Deptford: Warp and Weft
A love-letter from Isla Ray to Deptford, and the extraordinary blend of interwoven cultures, histories, communities, and individuals that come together to create this unique corner of South-East London.
The mural was developed in conversation with Isla Ray staff from Autumn 2021 and painted by artist, Shauna Blanchfield, until the edge of Spring 2022.
Thank you to Rachael for sharing the inspiration and energy she draws from Deptford High Street and Market, and for offering up a monumental wall in her café in Deptford’s honour. Thanks also, to the incredible staff at Isla Ray; Alex, Cec, Georgia, Grace, Jake, James, Jamie, Kat, Laurence, and Megan, for keeping a cold painter fed and caffeinated throughout the darker months! I’m also grateful to Esin who worked alongside me in the depths of winter, and to Sarah J, Leigh and Sarah T for a touch of linguistic clarity. Special thanks to Ciarán for his unwavering support, invaluable advice, and good company, and lastly to Patricio at Artmongers for teaching me everything I know about painting walls.
Deptford: Warp and Weft is dedicated to the memory of George, a life entwined with the tapestry of Deptford.
I contacted Isla Ray at the end of my course with LSoM to see whether they’d let me use their big pink wall as a portfolio piece. I developed the design during two copy-left sessions with the café owner and staff. Initially, I thought we would end up with a tropical scene because the café has an island vibe and that would fit with the décor in the garden. But at the end of the first session, one of the staff started talking about communities in Deptford and how much the markets and the local people meant to her. On the second design session we worked through our feelings about Deptford and how best to visualise the Isla Ray team’s appreciation of the town, it’s diversity and it’s resistance to gentrification in a fresh way that was still true to the existing aesthetic in the garden and avoiding tropes like multi-coloured hands or maps or globes. It all came together when we started talking about the Deptford market and how the furniture in the café all came from traders just outside their doors.
What really stood out the Dutch Wax Print fabrics – a style of cloth from West Africa which is sold and seen all down Deptford high-street. From there the idea grew into using traditional cloths, patterns, flags or motifs to represent the different communities, ethnicities, nationalities and other groups in Deptford. These would be arranged as the awnings, stalls and pitches of the weekly market in Deptford, a love-letter to a unique corner of South East London.
Wall at Isla Ray, Autumn ‘21
Digital Design for Mural
Finishing touches Feb ‘22
Image Courtesy of Anna Williams
Deptford: Warp and Weft Explained
Most of the fabrics in this mural are inspired by textiles or designs traditionally used by nationalities or ethnicities present in Lewisham as per the A Picture Of Lewisham 2019, compiled by Lewisham Council. The notation () notes various nationalities relative prevalence in the Lewisham - not Deptford - in 2017. Other nationalities, ethnicities, communities or groups not listed in the report are included because of their visibility specifically in Deptford
I am not an expert, so please reach out with any corrections!
Progress Pride Flag - A 2018 update on the traditional pride flag developed by designed Daniel Quasar which has been adopted by some LGBTQ+ communities in the UK. It incorporates elements of additional stripes representing marginalized people of colour, trans individuals, and those living with HIV/AIDS and those who have been lost and is often used by those focusing on progress and inclusion in LGBTQ+ communities.
Tartan - A take on Royal Stewart Tartan, which is one of the most recognisable tartans in the UK and the personal tartan of Queen Elizabeth II.
Kente Cloth - A cloth developed by the Ashanti people, a group associated with the Ashanti region of modern day Ghana. Named for the basket-like pattern, traditionally woven on a horizontal strip loom and then sewn together. Initially a royal cloth, Kente like Tartan, has become ubiquitous. Commonly worn in Ghana (14), Nigeria (2) and across East Africa and amongst diasporic communities in the UK.
Paisley - A pattern commonly associated with India (13). The motif is originally Persian and was commonly seen across the Middle East, South and Central Asia. Brought to and later produced by the Scottish town of Paisley from Kashmir by the British East Indian Company, from it derived it’s ‘Western’ name.
Chinese Brocade - A cherry blossom motif representing China. Brocade is a rich shuttle-woven fabric, often in silk, developed in China c. 300/200 BCE. It uses a ‘supplementary weft’ technique (extra, decorative horizontal threads) which makes the pattern seem embroidered.
Alhambra - L’Alhambra is a palace in Andalusia, Spain (7), known for it’s complex geometric tile mosaics and intricate carvings. One of the best surviving examples of ‘Moorish’ (read ‘Western Islamic’) architecture.
