How Is a Tapestry Design Made?
Tapestry weaving is a specialized art form in which experienced weavers duplicate a scene by means of a loom and variously colored fibers. During the Middle Ages, royal servants covered cold interior castle walls with tapestries, both for their decorative effect and insulating value. Today, handwoven tapestries are expensive collector's items, while automated looms create less pricey knock-offs for general use.
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History
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People have produced tapestries down through the ages. The oldest tapestry artifacts, found in Egypt, date to 1500 B.C., according to Encyclopedia.com. During the fifth century, European convents and monasteries doubled as weaving centers where nuns and monks wove tapestries. In the Americas, the Inca people were weaving tapestry before the arrival of Columbus.
Tapestry weavers in Brussels achieved a high degree of skill by the 15th century, producing many Gothic-style tapestries, such as Burgundian Sacraments, woven throughout with golden thread. Artisans wove Christian tapestry scenes in the Renaissance period, such as Acts of the Apostles. In 1619, Flemish weavers manned the first tapestry works in England in the town of Mortlake, according to Encyclopedia.com.
Identification
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A modern-day loom Artisans prior to the industrial age of the 19th century wove tapestries by hand. Using their fingers rather than drawboys---boys who operate the harness cords of a loom to lift and lower horizontal weft threads---to lift select threads during weaving allowed weavers to paint scenes with fibers in exquisite detail, according to Encyclopedia.com. While tapestry artisans employ a "plain weave" technique, the fruits of their looms are anything but plain.
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Techniques
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Artisans most often weave their tapestries on upright looms designed for tapestry or on small frame looms. They first draw the design they would like to weave on paper, then attach it behind the warp---vertical---threads to use as a guide as the weaving progresses. Some techniques common in tapestry weavings include the slit technique, in which colored threads meet side by side but do not interlock, creating a small slit in between; the warp interlock, where different colors meet by wrapping around the same warp thread; and the weft interlock, where two colors join by wrapping around each other. Various shapes and diagonals result from different combinations of these techniques, according to AllFiberArts.com.
Misconceptions
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Many pieces of contemporary wall décor that manufacturers market as tapestries are actually made by mechanized Jacquard looms. Invented by Joseph-Marie Jacquard in 1804, these looms turn out woven tapestry-like designs using punch card patterns. Jacquard's invention made possible the mass production of quality-controlled tapestry-type wall hangings, according to TheTapestryHouse.com. The punch card patterns have holes where a fiber hook picks up the correctly colored threads to weave the precise design time and time again.
Features
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Weavers use natural fibers in their tapestries. Most tapestries are woven from naturally occurring fibers such as linen, cotton, wool and silk. The size of the tapestry is limited by the size of the loom, but the weaver can create a larger piece by weaving sections and joining them together for wall-sized coverings.
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References
- Photo Credit old tapestry image by sumos from Fotolia.com hand weaving loom image by green308 from Fotolia.com tapisserie image by Gilles Paire from Fotolia.com
