William Morris Monoprinting

On Friday, during our Art session, Year 5 have been studying William Morris. Last week we learnt about who William Morris was and what he was famous for. We looked at different examples of his wallpaper designs and learnt that his patterns were inspired by nature, with many containing leaves, flower and animals. This week we learnt that a motif is a decorative image or design that is repeated to form a pattern. We then used monoprinting to replicate one of William Morris’s motifs. This is the first time that we have used monoprinting in Year 5 and it is safe to say that the adults and the children loved it! Monoprinting is where a print can be made only one time. This week we used oil pastels to create our monoprints. We covered the back of the motif with a thick layer of oil pastels and then turned it over and began tracing over the motif with a pencil. The pressure of the pencil caused the oil pastel to be transfered on to the paper underneath, creating our monoprinted motif. It was a fascinating process and the results were impressive.