Willow Bough

Willow Bough: willow branches, looked at leaf by leaf According to his daughter May, Willow Bough began with a walk. She was walking with her father along the little stream at Kelmscott that runs into the Thames, when he pointed out 'the detail and variety in the leaf-forms' of the willows. Soon afterwards the wallpaper was done. The result is not a decoration of a willow but a faithful rendering: narrow leaves falling over one another, carried by thin brown stems that run diagonally through the whole pattern. Morris believed a good pattern should carry 'unmistakable suggestions of gardens and fields'. Willow Bough does exactly that, and became one of the most popular wallpapers of Morris & Co. (the V&A even calls it the most popular). It was hand block-printed by Jeffrey & Co. and has been in production since 1887. On the sock we kept it calm: a cream foot like the ground of the wallpaper, with the green leaves and red-brown branches on top. Knitted in, not printed: the colours are part of the sock itself, so they don't fade. William Morris · 'Willow Bough', 1887 · wallpaper, block-printed in distemper colours.