Kelmscott Manor, lino-printing workshop

Kelmscott Manor, William and Jane Morris' country home, has recently undergone an extensive restoration programme, and reopened to the public earlier this year. I was asked to develop and deliver a workshop for a class of primary school children, to give them an experience of lino printing in the Learning Barn, following a tour of the house.

For this workshop and others, I have made a set of stamps inspired by the William Morris designs that are on display in the house as fabric and wallpaper. Some motifs are easily recognised, such as the bird from 'Strawberry Thief', but others are less so, and the children enjoyed identifying the patterns that each stamp came from.

During our session the children learnt how to make a block out of styrofoam, and then how to carve a pattern into a rubber. They printed the results, and also printed with the stamps I had carved. They learnt about lines of symmetry, whilst producing their own patterns. The results were great, and the hands-on experience really brought to life what they had learnt about the Morris' in the Manor.