William Jefferies

GEOGRAPHY (detail)

AMBAGE

TECTONIC

OTRANTO

FRANCO (detail)

DREAM COLLAGE

THE ART MARKET

ON THE WAY TO ST CATHERINE'S (detail)

I learned to weave at Edinburgh College of Art in the tapestry department led by Archie Brennan with Maureen Hodge and Fiona Mathison. The process of building an image with the innumerable possibilities arising from the choice of fibre, texture, and scale excited me. I subsequently spent a year working with Archie Brennan at the Dovecot Studio in Edinburgh, before postgraduate study at the Royal College of Art, London.

A lifetime as a professional tapestry weaver and teacher of tapestry followed, teaching at College and University level, including 18 years at Morley College. I also teach in my studio in Kew, London

The V&A and the Crafts Council hold examples of my work, as do individual and institutional collectors in the UK and internationally.

I like to base my tapestries on images from my 'Ideas Books'. These are sketch books combining found printed images of articles of interest with my own drawing and colouring, often in collage. I enjoy weaving with a wide range of yarns, fibres and materials, and delight in the translation of imagery through passages of texture and woven colour. The three dimensional aspect of the woven surface contributes to the physical presence of tapestry in space.