Archive Journeys: Bloomsbury Art: Omega Workshops, work

Background and aims | Artists and patrons | Omega work | Omega's decline

Omega work

The range of products offered by Omega was huge and included painted murals, mosaics, stained glass, painted furniture and textiles. In the autumn of 1914 the illustrated Omega Workshops Descriptive Catalogue was published with text written by Fry.

As well as individual items, customers were offered a variety of whole interior decorative schemes. To promote these designs three rooms at the Fitzroy Street premises were decorated in the Omega style. Several commissions arrived to decorate private houses as well as a room for the Ideal Home Exhibition in 1913. The decorative scheme for the 'Ideal Home' sitting-room was based around the movement of dance and spread across the hand dyed cushions, printed curtains, upholstery and murals.
Omega postcard showing interior of Holland Park Hall
© Annabel Cole

Letter from Roger Fry to Vanessa Bell including a sketch rug design

The overlap between fine art and design can be seen in much of the Omega output: the fabric design Amenophis was based on a painting by Fry of Still Life, Jug and Eggs, 1912. Designs, particularly those for textiles showed Post-Impressionist, Cubist and Fauvist influences.

While the artists designed the objects and did some decorative work such as painting furniture, the manufacture of the products was generally undertaken by firms of professional craftsmen. Marquetry furniture was made by J. Kallenborn & Sons of Stanhope Street, London; tall cane seat chairs were made to Roger Fry's design by Druad Ltd of Leicester and early printed linens were produced by a company in France.

Vanessa Bell began using Omega fabrics in dress design from April 1915, and soon dressmaking became a popular and profitable side of the business.

Who ever thought I'd turn into a dressmaker? All the morning I've been making a queer yellow and black and white khaki check dress for Nina Hamnet".

Christine Nash in a letter to John Nash, c.1916-1917

Meanwhile, in the autumn of 1913 Fry began designing and making his own pottery and from July 1915 he began to think about book design and publishing. With the help of the Superintendent of printing at Central School of Arts and Crafts four books were designed by Omega and printed by a commercial firm.

Page from a letter from Roger Fry to Vanessa Bell including a sketch of an Omega coffee pot

Letter from Roger Fry to Vanessa Bell in which he discusses plans for set design

Omega even branched out into theatre design in January 1918 with the commission for selected sets and costumes in Israwl Zangwill's play Too Much Money. In this letter Roger Fry tells Vanessa Bell about a possible commission from Diaghilev to design a set and costumes for the Russian Ballet.