Canterbury Roses

A Monthly Pattern | October 2026

This month’s pattern is one I’ve had in my ‘patterns to make’ folder for ages because it’s got an interesting underlying tiling repeat of curving triangles and hexagons, which makes for a great pattern in its own right, plus it’s got some decorative detail to make things even more interesting.

You can find references for this in a book from 1855 “A manual of surface ornament”, found here at Internet Archive.

There’s also the image below which is from the 1861 “Handbook to the cathedrals of England: Southern Division” which appears to be the same publisher (John Henry and James Parker).

The videos this month share how to draw the structure, how to add the floral pattern and then how I’ve painted the floral version you see in the photos above.

For Community members, there are two download options for this pattern: one with the floral details and one with just the structure. As usual there will be print and paint and traceable options for both.

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Southwell Carving

A Monthly Pattern | July 2026

This month I’ve recreated a design found carved into a wooden screen at Southwell Minster in Nottinghamshire. I visited a few months ago and gathered lots of inspiration from around the building. I went there on a mission to find the stained glass design included by Owen Jones in his Handbook of Decoration, and I did find it (and made a video in the process).

The minster is most famous for its lifelike leaf decorations carved into the stonework of the medieval chapter house, and I have included photos from around the cathedral in a gallery below.

This carving though was found in a screen that separates the choir stalls from the aisle. I liked the strong geometric structure combined with leafy and botanic elements and thought that after last month’s pattern also being a six-fold design with botanic curls, this would be a good follow-on project, plus it gives me the chance to do something different when painting; namely reproducing the 3d elements in watercolour by adding layers of colour.

You’ll find downloads below for the underlying structure of this design which you can use as a starting point, plus the full outline as a traceable or print and paint file. For Pattern Lovers this month, you’ll find two videos; one for constructing the design, the second for painting.

I hope you enjoy painting this one!

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Six Pointed Decorative Stars

A Monthly Pattern | June 2026

This pattern is one of a number that feature what I think of as a circle of squares. You get different types of pattern depending on how many squares you include in your design, and you could adapt the instructions for this pattern to make other circles with different numbers of squares depending on how many segments you divide your initial circle into.

This six pointed star and the biomorphic decorations came from a pattern resource book I’ve referred to a few times. It’s Franz Sales Meyer’s ‘A Handbook of Ornament’ and it’s available at the Internet Archive. This design is on page 255, plate 156.

Following the reference back one stage further, Meyer refers to this as a pattern documented by Emile Prisse d’Avennes as an 18th Century ceiling painting. Looking for this pattern in Emile Prisse D’Avennes’ work led me to spend a good few hours looking through his documentation of the art of Cairo and though I didn’t find this particular pattern, I was incredibly inspired by the precision and attention to detail in the lithographies he produced. (You’ll need an account to ‘borrow’ this book from the internet archive library.)

Members should find downloadable outlines for the structure of this pattern (as drawn in video 1 this month), and a full outline with all the detail for tracing or print and painting.

This month I’ve split the project into 3 videos. The first is how to draw the underlying structure and pencil in the biomorphic designs. The second shares the process for inking the outline from your sketch. The third is painting this project in watercolour.

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Stained Glass Roundel

A Monthly Pattern | November 2025

I came across this stained glass pattern while going through the Grammar of Ornament, in a section entitles ‘Mediaeval’ and with clips of panels from stained glass windows from around Europe. This panel caught my eye and I decided to try and find out more about it.

The caption on the page said it came from St Thomas, Strasbourg. A search for images of the stained glass from that church brought me to a site called the Rose Window, featuring a database of stained glass window photos – and yes, this Church features. You can find what I think is the panel in window N3 on this site. Though the photos are a little grainy, it looks to me as though the patterns are slightly different between this and the illustrated version. 

A wee note on the wikipedia page for this Church mentions that original stained glass featuring saints was destroyed – and on first reading, I thought that might have meant that this is what replaced it, but it seems that the saints were on the lower windows, and the botanical designs are the higher ones. 

This was the only illustration from that church in the reference that I used, but I can see from the photos I found that each window has multiple designs and I’d love to spend some more time investigating them!

A few years ago I helped a craftsman restore a stained glass window pane and I can appreciate how much work goes into creating these. It was fun to have a go at making stained glass, but I did get lots of cuts due to my inexperience!

If you’re a Community tier member, check below for your monthly downloadable files so that you can paint this pattern. The ‘print and paint’ options, with feint grey lines, show the outline of each shape so that you can add your own flourishes. The traceable files have a few extra guiding lines – but still just show the big shapes. These you can print out and trace to your final paper or sketchbook. Either use carbon paper to transfer or scribble all over the back of your printout with a soft pencil and use that to transfer the line. You’ll also find a link to the forum where you can share your work with us, ask any questions and get support.

For Pattern Makers, you’ll find two videos: One drawing video and one painting. You’ll also see my supply list for this project including all the colours I used.

For Pattern Lovers, the live zoom will take place on Saturday 29th November. If you’re not able to join live, revisit a couple of days aftwerwards to find the recording of this session. In the live video this month, I plan to use another geometric and botanical stained glass panel as inspiration for a drawing.

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