27th August 2018
Following on from our previous blog, we have too many beautiful William Morris designs to fit them into one blog! With our ever growing collection of William Morris designs, we wanted to show them all together with the stories behind them too. Each William Morris design and fabric has a story behind it; the naturalistic and family inspirations, the dates produced and the days of love and care that went into printing them.
William Morris Brother Rabbit was first produced in 1882. It was one of the first designs to be designed and created using the indigo-discharge method of printing. The printing process in total took around three days to complete. The process went that the cloth was dyed all over in an indigo vat which allowed a blue colour to dye the fabric all over in a uniform manner before being printed with a bleaching reagent. That would reduce the colour as much as was required for the colour of the desired design – of course this process is as much trial and error as you can imagine. The mordants were then applied to the bleached parts of the cloth and then immersed in a madder vat to give it a proper tint. Following this, the excess colour was cleaned off and then, to set the colour so that it wouldn’t run, the colours were set at boiling point by passing the fabric through soap. The cloth was then laid outside with the printed side facing upwards which allowed the design to be purified. The whole process over a three day period was a time consuming job!
We also produce William Morris Brother Rabbit in a red colourway – we love it in both colours too much to pick our favourites!
Golden Lily is one of our favourite William Morris designs, beautiful intertwining tulips, lilies and leaves within the design. With a similar name to Lily, don’t be confused – they’re two separate designs. Our licensed Morris designs are printed colour and size wise to our own specifications which best suit our products.
The last design William Morris created before his death, Compton was commissioned for Mr Lawrence Hodson’s Compton Hall in Wolverhampton. The cause of death by Morris? His physician gave the cause, “simply being William Morris, and having done more work than most ten men.” The original design actually required two sets of wooden blocks which were required to print all 28 colours.
A beautiful design that we love in the Autumn/Winter months in particular, the warm oranges giving it a comforting feel within the home.
Designed by William Morris in 1874, Lily is a beautiful design, incorporating a willow background design with lilies and wild flowers. The colours within the design are stunning and really brighten up a room, adding colour into a room and complimenting many different colour schemes due to the fact there’s so many colours within the design.
Morris himself must have really loved the design, it was the wallpaper he used to decorate his bedroom at Kelmscott Manor – his home in Lechlade, Gloucestershire.
Merton, in both blue and white and green and cream, was first produced in 1888. The design was named after their premises that Morris’ company, Morris & Co. moved to – Merton Abbey in Surrey in 1881. It was the first design that the company printed on rotary screens.
Sweet Briar was designed in 1912 as a wallpaper before being used as a fabric later on. The Sweet Briar design is a soft, almost romantic one, made up by a soft cream background with climbing rose stems throughout, in both green and soft brown. The pink Sweet Briar Roses are prominent throughout the design in an almost whimsical design.
Our products are both printed and manufactured in the United Kingdom, are licensed designs by William Morris, and are printed both size and colour-wise to our own specifications to best suit our products. If you’d like a sample of any of our fabrics to see them in more detail, please contact us and we’d be more than happy to send one to you!
Posted in News by Laura
The table is all set for a festive weekend dinner party 🎄 We used our William Morris Mallow design, doesn’t it look so perfect this time of year ✨ Featuring our latest floral arrangement 🌿✨
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If you’re looking for the perfect Christmas gift that will be used year-round, our kitchen sets of tea towels, aprons and ovengloves are sure to be a winner! 🌿
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#williammorris #williammorrisfabric #williammorrisfabrics #williammorrisfabricdesigns #interiordesign #ovenglove #ovengloves #christmasgifts #stockingideas #morris #strawberrythief
Have you had any festive table set ups yet? 🎄 This was our table last year for Christmas Day and our Strawberry Thief in Red has seen a lot of use throughout the year too at many a celebration 🌿 Isn’t it amazing how many events happen around the dining table- we may as well make it as pretty as possible! 🤍
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A pink and white Christmas theme on the table today with Charlotte Rose 🌹 It matches perfectly with our Nutcracker theme flower arrangement 🤍🩰
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#christmastable #christmastablesetting #christmastablescape #tablescape #frenchflorals #laurasbeau #floraldesign #floraltable #floraltablecloth
Did you know we offer a gift wrap service? 🎁 If you’ve got a loved one you’d like to send a floral gift to this year, you can send it straight to their door all wrapped with a note written by the Laura’s Beau elves 🎄🤶🏻 It’s an option on our website only and you can check the gift wrap box at checkout to write your gift tag that we will hand write for you (we also won’t include a reciept or anything of course, but will email it to you instead ✨) Are you giving any William Morris floral goodies to your friends and family this year? 🤍
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Anyone else started on the mince pies this weekend? 🥧 We’ve been feeling rather festive the last week or so, are you all in the festive spirit yet or waiting until December? 🎄
