Karen Livingstone – författare

A celebration of the work and ambition of the women who were at the heart of the Arts and Crafts Movement. Women Pioneers of the Arts and Crafts Movement is a celebration of the work and ambition of the women who were at the heart of the most influential art and design movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It shines a light on the vital contribution of figures such as May Morris, Gertrude Jekyll, Annie Garnett and many others, and describes the Arts and Crafts Movement from the perspective of these women who worked against the odds as artists, makers, teachers, authors and entrepreneurs. Women of the era took part in, and often led, the founding of exhibitions, societies, art schools and small craft industries. Some were activists and social disruptors while using their skills and talents to make a living. This book highlights the versatility and range of these talented women, who worked across a host of disciplines, including textile design, embroidery, bookbinding, illustration, painting, enameling, stained glass, metalwork, furniture design and architecture. It is richly illustrated with a wide array of their work, much of it previously unpublished. Featuring objects from the V&A’s renowned Arts and Crafts collection, the book also includes key pieces from other museums and private collections across the UK.

Charles Francis Annesley Voysey (1857–1941) is, with William Morris, one of the most enduringly popular designers of the Arts & Crafts Movement. A practising architect, Voysey also designed a broad range of applied arts objects, from furniture, ceramics, and metalwork to wallpaper, carpets, tiles, and fabrics. His pattern designs, created from the 1880s to the early 1930s, are among his best-known works today. His wallpaper and textile designs are characterized by simple, stylized, rhythmic patterns that base their motifs on forms found in the natural world. Plants abound, but so too do birds and animals, represented as silhouettes or in soft pastel shades. This elegant, accessibly priced volume offers a wealth of colourful designs by Voysey in which birds and animals are the principal motifs. Written by Karen Livingstone, a published expert on Voysey and the Arts & Crafts Movement, this book brings together not only completed patterns but also working drawings in pencil and watercolour. Voysey's Birds and Animals will both inform and delight, appealing to a broad readership of museum visitors and lovers of art and design.

The Arts and Crafts Movement started as a backlash to industrialism and the stylistic ideals that prevailed in mid-19th century Britain. The fundamental principles of its adherents, including the art critic John Ruskin and the artist William Morris, developed into an international movement, were spread through craft guilds and influenced professional practitioners in a number of areas, from design and architecture to ornamentation and gardening. The movement reached Sweden a few decades later, expressed as a romanticisation of the simple life, with ties to the home. One of the movement s key figures in Sweden was Carl Larsson, whose colourful paintings famously depict the simplicity of everyday life.  In this book, twelve authors explore the domestic settings, art schools, museums and other organisations where these ideals and visions were created, interpreted and developed. We read about the movement s continued relevance in our era not just for its wealth of beloved patterns that inspire and provide a basis for new styles but also in terms of our approach to creativity, sustainable technology and lifestyle. The anthology is richly illustrated and is available in Swedish and English editions.

This book presents the designs for bookplates and badges by the English Arts and Crafts designer and architect, C.F.A. Voysey, (1857-1941). Perhaps the most recognised and influential designer of his age, Voysey designed over one hundred bookplates, badges and greetings cards. The focus of the book is the collection of these designs from Voysey's own personal archive. Only a very few of these designs have been published to date, and never as a completed collection. Beautiful to look at and full of interesting symbolism, each design encapsulates the spirit and underlying principles which informed every aspect of Voysey's architecture and decorative design. They also form the centrepiece of a beautifully illustrated tale about the life and work of Voysey, touching on his personality, interests, relationship with family and clients, and his central role as designer of the Arts and Crafts Movement.