The 100 Day Project - Day 7 of My "1 Motif 100 Ways" Pattern Series

Caminha is a town near the Atlantic Ocean in Northern Portugal. Its location on the Minho river made it an important trading port in the 14th century when Portugal's wine was exported to England and products from India, Brazil and Africa were imported.  There's a square in the center of town surrounded by buildings and a clock tower from the 15th century. The shapes of the architectural details inspired this pattern. I once again deconstructed, rearranged and scaled the elements of the original motif. 

The 100 Day Project - Day 6 of My "1 Motif 100 Ways" Pattern Series

I took a more painterly approach to today's pattern. Inspired by the Portuguese city of Borba, which is famous for wine I chose to use a warm burgundy as the predominant color and added colors I found in a Portuguese textile scrap.  Once again, I took apart the motif and rearranged the elements before putting it into repeat. Although it was inspired by textiles more than tile, using a square full-drop repeat gives it a tile-like feeling.

Portuguese textile scrap that I used for color inspiration.

The 100 Day Project - Day 5 of My "1 Motif 100 Ways" Pattern Series

"Alcochete", by Carlyn Clark of "The 1 Motif 100 Ways" series for day 5of "The 100 Day Project"

Azulejo tile mural from Alcochete, Portugal.

This bit of a mural with flowers inspired today's pattern.

This is a simplified, stripped-down version of the original motif that gives a floral impression. The pattern is named after the Portuguese city, Alcochete, which is located near Lisbon and has the distinction of being the site of the largest outlet mall on the Iberian Peninsula. More importantly to me, it also has a long history, originating in Roman times, when it had clay production facilities which led to some exquisite Azulejo examples.