The Crafts William Morris Learned With His Own Hands

The short answer: which crafts Morris practised

The crafts covered here are dyeing, wallpaper design and printing, embroidery design, the weaving of furnishing textiles, and tapestry weaving. The evidence for each comes chiefly from the Victoria and Albert Museum's records of Morris and Morris & Co. objects. One caveat belongs up front: no single supplied source lists every craft Morris practised, so this page covers what the records actually document rather than claiming a complete inventory.

The documented crafts, in the rough order Morris took them up:

• Dyeing: the V&A records that in 1875, keen to re-establish the use of natural dyes, Morris began working with Thomas Wardle, the owner of a dyeing works in Leek, Staffordshire.
• Wallpaper design, with printing carried out by specialist firms in woodblock and distemper.
• Embroidery design: the V&A records designs for completed panels and 'embroider yourself' kits used to make cushion covers, fire screens, portières and bedcovers, and that in 1885 Morris stepped away from direct involvement with embroidery.
• Woven furnishing textiles: the V&A records that 'Tulip and Rose', the first dateable design by Morris for a woven furnishing textile, was registered in 1876.
• Tapestry weaving: the V&A records that Morris taught himself what he called 'the noblest of all the weaving arts', first setting up a tapestry loom in 1877.

The order matters. Morris did not learn these crafts in a single burst of enthusiasm. He came to each when his firm needed it, and the technical difficulties grew as he went, which is why weaving came last.

Dyeing: Morris and Thomas Wardle at Leek

In 1875, keen to revive the use of natural dyes, he began working with Thomas Wardle, the owner of a dyeing works in Leek, Staffordshire. According to the V&A's record, this partnership marks the start of his practical engagement with textile dyeing.

The first textile likely to have been printed by Wardle is 'Marigold' (1875), a dense pattern that Morris also used for wallpaper.

This period sits within a wider story. By the early 1870s Morris had accepted that his gift was not for figurative form but for repeat patterns, and he threw himself into mastering the technical processes required to make his own products. Dyeing was where that commitment first became visible in the workshop.

The dyed and printed cloths that followed belong to the broader story of Morris textiles, which covers the printed, woven and embroidered work in detail.

Printing wallpapers: woodblocks, Jeffrey and Co and Barrett's

Morris designed wallpapers, but the physical printing was done by specialist firms. The V&A records that the London firm Jeffrey & Co., which specialised in high quality 'Art' wallpapers, printed Morris & Co. wallpapers in distemper, water-based colours that gave a thick chalky effect. The wood-blocks themselves were cut by Barrett's, a family firm in Bethnal Green who dealt directly with Morris's firm in the transfer of designs.

Morris had firm views on what a wallpaper should look like. In his essay The Lesser Arts (1877) he warned against the likes of sham-real boughs and flowers, and advised those designing wallpapers to read how his papers were designed and sold with this principle in mind.

The V&A's account of his wallpapers stresses that their success relies on his close observation of nature. Every one centres on plant-based forms, whether naturalistic, as in Acanthus or Pimpernel, or flatter and more formalised, as in Sunflower or St James's Ceiling. That observation of living plants is what carried across from the drawing board to the printed sheet.

Not everyone approved of the results. The V&A notes that Morris felt his larger patterns worked well in smaller rooms, but this went against the prevailing view of Victorian tastemakers, including Oscar Wilde, who apparently disliked Morris's work. A commentator writing in the Journal of Decorative Arts in 1892 observed of Morris's patterns that they are palatial in scale, and whilst their colouring is very beautiful and soft, the magnitude of the designs exclude them from ordinary work.

Embroidery: the Oxford Street shop and May Morris

Embroidery grew into a more significant part of the business after Morris & Company opened its new 'all under one roof' shop in Oxford Street in 1877. According to the V&A, this retail change raised the profile of the embroidered work within the firm.

The V&A records that Morris, and later his daughter May and assistant John Henry Dearle, produced a large number of designs for completed panels or 'embroider yourself' kits. These were used to make cushion covers, fire screens, portières and bedcovers. The design work was Morris's and his colleagues'; the stitching was done by others, whether the firm's embroiderers or the customers who bought the kits.

In 1885 Morris stepped away from direct involvement with embroidery, putting May, aged just 23, in charge. The V&A's record presents this as a deliberate handover of the department, and it marks the point at which Morris's own practical attention moved elsewhere in the firm's output.

