Kelmscott was the name of a woodblock printing press founded by William Morris (1834-1896) in 1891.  Morris was an English artist, designer, poet, novelist, socialist activist, and a founding father of the Arts and Crafts Movement.  

The Arts and Crafts Movement was one of the most influential, profound and far-reaching design movements of modern times.  It was a movement born of ideals.  It grew out of a concern for the effects of industrialisation: on design, on traditional skills and on the lives of ordinary people.  In response, it established a new set of principles for living and working.  It advocated the reform of art at every level and across a broad social spectrum, and it turned the home into a work of art.  The kitchen and dining room were central to the Arts and Crafts home and the furniture, serving materials and interior decoration of these rooms received a lot of attention from Arts and Crafts designers and artists.  Many of William Morris’s most famous wallpaper designs pay homage to old English fruits and the productivity of the kitchen garden.

The work of William Morris and his fellow proponents of the Arts and Crafts Movement is central to my PhD research and many of the philosophies of the Arts and Crafts movement are applicable to my approach to baking and cooking.  The name Kelmscott creates a tangible link between these two halves of my life and reflects how they inform and influence one another.

"Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful,

or believe to be beautiful." 

William Morris

In my baking I work in opposition to the mass-produced. I aim to preserve and renew traditional methods and recipes; emphasise the beauty in the homemade, homegrown and hand-shaped; honour the time, effort and integrity of making from scratch; and support a culture of sustainable and ethical food production and consumption.