Seaweed

Dearle designed this wallpaper pattern for Morris & Co. around 1901. As is typical for wallpaper patterns, Seaweed began as a design drawn in pencil and watercolor. The drawing encompasses a full repeat of the pattern, which can be seen in the chalk outlines at the edges of the color work, suggesting the continuation of the design. When printed, the dense scrolling shapes of the foliage obscure any joins in the repeat. Seaweed is the only pattern designed at Morris & Co. that features ocean plants instead of the native flora of the British Isles that usually inspired Morris’s designs (2022).