A textile collection invites more than a search for an attractive motif. Shape, colour and material can each become the subject of a separate study, then meet again in a design notebook. The point of such an enquiry is to give the eventual pattern a considered beginning. A simple exercise might start with the spaces between forms rather than the forms themselves, or with the balance between a quiet ground and a busy edge. There is room for curiosity before there is any need to resolve a repeat.
Looking at objects and archives
At V&A East Storehouse, the museum describes advance booking to see an object on-site up close, with experienced handling staff available to help. Storehouse is also the meeting point for daily drop-in Object Encounters, sessions led by staff and visiting experts that explore different aspects of the collection. The museum also opens up the Archives of Art and Design and Theatre and Performance, offering insights into the work of artists, designers and performers. This gives a collection enquiry both an object and an archival starting point.
For an exercise in looking, choose a question small enough to draw: how much space lies between two forms, where a line changes direction, or how an edge answers a centre. Make a page of thumbnails devoted to that question. Leave colour aside for the first sketch, then try a second version with only a few tones. Beside each drawing, leave room for a note about the material and another about the aspect of the composition that you would like to explore in your own work.
An exercise with archives might begin with a question about working process rather than a finished pattern. Give the notebook a heading such as “possible stages” or “alternative arrangements”, and use it for your own trials. Let the enquiry remain open enough to accommodate more than one visual answer.
What dye analysis can reveal
A study of nine Chancay textile fragments attributed to 800–1200 CE offers a material account of colour. The researchers used liquid chromatography mass spectrometry and direct analysis in real time mass spectrometry to identify compounds in extracts of the natural dyes behind green, blue, red, yellow and black. The study links the understanding of ancient textiles to the identification of their raw materials, noting that dyes and fibres may have plant or animal origins and that the species used vary with geography, trade routes and cultural significance.
In the examined fragments, molecular markers indicated that green involved overdyeing with indigo and flavonoid dyes. Blue was achieved with an indigo dye, and yellow with a flavonoid dye. The researchers identified red anthraquinone dyes of both plant and animal origin; black came from a mixture of flavonoid, anthraquinone and indigo dyes. A palette of five colours therefore contained a range of dye combinations and origins. The interest for a journal of motifs lies in that material specificity: colour has a history within the cloth as well as a place in the composition.
For a design exercise alongside this account, try making a small colour study with green, blue, red, yellow and black. Assign each colour a different role: ground, outline, accent, border or interval. Reverse those roles in a second version. Give one version a generous ground and another a dense arrangement, then choose which balance to develop.
From reference to an original motif
Begin the next drawing with a decision of your own: a broad border, a sparse field, a particular rhythm of light and dark. Develop that decision through several thumbnails rather than repeating a complete historical composition. For one trial, exaggerate the intervals; for another, reduce the number of forms. You might borrow only a question from the collection study — how a centre meets an edge, for instance — and answer it with marks drawn from your own observations.
Beside the chosen composition, set aside a space for the surface you would like to investigate. Add a list of variations to try: a larger motif, a quieter border, a reduced palette. Leave the page unfinished if the arrangement still invites another version. For this kind of study, an open question can be a useful result, giving the next drawing a purpose rather than demanding a finished textile at once.
The notebook can finish with a small sequence: a question prompted by the collection, a page of observations, and a group of original variations. Choose one variation to develop as an original motif, then explore from photograph to motif or continue with nature-inspired pattern. The aim is a considered relationship between looking and making, with the eventual motif shaped by your own choices.