Understanding patterns and finding them around you

1Patterns are everywhere

Walk through Kimironko market and count the patterns: kitenge cloth stacked in bright folds, tomatoes built into neat pyramids, woven mats, the zigzag rim of a basket, the brick courses of the market wall. Leave the city and nature adds its own: the stripes of a zebra in Akagera, the veins of a banana leaf, the scales of a pineapple, the rows of tea bushes curving round a hillside. Designers use patterns on cloth, walls, pottery, paper and packaging, and every one of them starts by looking. In this unit you will learn to see patterns, and then to print your own with stencils.

A pattern is a design in which a shape, line or colour is repeated in a planned way. The single unit that repeats is called the motif.

2Key vocabulary

• Motif: the single shape or small design that is repeated, for example one leaf, one triangle or one flower.
• Repetition: using the same motif again and again.
• Rhythm: the feeling of movement the eye gets as it jumps from one motif to the next, like the beat in music. Even spacing gives a steady beat; changing the size or spacing gives a livelier one.
• Regular pattern: the motif repeats by an exact rule: same size, same spacing, same direction. Most patterns made by people are regular.
• Irregular pattern: the motif repeats but changes a little every time, with no exact rule. Most patterns in nature are irregular.
• Natural pattern and made pattern: a natural pattern grows or forms by itself (stripes, veins, cracks); a made pattern is planned by a person (cloth, baskets, tiles).

3Four ways to arrange a motif

• Border (band) pattern: the motif repeats in one direction, along a line. You see it on the hem of a dress, the rim of a basket and the edge of a certificate.
• All-over pattern: the motif repeats in two directions, across and down, to fill a whole surface: kitenge cloth, floor tiles, wrapping paper.
• Radial pattern: the motif repeats around a centre point, like the petals of a flower, an orange cut across the middle, or the lid of a coiled basket seen from above.
• Irregular pattern: there is a repeat, but no exact rule: zebra stripes, the spots of a guinea fowl, the cracks in dry mud.

Worked example: analysing a pattern in four steps

Describe any pattern by answering four questions. Here they are for the rim of a coiled basket decorated with black triangles on pale fibre.

1. Motif: what repeats? A black triangle pointing up.
2. Arrangement: border, all-over, radial or irregular? A border: the triangles run round the rim in one band.
3. Rule: how does it repeat? Every triangle is the same size and they touch base to base, so the pale gaps between them form triangles pointing down. The pattern gives you two motifs for the price of one: the black positive shapes and the pale negative shapes between them.
4. Effect: what feeling does it give? A strong, steady rhythm, like a drumbeat, that leads the eye round the basket.

4Materials (all low cost)

• A pencil and your sketchbook or an old exercise book.
• A viewfinder: a piece of card about 8 cm × 8 cm with a 3 cm × 3 cm window cut in the centre.
• Thin paper and a wax crayon or soft pencil for rubbings.

5Make it: a pattern hunt

1. Make the viewfinder. Hold it at arm's length and look through the window: it cuts out everything except a small area, so you notice the pattern instead of the whole object.
2. Find six patterns: three natural and three made. Draw what you see in the window as a 5 cm square in your book.
3. Take two rubbings: lay thin paper over a textured surface, such as a leaf, a woven mat, tree bark or the sole of a sandal, and rub over it with the side of a crayon. The texture appears on the paper.
4. Label every drawing with its motif, its arrangement, and "natural" or "made".
5. Choose one natural pattern and simplify it into a bold motif you could cut from card. For example, the veins of a banana leaf become a centre line with parallel slanting strokes. Keep this motif: you will cut it as a stencil in the next lesson.

6Look closely

These two zebras were photographed in Akagera National Park in eastern Rwanda.

• The stripes are a natural, irregular pattern: every stripe is a slightly different width and shape, and no two zebras have exactly the same stripes, yet the black-and-white rhythm repeats over the whole body.
• Notice how the stripes change direction to follow the form: upright on the body, across on the legs, curving over the neck. Designers borrow this idea when they bend a pattern round a pot or a sleeve.
• Compare the zebras with the pale grass behind them. Strong contrast of dark and light makes a pattern stand out; the same stripes in two greys would almost disappear.

Practice