Lucienne Day reinvigorated British textile design in the post-war period with the use of abstract patterns often inspired by plant forms. She achieved success at the Festival of Britain in 1951, where the 'Calyx' design was showcased and subsequently produced by interiors company Heal's. Married in 1942 to British furniture designer, Robin Day, the couple shared the progressive view that modern design had the power to improve social conditions.

Day pioneered her 'silk mosaic' technique during the second half of the 1970s. She was asked to create a design to decorate some metal fire shutters in a John Lewis deparment store at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The pattern was broken down into horizontal rectangular strips and observers remarked that it reminded them of embroidery technique. To distance herself from the technique of patchwork, Day instead coined the term 'silk mosaic' because the silk units were so small that they reminded her of the tesserae in the mosaics of Ancient Rome. The pieces of silk were sewn together in a labour-intensive process and then placed on a stiffer fabric backing. In fact, the technique differed from patchwork in several fundamental ways: the units used were much smaller, the choice of fabric was plain silk rather than patterned cotton and the paper templates were never removed from the work. In addition, there was no functional aspect to the silk mosaics. They were designed purely for aesthetic motives as works of art.

The design 'Sad Lady' was part of a series of four Crowned Heads which Day created over a period of two years (1981-83). These also included the designs 'Trance', 'Chess King' and 'The Queen'. As with 'Sad Lady' they were often characterised by an experimentation with proportion.