pattern

pottery collaboration: form and mark

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A little over a year ago I started to collaborate with my mum on a very special creative project. My mother has been a potter all of my life and family meals at home would mean eating from hand-thrown stoneware bowls, plates and cups made by her. During the 1970s and early ’80s she exhibited her goods at craft fairs in and around Wymondham, Norfolk and we would hang around watching as mum demonstrated her craft alongside her creative friends. We were lucky enough to have personalised birthday gifts made by mum during our childhood, and when I left home I was given a homemade teapot, cups and bowls that I still have, three decades later! My sister and I used to play at the potter’s wheel and hand build the odd ornament. I vividly remember the smell of burning clay dust on the bar heater and the feeling of dry clay on my hands.

Last winter, as a way to spend time together at a sad time of family loss, I suggested we try collaborating, sharing our skills to see what we could come up with. I made a project sketchbook to outline a few thoughts and approaches to form and visual language, and handed it over for mum to think about what chimed with her. Although I’m a surface pattern designer, I’ve no experience of hand painting on ceramics beyond art school. Mum has switched to hand building her vessels in recent years so this was how we started. After a morning in my studio pressing tools into damp clay, drawing forms and testing colours, the project was underway.

Mum tested a few ways to construct the vessels and I responded to the forms with drawn and painted marks inspired by our mutual appreciation for landscape. I had to learn how to load the brush and use the colour on the clay. I monoprinted texture and marks by painting newspaper with colour then drawing on the back of it on the damp clay. I drew with the ceramics pencil and scratched through shapes of colour with different tools. I’d hold my breath in anticipation as I planned a long line of colour, top to bottom, over the neck and shoulders of the form. We also added buttons as visual and textural interest. We had some gentle discussions about my preference for marks mum was less keen on, and we egged each other on each time we returned to the pottery. I’d receive a message, “Kate darling, I’ve made some more for you!” and soon the weekend arrived and we were nattering away, having our creative fun together again.

We have learned lots about what we have both wanted with the shapes and surface pattern of the pots, and I’ve tried my best to understand slips, engobes and underglazes. Our techniques have been refined, and standards raised during the year. I’ve definitely got better at drawing on three-dimensional forms – I’m even more in awe of Clarice Cliff! There are three series so far, exploring different forms, colourways and surface decoration, with approximately ten flasks in each.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to work with mum on this project, it genuinely feels an absolute privilege to be able to work in this way. This collaboration has been one of united adventure, sharing each other’s creative decision making and discipline expertise to guide us, learning to make more than we could individually, sitting beside each other in a conversation between clay form and mark making.

I also think we may not be done yet … we shall see! We are looking at options to exhibit them and would very much like to share them with others.

draw, design, cut & print

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I’m currently working on some large scale lino blocks to print floral patterns as part of my continuing pattern research. At the same time I’m also teaching our BA2 group how to create repeating printed patterns, so it’s always nice when there is some parallels between what I’m up to and what the students are doing.

I have been returning to my sketchbook of floral drawings I made from my trip to the Italian Alps, and exploring them again with new paper cutouts as I think about overprinting and block rotation. I’ve not proofed the plate yet, but here’s some work in progress images from the studio.

weaving the timeline

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Dates and anniversaries matter to me, personally and professionally. They record the passing of time, the gaining of experience, the rhythms of life and death. I bemuse my family & friends by remembering apparently irrelevant dates, including the birthday of Roland Rat, (12th March if you are wondering!). 

Seven years ago this week I started working at Norwich University of the Arts as Course Leader of both the Fashion and Textile Design degree courses.  I undertook this role for four years before focusing on the BA Textile Design course for the last three. I am immensely proud of the course and community I lead, with a strong network of colleagues supporting me with the wobbles while celebrating the wins. 

One of my leaving gifts from my colleagues at Birmingham City University back in 2018 was a warped-up 8-shaft Harris loom – it’s important to note I’m a printed textile designer, not a weaver! This week I have finished weaving the warp – over 5 and a half metres of weaving – certainly not a commercially viable rate!  I haven’t committed a huge amount of time, more short bursts over the years when the mood took me. I was surprisingly sad as well as excited that there was no more cloth to weave and I’d be able to see the entirety of the weaving away from the loom.

The completion of the warp coinciding with this work anniversary has made me reflect on these years, there have been highs and lows in both work and life. Learning to weave has given me a process to occupy my head with away from everything else, without any pressure but to play and explore. It has been so helpful for me to have this space and activity. As I cut the warp threads and unwound the length the bands of colour and materials I selected at various times revealed themselves, reminding me of how I was feeling as well as specific experiences. 

