The Textural Revolution
Leaning into a more warped life. Plus a heads up on a new workshop date.
While writing my earlier piece on Rewilding the Home one element of it stuck with me :
‘In a wild interior, timber can warp and coffee marks can be left, raw floors scuffed and paint peeled without concern for prim puritanical values of straightness, flatness and ‘looking like new’’
It's that need to clean, neaten, straighten and flatten that bemuses me. It's an expectation that burdens so many, a social expectation that subjugates by incessant labour.
In short I see the ubiquitous expectation of flatness and neatness as a social issue.
To be untamed in one's interiors is a rebellion against the puritanical requirement of cleanliness being next to godliness.
Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the need for certain hygiene standards but dust and cobwebs and ironed fabrics do not concern me - a crumpled, dishevelled and ramshackle life is a happy one.
What a waste of time it is to spend one’s life in the pursuit of neatness when nature sees no need for such moderation and is perpetually roughing things up. The pursuit of straightness and neatness and flatness is a fight against nature. Nature is the most beautiful thing in the world so what on earth are we doing fighting against it. Where did we get this notion that flatness is best.
There’s more on domestic rewilding from my earlier article ‘Rewilding the Home’ - June 2023
‘If you always stick with solid natural materials they will age well and last. Natural materials, allowed to live out their lives without undue interference, will age beautifully and tell the story of time as it passes. In a wild interior timber can warp and coffee marks can be left, raw floors scuffed and paint peeled without concern for prim puritanical values of straightness, flatness and ‘looking like new’’
And on another note:
For those of you who might be interested this is a heads up that I am just releasing my last (for the foreseeable) Wallprinting Workshop date on 14th July this year.
Join me at my home/studio in North Herefordshire, near Presteigne, for a wall printing workshop day.
This will be a day of hands on creativity with me; learning all the processes that go into my unique wall printing style so that you can create the style in your own spaces. We’ll cover the preparation of walls, materials, pattern design, and block print making.
Pattern making is quite a meditative process, it requires no previous experience and each outcome is fascinatingly individual and surprising.
Alongside the wall printing there’ll be opportunity to explore, and take pictures if you like, throughout the house and garden; and plenty of chat about the creative life that has led us here and all of our creative pursuits.
I’ll provide a simple lunch of fresh bread, cheese and fruit plus refreshments throughout the day. If you have any dietary needs please let me know once you have booked.
Places are limited so don’t delay if you’re keen, each workshop day will be a small group of no more than 7 people.
Here’s the direct link:
Ridge & Furrow Wallprinting Workshop
