History

It is due to the vision of Edward James, supporting traditional arts and craft skills that West Dean Tapestry Studio exists today to carry on the 5,000 year old tradition of woven tapestries. The studio opened as a commercial workshop in 1976 with a commission from Mary Moore to produce a tapestry from a drawing by her father, Henry Moore. A further seven tapestries were produced in this series and exhibited at the V&A in 1980, followed by a tour of New Zealand, the USA and Canada over the next five years.

Exhibited throughout the world, tapestries by the Studio are also on permanent view at the Henry Moore Foundation, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Surrey History Centre, Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead and many other locations.

Philip Sanderson Tapestry Studio Leader at West Dean College of Arts and Conservation

Current Weavers and Artists

Our weavers work on both low and high warp looms, a unique aspect of our studio that connects the past with the future. Most tapestries are woven in wool, but our weavers also use cotton, linen and silk to convey the subtleties of an image.

Philip Sanderson

Philip Sanderson is Studio Leader at the Tapestry Studio. He studied at both at Middlesex University and the Royal College of Art Sanderson. Philip has designed tapestries for numerous clients, most famously the New Parliamentary Buildings in Westminster. His tapestry Nr. The Cheesewring was exhibited and sold at 'Collect', the premier fair in Europe for contemporary craft, which was held at the Saatchi Gallery.

"The landscape/tree tapestries explore the representation of an image in the woven surface, originally taken from photographs the image is often photocopied and enlarged or reduced to give the image a specific quality before it goes through a final transformation in the translation to tapestry.

A combination of blending in the weft and the setting of the warp are used to create a parallel between the woven bead and the pixel so the image retains a sense of the original photograph."

Help preserve our future

We are part of a registered charity and rely on the support of generous donors, members and legacies to help us deliver world-class education in conservation, design and the creative arts and maintain our award-winning gardens.

Find out how to support us