In parallel to making this cloth, I’ve developed my role in academia – developing curriculums and strong student experience, achieving the title of Associate Professor in Design, writing a book, and developing my role of advocate for others and the discipline of textiles both in education and industry. It’s nice to have something tangible to mark these years. I’m ready to get stuck into the next chapter of academia but I’ll have to find another hobby or learn how to warp the loom up myself … here’s to the next year of learning and teaching! 

print / pattern / cloth

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After a long academic term leading the Textile Degree at Norwich University of the Arts I finally found some time to get in to the workshop and sample some designs on fabrics. I developed the patterns rather a while ago. I love the process of screen printing, from mixing the colours, exposing the screens, pulling the squeegee and of course lifting the screen to see the new print. I even enjoy washing the screens ready for the next time!

I’m not going to share all the outcomes at this point, but here’s a taster of the colours and a glimpse of one of the designs. I was working with transparencies in the pigment and binder to create the extra colours… and I’m really excited about the results!

PLAY prints on show

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I am really pleased to have had two of my most recent works on paper selected to be included in the Print Cromer exhibition this summer, with the Private View on 19th July. This new body of work has been developed as part of my academic practice at Norwich University of the Arts where I have been exploring pattern structures and repeat blocks. I have explored new pattern iterations by rotating the screens to add additional colours of the same artwork, thereby building greater complexity from limited design information. In an age where digital design and the use of Artificial Intelligence provides limitless opportunities, I want to explore the fundamentals of pattern creation to generate new possibilities that are led by the designer, ensuring the creative path is transparent.

The theme of the exhibition is PLAY, and as a result the palette I created feels full of summer carnivals and fairgrounds. The overprinting of inks with differing levels of transparency provides a building of depth and subtlety of harmonious colour.

I created a number of one, two, three and four-colour prints initially, that featured the screen rotation in adding the colours. I then cut strips of the prints and with further rotation of the strips, interwove them into one base print that had been sliced to enable the slotting. I enjoyed bringing back an element of paper engineering from my book art practice into these new pieces.

In designing each piece, I considered the placement of motifs and relationships of colour. The collection provides variation within a collective identity and belonging. Some pieces feature only triangular motifs, while most incorporate the circular and rectangular elements too. My research utilises design thinking by Lewis Foreman Day, and his distribution of elements. This approach results in scattered focal motifs that work across repeating patterns. Although this is not a feature of my new work, I recognise the placement considerations are also useful in this work too.

A number of these pieces will be for sale during the show.

playing with print

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I’ve been enjoying some studio time to explore my print research as works on paper with the hope of exhibiting the work. I enjoy paper engineering and construction (that’ll be the book artist in me!) and have previously tested paper manipulation in relation to this current pattern research. I tend to work in this way, creating drawings or prints to exhibit / sell alongside forming pattern ideas, and it has been useful to see the evolution of the sampling in this way here too.

These new artworks utilise my screens of geometric artwork practically exploring research into motif distribution in printed pattern thinking formalised by Lewis Foreman Day in his book Pattern Design, published in 1901. Having printed the artwork in the first colour, I rotate the screen by 90-degrees and print the second colour, turning the artwork / screen up to four times for maximum complexity. To add a further dimension, I’ve been constructing works on paper that utilise several iterations of the prints to build new compositions by weaving and slotting strips of the printed papers in differing combinations of the four colours in the palette, providing the coherency across the series, and an injection of the spirit of summer fairgrounds through the colour and geometric visual language.

There are two screens of artwork used in this collection, therefore two series of original artwork (PLAY – circles and PLAY – triangles) and I shall continue to evolve the body of work over the coming months. I’d love to know your thoughts on this new work!

Electric Dreams at Tate Modern

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I visited the Electric Dreams exhibition on at Tate Modern, London, until 1st June 2025 and thoroughly enjoyed the exhibition that ranged from 2D artworks, sound, kinetic sculpture, light projections and installations, featuring international artists and groups. Mathematical systems and rules, machine-controlled movement as well as material and pattern play resulted in a fascinating show I thoroughly recommend.

The exhibition was described as ‘art and technology before the internet’ and included C20th items from the Pop Art era through to early computing and video work. Our perception and senses were being challenged in many ways as we experienced the installations and artefacts. Some exhibits performed constantly, others, often featuring movement or light were timed, so I worked my way back and forth between the rooms to ensure I’d seen all I could in performance mode. The current trend for immersive gallery experiences were put in to context in this exhibition.

Left to right: Atsuko Tanaka (pic 1 & 2), Francois Morellet

Left to right / top to bottom: Otto Pine, Julio Le Parc, Martha Boto, Alberto Biasi, Analivia Cordeiro

installation: Carlos Cruz-Diez

Left to right: Mariana Apollonia, Lucia Di Luciano

Moving pattern – 16mm cameraless animation

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I’m always looking for other ways to explore my pattern ideas and have been keen to consider options for film making to explore sequential narratives. Animation processes fit well with the work I’ve been doing with pattern evolution I have been testing across pages of books over the years.

Having been a fan of Len Lye’s paintings on film from the 1930s, including A Colour Box from 1935 commissioned to promote the General Post Office I was pleased to be able to attend a workshop in Norwich to to spend a few hours working on strips of 16mm film to make my own experimental animation. We were shown some examples of other people’s films and could then explore the process ourselves. The workshop was led by Jacob Watkinson and was hosted by The Holloway in Norwich.

