A Source of Inspiration

Tucked behind the smaller of our meeting rooms at HasleWorks is my favourite spot. A high work table with striking coloured chairs and above it a copy of a beautiful wall hanging from 1896. It’s an image of the tree of life, designed by Godfrey Blount; a Haslemere man whose vision and energy in co-founding the Haslemere Peasant Industries in the 1890’s transformed the town into a thriving creative hub. His design was embroidered in Haslemere too in one of the small textile workshops he’d helped set up. Local women, trained by his sister-in law Maude King, used a popular technique of appliqué on linen. The tree of life wall hanging truly is a product of our town. You can see the original in the on-line archives at the V & A; the brightness of the colours still extraordinarily well preserved.

We love this link to Haslemere’s past and have taken Blount’s tree of life as the inspiration for the colour ways throughout our co-working space. The corals and greens of the tree itself are echoed on the ground floor across our sofa area and furniture fabrics. Upstairs, the walls of the large meeting room, acoustic booths and desk areas are painted in the bright blue of the circling birds of the tapestry with highlights of Blount’s fresh light green in the soft furnishings. 

Blount was a writer as well as an artist and firmly believed in the ‘double pleasure of lovely surroundings and happy work’ for the people of Haslemere. We’ve taken this thought as well as his colours into creating a comfortable and beautiful co-working space at HasleWorks. We hope you’ll enjoy it. 

Hanging by Godfrey Blount Haslemere, 1896

(c) Victoria and Albert Museum, London.