📸 features our William Morris Brother Rabbit blue design 🤍
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To brighten up the kitchen with florals, we love hanging our William Morris tea towels on hooks, over the oven door or kitchen sink 🌿 An easy way to add a pop of colour or design ✨ They’re a great Christmas gift this year and come in a whole range of Morris designs to suit everyone’s kitchens 🎁
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Use Code: BF15 for 15% at checkout until Monday 27th at midnight 🌛 Happy Shopping ✨ (valid on our website only; www.laurasbeau.co.uk 🌿
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#laurasbeau #williammorris #williammorrisfabric #williammorrisfabrics #fabrics #morris #preraphaelite #floralinteriors #preraphaelite #upholsteryfabric #curtainfabric #blackfriday2023
🎄 A Christmas table set up using our Red Strawberry Thief licensed William Morris design ✨ We love how perfect it is dressed up for Christmas but can be used all year round accessorised for all the seasons 🌿
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#christmas #christmastable #christmastablecloth #williammorris #williammorrisfabric #williammorrisfabrics #williammorrisdesign #strawberrythief #preraphaelite
Our virtual craft market is now live! ✨ Only on our Etsy page, you can now shop a limited range different sizes of our licensed William Morris fabrics as offcuts and also, some craft bundles🧵And there is also a pretty fabulous Black Friday deal on everything on our Etsy at the moment! 🌿We`re always working to be more sustainable (you can read more about what we do on our blog) and offcuts is a great way for us to reduce waste - some are larger pieces that are various widths and lengths and some are bundles of fabric offcuts. ✨ Accurate measurements are in the listing, and you`ll find the full market under a tab on our Etsy. The bundles are brilliant gifts for crafters, quilters and those who you know would like to try a whole range of William Morris fabrics 🎁
We`ll keep this tab updated as and when we have fabric ready so keep checking back! Remember, we do sell all our fabric by the half metre if you find a new fave in a bundle 🤍
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Used for a very special engagement tablescape this past weekend was our timelessly beautiful Charlotte Rose! 🥂💍✨ It’s actually a design from our French archive, we absolutely love it ☺️ If you’re starting your Christmas shopping it’s a wonderful gift idea for them to love using all year round on their table 🥂
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#tablescape #tabledecor #engagement #frenchfloral #frenchflorals #floraltable #florals #floraldesign
A wonderful addition to the table, our placemats, available in a range of licensed William Morris designs, set the scene for a whole range of celebrations sat around the table 🥂
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#williammorris #williammorrisfabrics #fabric #fabrics #williammorrisfabric #willowbough #tablescape #myfloraltable #floraltable #preraphaelite #williammorrisdesigns
These green tones together are so lovely 🌿 Can you name all of these licensed William Morris designs? Which is your favourite? ✨ If you’d like a sample of any just let us know ☺️
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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #williammorrisfabric #williammorrisfabrics #preraphaelite #preraphaelites #fabricstash #fabricstack #ukfabric #ukfabricshop #floralfabrics
Autumn tablescapes always brighten the home up this time of year ✨ This is our William Morris Compton design, always super popular it’s got the most beautiful colours within it ✨
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#williammorris #williammorrisfabric #williammorrisdesign #morrisfabric #compton #autumntablescape #tablescape #floraltable #myfloralhome #floraltablescape
🎃 Just a little pup in his pumpkin outfit to deliver a Halloween treat for you! Get 15% off our website with code: Halloween 👻 His little Strawberry Thief bandana is so easy to make from our fabric and always looks so cute on him, we need to make him one in every design! ✨ (discount code can be used only on our website until Sunday at midnight!) 🎃
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Functional + stylish, a tea towel thrown over the cooker or sink really does brighten up the kitchen - bringing some florals inside the home! ✨ This is our licensed William Morris Sweet Briar design, we absolutely love this delicate design with soft pink flowers 🌷
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A fabric stack full of William Morris licensed designs, which is your favourite? ✨
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#williammorris #williammorrisfabric #williammorrisdesign #williammorrisfabric #fabricdestashuk #fabricshop #fabricseller #fabricstack #strawberrythief
Sitting at the table to admire our latest floral arrangement creation with a cuppa! ☕️ Don’t these colours look absolutely wonderful with our beautiful licensed William Morris design Compton 🧡
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#williammorris #williammorrisfabric #williammorrisfabrics #fabrics #fabricdestashuk #floralfabric #floralfabrics #compton #preraphaelite #tablescape #flowerarrangement #floraltable #flowerarranging #myfloraldays
Back in stock- wonderful Golden Lily pvc fabric 🤩 Its a wipe clean material, so is absolutely perfect for the dining table 🍴 Available by the half metre in length, its 140cm wide, so fits most tables, an easy option whilst not compromising on beautiful William Morris florals! 💐
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Can’t forget your Strawberry Thief tote if you’re off to the shops! 🛍️
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#williammorris #williammorrisfabric #williammorrisdesign #williammorrisdesigns #strawberrythief #france #totebag #totebags #floraltote