Year 3 visited the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow yesterday for an exciting workshop all about this local artist and his world-famous prints. We learned about how London changed during the Industrial Revolution of the Victorian Era, and how William Morris made his artwork inspired by the nature that was fast disappearing from London as it grew around him. 

We had a tour of the gallery to see how he made his prints by hand using wooden blocks to make repeating patterns, and saw how these patterns were used on fabrics, furnishings and wallpapers to bring a piece of nature inside people's homes.

We then made our own two-colour foam relief prints inspired by the animals, plants and patterns we see in the forest and gardens around us. We used an old metal press that pushed our inked designs onto paper as we turned the wheel like a ship - it was so exciting to see our prints materialise in front of our eyes! We loved learning about this local artist and his life, and are inspired to draw much more from nature around us back at school.