We were given strips of clear 16mm film I was able to use pens, paint, rubber stamps and Letraset on, as well as pre-exposed film with archive films that we could scratch away the black with a scalpel beautifully. I know it’s obvious to say, but 16mm is tiny, and I’d forgotten my glasses, so that added to the issue of seeing what I was working on! It’s a tiny space to include anything too complex and I was unsure initially how many times to repeat motifs and at what pace to move motifs across the film, but I just had a go and tried not to be too precious. 

Once we’d all had a chance to work on several pieces Jacob spliced the pieces of film together and we ended the session with a screening of everybody’s efforts – it was great to see individual approaches with the same processes and the outcomes have certainly got me thinking about taking my pattern evolution ideas in this direction again. The image below shows some stills from the film I made – all 20 seconds of it! Len Lye’s films are brilliantly paired with music so maybe I need to think about that too – but I’m not sure today’s Post Office will be knocking on my door anytime soon!

If you want to read more about Len Lye this article from the Tate is a good one.

new collection launch: KATE FARLEY x WINDOW FILM COMPANY                    

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I’m excited to be finally bringing this collection of surface designs to market in collaboration with the Window Film Company. The inspiration for the patterns has stemmed from my fascination with geometric designs, taking the basic ingredients of triangles, circles and squares as my starting point.

I’ve been exploring geometric pattern structures in relation to design principles established by Lewis F. Day at the turn of the Twentieth century, exploring the equal distribution of motifs within a repeating tile to alter the visual rhythm within two-dimensional surface designs. I have also explored expectation and disruption within the repeat tiles. On establishing an apparent small-scale repeat, I play with unexpected shifts in the placement of motifs to disrupt the rhythm, challenging the sense of order. This work belongs to my ongoing practical pattern research as Associate Professor in Design at Norwich University of the Arts.

The six designs each have their own identity and yet belong together like siblings in a family, with shared features of geometric motifs and formal compositions throughout this collection. Some of the designs started their life as self-initiated physiotherapy back in 2020 / 21 following abdominal surgery and my subsequent recovery. The design challenge, to make small-scale lino blocks of repeating patterns to print by hand, provided me with small physical and mental tasks to focus on between the naps. I had hoped some of the designs would one day be leaving my studio, and I’m pleased and proud to share them now.

Designing for window film requires consideration of motif, shape and pattern construction without the aid of colour, requiring an absolute focus on negative and positive shapes. I enjoy working within design limitations in relation to production requirements and technical specifications, believing the challenges become design opportunities. I spent some time testing the various scale of patterns across the collection, including a micro pattern (Step), through to a much larger scaled pattern (Triangulate), considering window sizes in both domestic and commercial spaces in relation to the motif sizes. 

I’ve worked with the very patient Steve at the Window Film Company for all my designs available on film, including the large-scale bespoke design for Birmingham Airport back in 2017. Previous designs from my Construct collection available from the Window Film Company won a House Beautiful award in 2018 too!

Steve worked with me to sample some of the early versions of these designs generated as digital scans from lino prints initially, but I didn’t like the visual quality in the translation of the prints. The original artworks for this collection were generated using collage and screen printing alongside the lino prints as I prefer designing with a physical relationship to image creation. After further consideration I opted to create each of the designs as vector-based files for production, providing sharp graphic quality to the patterns. 

Mike at Window Film Co. was also fundamental in getting this collection established, off the computer, on to window film and ready for sale. Our conversations focused on understanding my design identity in relation to previous work. He ensured the designs felt authentic to me, while building on the existing designs I already license to the company. 

It’s always exciting to receive a delivery of samples, and I’ve had a few of those over the last few months. The final product is very different to a digital file, so it is important to inspect the artwork as film installed on the window, checking the scale of repeat as well as any discrepancies in the artwork – you must have sharp eyes for detail! With final decisions made and sampling approved, as well as the small matter of naming the designs, we have been able to sign off the artwork, and launch the six designs in the collection: Circulate, Diamonds, Shift, Triangulate, Step, Pairings

Thanks to everyone at the Window Film Company!

The designs are available to order here

weekend weaving

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I was gifted my loom as a leaving gift from my colleagues at Birmingham City University six years ago and I’ve still got a little of the seven yards left. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed spending some spare hours over the last few years making cloth and the chapters of weaving are a record of my relationship with colours, found materials, and technical tests I’ve undertaken at the loom. As a printer this is not my natural habitat!

With a newly sorted studio space I noticed the sun was streaming in through the windows and on to the loom, so I made time last weekend to get back to my warp and weft threads. I am using the process a bit like drawing as I create marks and rhythms through textures and colour. While I’m looking forward to being able to see the entire warp woven, it’s more about the process of weaving that I’m really enjoying, and in some ways I don’t want the length to end… that’s my excuse anyway!