FAQs

Your Cart

Close
Paper Plane Your order qualifies for free standard delivery
Subtotal £0.00
Delivery £0.00
Order Total £0
Checkout Securely

Gaudi & William Morris

10th November 2019

This month, we took a trip to Barcelona. It’s impossible to walk around the city and not see the mark of Antoni Gaudí throughout. The buildings are so stand out, you can’t help but stop and admire them – caught up amongst a throng of locals and tourist alike, you might be a nuisance but, you wouldn’t be to blame.

If you get the opportunity to go to Barcelona, then there’s lots to see of Gaudi’s work. We took a tour of the Casa Batlló, Park Güell and more to see Gaudi’s work. We wanted to show you some photos of our trip and tell you more about Gaudi. We couldn’t help but research further into Gaudi when we got home too, including, a collection to our very own inspiration – William Morris.

A little background, Gaudi was a Catalan architect, born on the 25th June 1852. His distinct style is incredible individual, unable to be replicated and completely, one of a kind. Most, though not all, are located within Barcelona, including, perhaps the most famous worldwide, the Sagrada Familia.

His influence? Nature and religion. The creations he made, you can tell he thought of absolutely everything. The Sagrada Familia for example, he knew he would never be able to see the completion of the project. He therefore laid out a plan to be followed by his predecessors. It is clear that in his works, every detail is considered, the tour took us through everything – from the way the window handles were easy for the user to open to the considered ceramics – in Casa Batlló the tiles in the centre go from dark to light blue as they go up. That’s due to the light hitting them during the day to give depth.

He was influenced by neo-Gothic art and Oriental techniques, meaning he was part of the Modernista movement. Today, he remains one of the most famous architects in the world, between 1984 and 2005, seven of his works became World Heritage Sites.

The Sagarda Familia, in itself, is one of the most beautiful places we’ve been. If you can, please try time your visit for a sunrise or set – the sun throws intense light through stained glass and it’s a magical experience. At one side of the church the Nativity scene is shown and the windows are blues and greens, at the other, the Passions of Christ is depicted, the windows at this side are oranges and yellows. It’s a unique experience. The architecture within too, is spectacular – the pillars show his nature influence as they’re trees – the structural support is important but also, they make the church absolutely unique.

And Morris? Where does he come into it? Well, Morris was an advocate of ornamentation as shown by his work with stained glass and other forms of art. He showed an interest and passion for a wealth of different forms of art throughout his career. Gaudi too, showed a passion for multiple art forms and implemented these into his work. Ceramics, plastering, sculpting and more are all featured within his home. Gaudi was inspired by the oriental arts from India, Persia and Japan – through the study of architectural theoreticians such as William Morris, John Ruskin and Walter Pater. These are known by experts to be seen in his works such as Capricho, the Güell Palace, the Güell Pavilions and the Casa Vicens.

A remarkable man with an incredible talent, it’s impossible to pack the man and his work into one blog. Perhaps we will revisit his work in another blog – we definitely have enough images of ceramics and details within the architecture to fill them! Have you ever visited works of Gaudi? Which ones were your favourites? We’d love to know. 

Related Articles

Post Title

Morris Dancing

  As you will have gathered I am interested in all things William Morris, however Morris dancing is something else! There is evidence to show...

Post Title

William Morris quotes; our favourites.

We wanted to take this blog to share with you our favourite William Morris quotes. It's difficult to read through William Morris's work without wanting...

Post Title

William Morris Mallow Chair Covers

We are always interested to see what our clever customers make from our William Morris fabrics, so we were delighted to these photographs from Patricia...

The soundtrack to our day- our fabric cutter! 🎼 If you ever order fabric from us this is how we get our cuts so straight ☺️ Did you know that we sell our fabrics by the half meter, so however big or small your project is, we’ve got fabric for you ☺️ This is our gorgeous William Morris Strawberry Thief blue design, it’s very often on our cutting table as it’s so popular! Do you prefer it in red or in blue? 🍓 
•
•
•
#williammorris #fabricbytheyard #fabricbymeter #floralfabric #ukfabric
Replacing all normal eggs with chocolate ones for the foreseeable future 🐣 Brother Rabbit Green on the table always looks so beautiful, we just love this new colour way in this gorgeous William Morris design ✨
•
•
•
#williammorris #wmorris #eastertable #floraltable #eastertablescape
Gorgeous flowers this weekend 🤍 We can’t get over the beautiful tulips 🌷 Brother Rabbit blue on the table, do you prefer it in the blue, red or green? 🌿
•
•
•
#williammorris #wmorris #preraphaelites #flowerpowerfabric #flowers
A moment for the greens 🌿 We know sometimes it’s hard imagining different designs together for projects whether you’re quilting with tonal colours or mix matching curtains and cushions, the things you can do with our William Morris fabrics are endless, so seeing them together you can see how beautifully they pair together ✨ We’ll post the blues next so you can see them together too! 🤍 Message us if you’d like a sample of anything, we send them free in the UK 📮
•
•
•
#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #williammorrisfabrics #quiltingfabric #ukfabric
Back in stock alert! ✨ All sizes of our gorgeous William Morris blue Strawberry Thief tablecloths & napkins 🌿 Sometimes the easiest napkin folds are the most effective (we have no bias towards this being our favourite just because it contains a chocolate egg… promise…) 🐰 
•
•
•
#williammorris #wmorris #strawberrythief #preraphaelites #eastertablescape
Some new fabric bundles are now uploaded on our Etsy! ✨ We’ll post the link to our stories to them but some, like in the picture are almost fat quarters, perfect for quilting and crafting, and some are proper scrap bundles full of various sizes and designs, wonderful for crafting- we always wonder what everyone will create from them 🪡 They get rave reviews on our Etsy with crafters and quilters loving them for smaller projects 🥰
•
•
•
#williammorrisfabric #williammorris #quiltingfabric #craftingfabric #sewingfabric
We’re so ready to see everyone’s beautiful Easter tablescapes! 🐣 our top necessities for an Easter table are multiple eggs and gorgeous flowers- the best combo! This William Morris Brother Rabbit tablecloth is the perfect addition to Easter with all those rabbits all over it! 🐰
•
•
•
#williammorris #wmorris #preraphaelites #easter #eastertablescape
William Morris designs bring nature indoors with all the florals, birds and botanicals, so we brought some of our garden inside with some beautiful snowdrops on the table - anyone else excited about the garden waking up for spring? 🌱☀️
•
•
•
#gardenflorals #gardensofengland #williammorris #wmorris #preraphaelites