Paisley Designs
It may seem strange that we make this Middle Eastern/Central Asian pattern during the England unit, but follow me here…
The East India Trading Company (EIC) was a British joint-stock company that began in London in 1600 to trade in the Indian Ocean region. Long story simplified and shortened, The EIC was a trading monopoly owned by the British that traded spices, cotton, silk, indigo dye, salt, tea, and opium which eventually accounted for half of the world’s trade. They were big, powerful, and not always the “good guy”. The EIC sent a lot of British officers and their families to live in regions that today largely form India. From here, the tastes and textures were introduced to England, Wales, and Scotland. Kashmir shawls with intricate vegetable and tear drop designs soon became very popular and demand for more meant factories began duplicating the designs.
The authentic name for the tear drop shaped design is boteh. The English name, Paisley, comes from a factory town in Scotland, which was a textile center where these designs were mass produced. The EIC was disbanded in 1858 and by that time paisley’s popularity had begun to decline.
The pattern never fully went away but it wasn’t until the English rock group, the Beatles, traveled to India in the late sixties that its popularity exploded. The Beatles reintroduced the West to the tastes, sounds, and textures of India and fans wanted everything and anything the Beatles had- including their brightly colored, patterned fashions.
Perhaps you can think of something in your house that has a paisley design on it? It’s a lovely pattern with lots of opportunity for variety. Let’s get started!
MATERIALS:
+ white paper
+ pencil
+ sharpie
+ markers
Begin by drawing three or four tear drop shapes with pencil, filling your paper. Start with pencil so that if you make a mistake you can easily correct it. Trace your final shapes with the sharpie.
Next, fill in those original shapes with smaller tear drop shapes. Once you've divided up your boteh shapes, use the sharpie (to save time) and create patterns. I created patterns both inside and outside the shapes. You’re essentially creating a coloring sheet- something you’ll go in and fill with color. I tried not to use the same pattern too many times. How many patterns can you create?
Once I finished with the sharpie I used markers to color in my paisley shapes. You can repeat colors as you might see in a textile with a paisley design or you can use whatever colors you’d like. The choice is yours and there’s no wrong answer!
Below is a gallery of artists who had finished the tracing and drawing with sharpie and were moving on to coloring in their designs. Use their work as inspiration for your designs and patterns. Remember not to completely copy an idea but use it in a new way on your artwork. Happy making!
A gallery of finished designs from past artists:
