William Morris Gallery

Archive research and live tattooing

As part of London Craft Week, I was invited by the William Morris Gallery to develop a site-specific project based on close study of the gallery’s archive.

William Morris’s botanical and floral designs were studied with attention to pattern construction, repetition, scale, and composition. The research considered how these forms functioned within craft and decorative practice, particularly across wallpaper and textiles, with attention to recurring compositional strategies and visual motifs.

This led to a series of watercolour works that formed an intermediate stage between archival research and tattooing, allowing me to translate elements of Morris’s visual language into my own before moving onto the body.

Following this stage, an open call invited individuals with a strong interest in both William Morris’s work and my botanical tattoo practice to take part in the project. A selected participant received a live tattoo at the gallery, with the final composition developed in response to both the archival research and the individual collaboration.