This unexecuted design shows Morris’s method of creating a pattern. The free and unrestrained pencil and charcoal drawing in the background of the design is erased and refined as the pattern develops. The outlines are then strengthened in sepia watercolour before colouring is finally added.
Morris didn’t usually create preliminary sketches and instead worked out a pattern on a single sheet of paper until it either came to fruition or was abandoned, as in this example. However, the motifs and forms he created were never wasted and were reworked into future patterns, elements of his ‘Windrush’ and ‘Wandle’ patterns came be found in this earlier unexecuted design.
