pais·ley: noun A distinctive intricate pattern of curved, feather-shaped figures based on a pine-cone design from India. For COLOURlovers, the Paisley is a lovely lace-like motif that can be produced in any measure of design and color scheme. Like fingerprints, not one is the same.
When I look at the Paisley, I see amoebas, tadpoles and teardrops combined with floral genius.
How often do you see a Paisley? I think it’s something we see so often, might pass it by in our every day lives. The history of the Paisley I found quite interesting! Where it came from, what the word Paisley actually means, or why they call it a Paisley at all…
It is said that Persia is credited as being the first country known to have created boteh designs, known today as Paisleys. It was called a boteh because it looks similar to a stylized floral spray and a Cypress tree cone. Boteh specifically refers to the shape itself.
The name “Paisley” came from a town in Scotland named Paisley. It was in Paisley that the Paisley was manufactured. Through the years, these stylistic shapes were reserved to decorate royalty, crowns, court garments, and textiles used by the general population. During the 1700s-1800s the Paisley was thought to be a protective charm, used to ward off evil demons. While others used the Paisley as a symbol of rebellion.
In more recent history, Paisleys made a comeback in the 1960’s during the Summer of Love. John Lennon even had a Rolls Royce custom painted with Paisley motifs.
guitar
Fender guitars made a Pink Paisley version of their Telecaster guitar by sticking paisley wallpaper onto the guitar’s body! In the 1990’s Paisleys were utilized in wallpaper, ties, and other apparel.
Today you can find paisleys in several different forms, clothing, bandannas, paper crafts, tattoos, and home decor to name a few.
In my search of Paisleys through COLOURlovers creations, Paisley’s seem to have become more and more popular. In fact, there have been more than 300 patterns published in the last year!
So What’s your take on Paisley?
For the entire month of September (2011), Ray is giving COLOURlovers a freebie Paisley Sampler to use together or mix it up with your own artwork. Files come as .EPS & .SVGs. The SVG’s are nice if you don’t have illustration software, you can still use them in Seamless Studio by importing them directly (as they are already converted to SVG format).
Coupon: CL-TVL-PS
Also, if you download the set, we’d love to see what you do with it, please post the badges here in the comments.
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