Look Up! | Seeing Hidden Details

After writing our ‘Look Up!’ article on the Natural History Museum building, all about finding inspiration from looking at the world around you, we got to thinking about other places we’ve visited. So many old buildings have really lovely decorative details - from weird and wonderful creatures to intricate motifs – they're the perfect place to start if you’re looking for inspiration for your own creative designs. 

Of course, it’s easy to say ‘Look up! Look around! There’s inspiration everywhere!’, but it can be quite confusing to know what you're supposed to be looking for. Sometimes you need someone else to point things out to you, a friend to say, ‘Hey, look at that amazing statue’ or ‘Wow, look at that archway’. We all occasionally need a little nudge, to be reminded to notice the beauty in the world around us. That’s what we hope to do for you in this article. Everyone notices different things, and what inspires me may not be what inspires you, but I hope that by showing some of the inspiration we've found, we can help you to start looking for your own.

Sometimes you might visit an incredible building, and will know to look up and stare around yourself in wonder. Those are the times when it’s easy to notice wonderful interior details, like the majestic tiles in Leighton House (which we wrote about here).

Religious buildings are another clear example of places where you can’t help but look up in awe. Churches and cathedrals are often elaborately decorated, with statues, painted ceilings, stained glass windows and carved columns. It can be easy to focus immediately on the large, eye-catching features, but it’s worth taking the time to look up and notice the little hidden details. The ceiling on the Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Moissac is filled with so many different motifs that would make for great border inspiration if you want to add some detail to your freestyle embroidery.

Similarly, while the abbey at Vézelay is spectacular, it’s the strange little creatures and figures topping the columns that we find most inspiring. If you're looking for character inspiration, or wondering how to compose a good design, these are an excellent place to start. These statues hold such fantastic storytelling, and each have such beautiful motif borders – the image-making possibilities are endless!

Of course, you’re not always going to find yourself in some stunning medieval church or abbey, so we also wanted to include some examples from looking up in everyday life. These spectacular carvings look like they’d be at home in any of the places above, but they’re actually from a train station in Mumbai.

And these stunning details are from Liberty London – you definitely wouldn’t expect to find these outside a department store! Just imagine how great a hand-painted frame would look, decorated with some of these lovely details.

Hopefully this article has helped you feel inspired to look up – you never know what wonderful things you might discover!