Dianthus Brooch

Adorning William Morris' bedroom at Kelmscott manor were a pair of elaborately embroidered hangings & a pelmet featuring a utopic scene of a pomegranate tree, a trellis background, swirling vines & flowers and a collection of brightly coloured birds. We chose to focus on one of the smaller, perhaps easily missed features from this design, painstakingly embroidered by May c.1893. The Dianthus brooch references a particularly interesting floral design from the scene. A flat fabric applique base in a deep navy blue gives the brooch depth and dimension whist pink and green bullions over padding create the petal shapes. To give the design a contemporary H&L twist, we chose to embroider tiny stars behind the miniature buds in the centre of the flower.