Molly guides you through her design process, highlighting key skills and steps that can be applied to any print.

• Ruler
• Potato
• Pencil
• A couple of sharp knives

• You don't need a huge range of blocks to make patterns.
• Using sugar paper I print my star pattern
• A motif is the starting point of every pattern; it is the part that will be repeated.

• A block repeat entails printing in a grid structure, with the motif repeated horizontally and vertically in the same manner.
• Printing halfway past the print above is referred to as a brick repeat.
• With a brick repeat, the first motif begins in the top left-hand corner and the one below halfway along.
• In a half drop repeat, every second line of the motif is dropped. A half drop repeat is very common on wallpaper.
• A diamond repeat is made by repeating the pattern in a diamond shape.
• An onion repeat, (or ogre) is where the repeat is shaped much like an onion with its rounded edges.
• A random repeat has no formula and the repeat is simply scattered around.
• A stripe repeat is where the repeated motifs are touching and the repeat is in a straight line, either horizontally or vertically.
• A half drop stripe repeat is similar to a stripe repeat in that the motifs are touching, but every second line of the motif is dropped.
• Top and bottom motifs line up in a connected repeat, with each motif connecting.

For further reading about block printing patterns and repeats, I recommend the following books:

• How to Make Repeat Patterns: A Guide for Designers, Architects and Artists by Paul Jackson
• House of Print by Molly Mahon

• BLOCK PATTERN REPEAT
• HALF DROP PATTERN REPEAT
• STRIPE REPEAT/ BLOCK
• BRICK REPEAT
• DIAMOND PATTERN REPEAT
• STRIPE REPEAT/HALF DROP
• ONION/OGEE REPEAT
• RANDOM REPEAT
• CONNECTED REPEAT