It is a long weekend here, holiday time, beautiful weather, sun shining… I was thinking a 

few days at the beach would be sensational Sun, salt water and sand – bliss… didn’t do that. Stayed at home and spent time doing one of Chelsea’s Challenges. Chelsea is part of the team at Pattern Observer which was started a few years ago by Michelle Fifis. Pattern Observer is one of my favourite sites for textile design and they offer great courses in all aspects of textile design and the business of textile design.

Whist I am involved in teaching textile design and often do the briefs that I set my students it is fun doing a brief set by someone else. It just happens that I set my students a very similar task,  that is  to explore a wide  range of different ways you can develop a motif. We then learn about all the different layout and repeat systems that can be used to create patterns. So take one motif. It can be any shape – draw or paint or stamp or use any method you can think of to recreate the shape in as many differentways that you can.  Here is my example

Once you have experimented with your motifs and your mark making you can then arrange your motifs into a pattern  repeat. You can also start manipulating the design by working through different elements and principles to create a well balanced layout. Change the scale, layer motifs, add colour, vary tonal values, introduce new elements – lines, shapes, textures.