Weaving Technique

weaving, tapestry, loom, thread

  • Tapestry-woven panel showing a dolphin, 4th or 5th century. Museum no. 1302-1888

    Tapestry-woven panel showing a dolphin, 4th or 5th century. Museum no. 1302-1888

    Tapestry-woven panel showing a dolphin
    Egypt
    4th or 5th century
    Wool and undyed linen
    Museum no. 1302-1888

    These small naturalistic woven motifs were produced in the 4th to 6th centuries by early Egyptian Christians called Copts. The textiles are referred to as Coptic textiles. The motifs used include a quail, a basket of fruit and a dolphin. Another example includes flowers, and has birds and heads of women in the centre. These pieces were used as decoration on tunics, covers or hangings. The central brown square in which the basket of fruit is placed, and the border of fruit round the edge, are stitched at both sides but not at the top and bottom, where slits that occurred during weaving have been stitched together later.

  • Tapestry-woven panel showing a quail, 4th or 5th century. Museum no. 284-1891

    Tapestry-woven panel showing a quail, 4th or 5th century. Museum no. 284-1891

    Tapestry-woven panel showing a quail
    Egypt
    4th or 5th century
    Museum no. 284-1891

    These small naturalistic woven motifs were produced in the 4th to 6th centuries by early Egyptian Christians called Copts. The textiles are referred to as Coptic textiles. The motifs used include a quail, a basket of fruit and a dolphin. Another example includes flowers, and has birds and heads of women in the centre. These pieces were used as decoration on tunics, covers or hangings. The central brown square in which the basket of fruit is placed, and the border of fruit round the edge, are stitched at both sides but not at the top and bottom, where slits that occurred during weaving have been stitched together later.

  • Tapestry-woven panel from a tunic or hanging showing a basket of fruit, 4th or 5th century. Museum no. 2147-1900

    Tapestry-woven panel from a tunic or hanging showing a basket of fruit, 4th or 5th century. Museum no. 2147-1900

    Tapestry-woven panel from a tunic or hanging showing a basket of fruit
    Egypt
    wool and linen
    4th or 5th century
    Museum no. 2147-1900

    These small naturalistic woven motifs were produced in the 4th to 6th centuries by early Egyptian Christians called Copts. The textiles are referred to as Coptic textiles. The motifs used include a quail, a basket of fruit and a dolphin. Another example includes flowers, and has birds and heads of women in the centre. These pieces were used as decoration on tunics, covers or hangings. The central brown square in which the basket of fruit is placed, and the border of fruit round the edge, are stitched at both sides but not at the top and bottom, where slits that occurred during weaving have been stitched together later.

  • Tunic with tapestry-woven wool inserts, 6th to 7th century. Museum no. 136-1891

    Tunic with tapestry-woven wool inserts, 6th to 7th century. Museum no. 136-1891

    Tunic with tapestry-woven wool inserts
    Egypt
    6th to 7th century
    Linen and wool
    Museum no. 136-1891

    These small naturalistic woven motifs were produced in the 4th to 6th centuries by early Egyptian Christians called Copts. The textiles are referred to as Coptic textiles. The motifs used include a quail, a basket of fruit and a dolphin. Another example includes flowers, and has birds and heads of women in the centre. These pieces were used as decoration on tunics, covers or hangings. The central brown square in which the basket of fruit is placed, and the border of fruit round the edge, are stitched at both sides but not at the top and bottom, where slits that occurred during weaving have been stitched together later.

  • Tapestry-woven bedcover, 17th century

    Tapestry-woven bedcover, 17th century, Museum no. 786-1884

    Tapestry-woven bedcover
    Norway
    wool on linen warp
    17th century
    Museum no. 786-1884

    The stylized designs made by skilled Peruvian weavers suit tapestry construction well. The weavers used mainly vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines rather than curves. Bright reds, browns and ochres were used with white and the shapes had a symbolic, often religious, meaning. The designs can be viewed from either end as figures and beasts face in two directions. The tapestries are made from two pieces, each the width of a loom or frame, joined together to match the pattern. The weft ends are interlocked where colours meet, so there are no slits.

  • Tapestry, 14th century. Museum no. T.91-1933

    Tapestry, 14th century. Museum no. T.91-1933

    Tapestry
    Peru
    14th century
    woven in wool and cotton
    Museum no. T.91-1933

    The stylized designs made by skilled Peruvian weavers suit tapestry construction well. The weavers used mainly vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines rather than curves. Bright reds, browns and ochres were used with white and the shapes had a symbolic, often religious, meaning. The designs can be viewed from either end as figures and beasts face in two directions. The tapestries are made from two pieces, each the width of a loom or frame, joined together to match the pattern. The weft ends are interlocked where colours meet, so there are no slits.

  • Detail from a tapestry panel showing a wild man and a monster, 12th to 15th century. Museum no. T.117-1937

    Detail from a tapestry panel showing a wild man and a monster, 12th to 15th century. Museum no. T.117-1937

    Detail from a tapestry panel showing a wild man and a monster
    Switzerland
    12th to 15th century
    Museum no. T.117-1937

    This small-scale tapestry was made in Switzerland between 1140 and 1460. The two men have red hairy bodies, the blond lady has a blue hairy body, and the blue and yellow monsters are made up of parts of different animals. An effect of shading has been created around the rocks by lines of blue leading into neutral areas of colour.

  • Detail of two heads from the Swan and the Otter Hunt Devonshire Hunting tapestry, mid-15th century. Museum no. T.203-1957

    Detail of two heads from the Swan and the Otter Hunt Devonshire Hunting tapestry, mid-15th century. Museum no. T.203-1957

    Detail of two heads from the Swan and the Otter Hunt Devonshire Hunting tapestry
    Franco-Burgundian
    mid-15th century
    Museum no. T.203-1957

    These four great woven hangings were made over a period of thirty years in the mid-15th century at the tapestry studios of Arras and Tournai. They were eventually hung in the home of the Duke of Devonshire. The subjects of the tapestries are Swan and Otter Hunt, Deer Hunt, Falconry, and Bear and Boar Hunt. They teem with lively historical detail that sheds light on the way people hunted for entertainment and food, as well as on the clothes, weapons, animals and landscape of the period. The tapestries were used to decorate, to warm and to impress. Although some figures have been made to look three-dimensional by the use of the hachure technique for shading, there is little perspective.