Patterns from around the world
Art & Design · Key Stage 1 · The School
What makes a pattern
A PATTERN repeats. It might repeat a shape, a colour, or both, and it might repeat in a line, a grid, or around a circle. Once you can see the repeating unit, you can copy it or continue it — and spotting the unit is the whole skill.
Patterns people make
Different traditions have their own patterns. Islamic geometric patterns repeat shapes with great precision and often have no beginning or end. West African kente cloth uses bold repeating stripes and blocks. Islamic tilework, Celtic knots, Indian block-printed fabric and Japanese wave patterns are all repeating designs with long histories.
Making your own
Choose one small unit — a shape, two colours — and repeat it. Try repeating it in a straight line, then in a grid, then turning it a little each time. The same unit gives completely different results, which is why one good unit is worth more than lots of separate ideas.
ADINKRA (Ghana): each stamped symbol stands for a proverb — 'Gye Nyame' means the supremacy of God. TARTAN (Scotland): the sett identifies a clan, so the pattern is a name. ISLAMIC GEOMETRY: repeating shapes built from a circle, developed as a way of expressing order without end. Now make a pattern of your own and decide what it stands for BEFORE you draw it.