The embroidered work is treated alongside the printed and woven cloth in our guide to Morris textiles, which sets out how the three techniques related within the firm.

Weaving: jacquards, Italian silks and Peacock and Dragon

Of all the textile techniques Morris taught himself, he left weaving until last. The V&A states that mastering the various looms needed for furnishings, tapestry and carpet weaving presented the greatest technical difficulties of his career. That is why the woven work begins later in the sequence of crafts, even though it produced some of his best-known designs.

The first dateable design by Morris for a woven furnishing textile was 'Tulip and Rose', registered in 1876 according to the V&A. From that point he produced designs for woven cloths for around a decade with significant commercial success. Silk, mohair and wool were all used, and he embellished some patterns with gold threads.

Most of the weaves were flat jacquards in wool, popular for curtains and wall-hung drapes. The V&A describes this as a medieval-style trend encouraged by Morris & Company, which placed the woven cloth in the same wall-hanging tradition as tapestry.

Morris did not learn in isolation. He studied early woven textiles in the collections of the South Kensington Museum, later the V&A, and many of his designs were inspired by 16th- and 17th-century Italian silks. The museum he studied in is now the institution holding the records cited throughout this page.

The best-known result of this study is 'Peacock and Dragon', an imposing yet popular design from 1878 that used striking colours.

Tapestry: the noblest of the weaving arts at Merton Abbey

Tapestry was the craft Morris valued most highly and learned latest. According to the V&A, he taught himself what he called 'the noblest of all the weaving arts', first setting up a tapestry loom in 1877. His first completed tapestry was 'Acanthus and Vine' (1879), which apparently took 516 and a half hours to complete, worked at a loom in his bedroom by regularly getting up at dawn.

The V&A's account explains the design's sources. 'Acanthus and Vine' was influenced by the 'large-leaf' verdure tapestries woven in France and Flanders in the 16th century, and its deliberately faded appearance was probably an attempt to recreate wall hangings that had impressed Morris when he visited a hunting lodge in Epping Forest as a boy. The faded look was therefore a chosen effect, not an accident of age.

Production scaled up when the firm consolidated at Merton Abbey in 1881. The V&A records that tapestry weaving was established at Merton Abbey at that point, and that Morris appointed John Henry Dearle to manage production. Large tapestry commissions were often designed by Morris, Dearle and other artists in collaboration, and executed by the company's experienced weavers on Flemish-style looms that Morris had built.

This division of labour is typical of the firm. Understanding that split is essential to attributing any Morris & Co. object correctly.

What is uncertain, and one attribution to treat carefully

The evidence behind this page covers wallpaper, textiles and tapestry in detail, but no single source lists all of the crafts Morris practised. Other crafts are often associated with him, and this page does not confirm or deny them; it records only what the supplied museum records document.

One attribution deserves care. The V&A holds a wallpaper sample titled 'Indian', a formalised foliate design, brown on a pink ground, with primary maker listed as Morris, William and a primary date of ca. 1868-70. The specimen is a colour woodblock print in distemper on paper, made in London under museum number O78207.

The V&A also records that the pattern is said to have been adapted from an early 18th-century wallpaper by an unknown designer, whose source was an Indian chintz pattern. So the primary maker is Morris, the possible designer is Scott, and the ultimate source is an earlier wallpaper drawn from an Indian chintz. Any careful account needs to state all three rather than collapsing them into one name.

The specimen belongs to a pattern book of 23 Morris & Co. patterns, made in England between 1868 and 70, which the V&A holds under the references E.3698-3704, 3706-3718, 3720-3722-1927. Pattern books like this are among the most useful surviving records of what the firm actually sold.

Morris's own interest in adapted and observed plant forms connects this attribution question to his wider habit of drawing from gardens, hedgerows and rivers, which is examined in detail on our page on Morris and nature in detail.

Why the crafts matter for understanding Morris's designs

Morris produced over 50 wallpapers during his career, according to the V&A. That output rests on the practical knowledge traced above: knowing what a woodblock could cut, what a distemper print would look like on the wall, and what a loom could weave. The designs are not drawings that happened to be manufactured; they are designs shaped by the crafts that made them.

The V&A's interpretation of his work makes the same point from the other direction. His success relies on close observation of nature, and every wallpaper centres on plant-based forms, naturalistic or formalised. The crafts gave him the means; the observation of plants gave him the material.