What is now the Stephens Tapestry Studio began as an experiment in the early 1960s in Piggs Peak in the north of Swaziland. Marguerite – Mags – Stephens’ parents had 20 years previously moved to the remote mountainous area to kick off what is now part of a major forestry industry. Her mother – Coral Stephens – started making curtains and carpets for their home simply because it was easier to make her own than try to get exactly what she wanted from Johannesburg. These luxurious mohair furnishings caught the eye of the family’s many guests and were soon being coveted around the world. A thriving craft industry developed which still exists today.Having qualified as an occupational therapist, Mags had been taught to weave on basic looms as a craft she would be able to use with her patients. It was at an exhibition of South African artist Cecil Skotnes in 1962 that Coral suggested Mags use one of Skotnes’ woodcuts as a design for a tapestry. She put together a vertical loom in the French Gobelin style, and Mags’s first tapestry was soon woven. Soon designs from other artists were metamorphosed and amplified into tapestry. Some of the early pieces were by Cecily Sash, Edouardo Villa, Ruth Levy and Sydney Kumalo. Some were sold through the Egon Guenther Gallery and others privately – and so began the Stephens Tapestry Studio.In 1964, Mags moved back to Johannesburg and got a wider loom. At this point, depending on orders and possible exhibitions, she was able to teach and employ staff to spin, dye and weave. Fifty years later, the Johannesburg studio has three high-warp, 5m wide looms while the Swaziland operation has two.


The two workshops employ between them 10 fully trained weavers, five bobbin winders, and two full-time stitchers. The Swaziland studio – at the original Coral Stephens workshop – also employs six carders and spinners, and three dyers.