of the garden. It’s this structure that will allow me to manage the volume of plants. All gardens, in fact, benefit from structure underneath soft planting. This allows plants to ramble freely without creating a wholly untamed nature reserve!
Colour and harmony will be key to the success of the garden so, as the plants slowly begin to emerge, now’s also the time to see how they work together. Most importantly, I’ll be looking at how they blend with other elements in the garden such as the central pavilion, with its laser-cut screens layered with two contrasting colours in the shape of the ‘Willow Boughs’ design.
Everything is looking positive and, with just days to go until we go on site to begin the build, the weather is looking promising too… just as long as the plants don’t peak too soon!
The Morris & Co. Garden can be found on Main Avenue at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show from 23-28 May 2022.
To find out more about the garden design practice Ruth Willmott Associates, click here.
Read Ruth’s first Chelsea Flower Show blog here.
Our cake design this year is 'Flora', an 1891 pattern by William Morris.
Our friends at the Robertson Davies Library at Massey College have a wonderful video about Morris and the Kelmscott Press!
Overshadowed for many years by her more famous father, May Morris is now beginning to gain the recognition she deserves as being an incredibly talented craftswoman in her own right. Teacher, lecturer, editor, jeweller and designer, May was accomplished in a wide range of crafts, but it is her work as an embroiderer that is considered to be her greatest achievement. May’s knowledge of needlework, her talent for designing and her brilliance with the needle led to raising the status of embroidery to fine art. This talk will cover May’s life and work, with a focus on her beautiful designs and completed embroideries, demonstrating why May should be regarded as one of the most significant artists of the Arts and Crafts Movement.
Helen Elletson has been Research and Development Curator at the William Morris Society since 2000 and Research Curator at the Emery Walker Trust since 2010. Amongst Helen’s publications are A History of Kelmscott House (2009) and Highlights of the William Morris Society’s Collection (2015), as well as articles on the Arts and Crafts movement including A Feeling for Beauty: May Morris, Emery Walker, and the Arts and Crafts of Hammersmith in Country Life (2017).
This is an online talk, held on Zoom.
Sign up here: https://williammorrissociety.org/event/online-lecture-a-remarkable-woman-the-art-of-may-morris/
This lecture is by Dr. John Wolforth, Prof. Emeritus, McGill. This lecture will focus on the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the youthful ambitions of its founders.