Toile de Jouy - literally ‘cloth from Jouy’, is a French (6) pattern, typically of a pastoral scene in blue on a white background. Originally produced in Ireland, but popularised in France and named after the textile town of Jouy-en-Josas'.
Acanthus Pattern - A stylised representation of the acanthus plant, often seen on clothes and soft furnishings in paintings of Italian (3) subjects during the Renaissance and Baroque periods.
Paj Ntaub - The ‘Elephants Foot’, an example of the stylised geometric motifs use in Paj Ntaub (Flower Cloth), an embroidered cloth produced by the Hmong People - here representing the Vietnamese Community, but also native to Southwest China, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar.
Romanian (8) Embroidery - A traditional narrative form of embroidery, in which the symbols have specific meanings and can be read as a ‘manuscript’ of the family history of the wearer. This pattern includes Clovers for Luck.
Shweshwe - A printed cotton fabric associated with South Africa and Xhosa and Sotho women, distinctive for it’s indigo dye. Produced with an acid discharge and roller printing technique on cotton calico. Originally imported from Europe, but now manufactured primarily in South Africa (30). The name is derived from Moshoeshoe I, former King of Lesotho who popularised the fabric.
Australian Aboriginal Flag - One of the three officially proclaimed flags of Australia (15), representing the traditional custodians of the land. It designed in 1971 by Harold Thomas, an artist descended from the Luritja people of Central Australia. In 2022 he transferred the design’s copyright to the Australian Commonwealth Government. The other flags are the national flag and the Torres Strait Islander Flag
Ukrainian Flag - Deptford: Warp and Weft was completed on 26 February 2022, on the third day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Ukrainian flag did not feature in the original design but was added in recognition of the gravity of current events. Lewisham is also London’s first Borough of Sanctuary, and as such will likely see a large influx of Ukrainian refugees in 2022.
American Patterns - No single American country was represented in the top 20 nationalities in the LEAN survey. I fashioned a pattern inspired by symbols used across Native American, Mayan, Aztec and other indigenous textiles to allude to the Americas.
Lotus Motif - A symbol common in Buddhism, purity of the body, speech and mind derived from lotus’ emerging unsullied from muddy water. This motif is taken from the ceiling mural of the Sri Dalada Maligawa (Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic) in Sri Lanka (12)
Geumbak - A Korean craft for applying extremely thin gold leaf on hanbok (traditional Korean clothing), or other fabrics for decoration. Typically reserved for royalty and found on the bottom hems of chima (long wrap-around coat).
Octogram - An eight pointed star, a version of the Rub-el-Hizb (Islamic Star) representing various communities in Deptford that practice the Muslim faith. Many leading forms of Islam are aniconic (non-figurative), stemming from a Qua’anic prohibition of idolatry. This lead to a a general aesthetic shift toward mathematically-based decoration with complex geometric and often tessellated patterns.
Greek Key (19) - A repeated rectilinear spiral (spiral with right angles) pattern, also known as a ‘Meander’. Read in sequences the connecting lines can be seen as a key shape. The motif was developed independently by Neolithic societies worldwide, but is primarily associated with Ancient Greece through its use on surviving ceramic vases.
Bandana (5) - Bandana, originally Bandhani cloth, is from Madras, India (now Chennai). Bandhani means ‘tied’ in Sanskrit. Brought by British colonial powers from India to the Caribbean in the 18th and 19th century, this particular plaid pattern on calico cloth was adopted as the unofficial Jamaican textile after emancipation.
Wycinanki - Paper cut-out from the Łowicz region of Poland (4) using highly stylised natural forms in bright block colours, typically depicting pastoral scenes.
Ankara - Also known as African or Dutch Wax Print. During the Dutch colonisation of Indonesia, Dutch traders and colonial powers tried to replicate local batik (lost wax) fabric prints with machine printing. Not finding a market in Indonesia, they introduced the fabric in West Africa in the late 19th Century. Now locally produced, wax print fabric has developed into a complex language of patterns and designs.
Celtic Knot (1) - Knotwork was represent in Irish (1) Celtic decoration since Neolithic times, primarily in the form of spirals or triskels. Unbroken interlacing plait work was introduced via Italy in the 7th century. Irish knotwork patterns are particularly visible in early Christian objects such as manuscripts and Celtic Crosses.
To avoid an overly European array of fabrics, not all countries represented in the top 20 nationalities in Lewisham were included. Excluded countries in the top 20 listed below
Portuguese (9)
German (10)
Lithuanian (12)
Dutch (16)
Bulgarian (17)
Hungarian (18)
Sierra Leonean (20)