Motif Monday Submissions

Good morning!

I started writing this blog with the intention of building a knowledge base of all things pattern related to inspire and inform other surface pattern designers.  Here to brighten up every Monday morning is Motif Monday and I'm looking for submissions or guest bloggers on the subject of motifs. 

Have you created a paisley pattern? If you would like to submit examples of your paisley designs please send a 500 x 500 square jpeg to ilovepattern@yahoo.co.uk with the subject heading 'Paisley'. Alternatively if you are a Paisley fanatic and wish to write a guest blog about this or any other motif, please do get in touch.

I hope that with your help we can create a great resource for pattern designers everywhere!

Kind regards,
Frankie x

Motif Monday #1 Nosegays and Bouquets

Nosegay
Image from tiny white daisies

Hello, I've decided that Monday is all about motifs. Every Monday I'm going to look at a different one, do a little research around it and show examples of pattern using that motif in order to create a kind of motif library.

Today's chosen motif is Nosegays. The reason I've chosen this motif is that I am currently working on a pattern collection inspired by the Alfred Hitchcock film Vertigo. I saw this film recently and was really inspired by it. There's wonderful use of colour and lots of flower motifs featured in it. Some scenes, and the opening credits, had a mid-century modern appeal to them too so I hope to incorporate this into my collection too. One of the recurring motifs in the film is this nosegay below, which I think is a great starting point for developing a motif.

Nosegay from the film.
Image from here

A quick google image search of nosegay shows that there's a knitting stitch/pattern, quilting technique and a doily pattern based on it, all of which would make great starting points for designing a motif. For example, a line drawing of a nosegay doily might make an interesting and intricate motif.

Here's an example of nosegay quilting. The aesthetic of quilting could be used in designing a digital pattern resulting in something more geometric and abstract. I've seen a similar technique used by Josephine Kimberling where she created digital patterns that look like cross stitch and crochet as part of her Hope Chest collection.

Image from Kora Quilt Index

Josephine Kimberling's Geometric Crochet design
image from www.fabricworm.com

I'm struggling to find very many examples of repeat patterns that have nosegays as the motif, I guess because it's quite an old fashioned motif... Maybe it's time for a revival? I would love to hear from you if you've designed one and maybe we can add it to this post. I've also started a pinterest board filled with examples of nosegays and bouquets and will be doing so for each Motif Monday. 

Thanks for reading as always. Your feedback and encouragement has helped to shape this blog into something I believe has the potential to become a valuable resource to new surface pattern designers. More about this tomorrow,
Keep reading!
Frankie x