Get smart curated videos delivered to your inbox.   SUBSCRIBE
The Kid Should See This

Block printing William Morris wallpaper

Watch more with these video collections:

“A key figure in the Arts and Crafts Movement,” the V&A explains, designer William Morris “championed a principle of handmade production that didn’t chime with the Victorian era‘s focus on industrial ‘progress’.”

Morris’ work, a growing influence from around 1860 to 1920, was inspired by nature and honored craftsmanship. His block-printed wallpaper designs were illustrative and rich with detail, an aesthetic that demanded painstaking patience and attention during the four weeks of printing.

block detail
The V&A video above demonstrates the exacting process required of his 1875 Acanthus wallpaper design.

“This wallpaper was printed for Morris’s company by the London firm Jeffrey & Co., who specialised in high quality ‘Art’ wallpapers. It required thirty wood blocks to print the full repeat, and used fifteen subtly different colours (more than any previous design by Morris). ‘Acanthus’ was issued in two colour combinations – one in shades of green and the other in predominantly reddish-brown tones.”

matching the ink
block printing
Read more about William Morris, his wallpapers, his inspirations, and the Arts and Crafts movement at the V&A and at TheArtStory.org.

Watch these videos next on TKSST:
The art and technology behind 1960s Wallpaper Manufacturing
• Linocut carving and printing by Maarit Hänninen
• Stone Lithography, a demonstration at Edinburgh Printmakers
Carving greenhouse, plant, and flower rubber stamps

This Webby award-winning video collection exists to help teachers, librarians, and families spark kid wonder and curiosity. TKSST features smarter, more meaningful content than what's usually served up by YouTube's algorithms, and amplifies the creators who make that content.

Curated, kid-friendly, independently-published. Support this mission by becoming a sustaining member today.

🌈 Watch these videos next...

What is Impressionism?

Rion Nakaya

What is Cubism? This Tate Kids animation explains.

Rion Nakaya

Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night, but make it LEGO

Rion Nakaya

Upside Down, Left To Right: A Letterpress Film

Rion Nakaya

The V&A’s Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser

Rion Nakaya

The Research Institute LEGO set, a V&A Object in Focus

Rion Nakaya

The Exhale Bionic Chandelier: Microorganism-filled ‘leaves’ that ‘breathe’

Rion Nakaya

The art of making a book: Setting type, printing, and binding by hand

Rion Nakaya