The Tapestries of Stirling Castle

A friend posted a link to this amazing tapestry story.  There's been a 14-year project (yes, that's right, 14 years) to create new work based on the famous unicorn tapestry series held by the Metropolitan in New York.

The originals were made around 1500.  The new tapestries are being hung at Stirling Castle in Scotland.  James V is known to have had unicorn tapestries there (of some sort, not necessarily the ones at the Met) during his reign in the first half of the 1500s. 

The artists worked according to all that is known of the weaving methods and materials of the time.

The video is a must-see!  (Follow link at the bottom of the main page.)

(I continue to be fascinated by tapestries ever since my experience a while back with helping conserve one.)

Tapestry Repair

There's a wonderful post over at Treasures From A French Attic.

It's about a tapestry fragment - just the top border - which was repaired in 1902 and still bears the lovely cross-stitch label documenting that work!

This is a perfect moment for me to step up on my soapbox and proclaim that we should all be documenting and labeling our work, both newly created and newly repaired.  You could be the person who creates such joy for a collector and historian 100+ years from now!

So head right on over and read the whole post, which includes more photos and a discussion of the repair work and changes in dyes between when the tapestry was woven and when it was repaired.  Really, really interesting!

Vintage French Fabrics

A short while ago, I came across a really nice blog that I'd like to share with you.  Actually, to be more precise, this blogger came across my blog and wrote to me with a question.  I, of course, visited her blog as I was answering her, and was really excited by her posts.

The blog is called "Treasures From A French Attic".

Tapestry Talk

A friend alerted me to this wonderful tapestry that was posted on the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Featured Artwork of the Day page.

It is entitled:  Emperor Vespasian Cured by Veronica's Veil, and is Flemish, c. 1510.  The page about this tapestry has a full description, including the story of Veronica's veil and lovely close-up photos.

In style and execution and age, it looks very like the one I was lucky enough to work a year ago.

The Tapestry, Final Edition

I re-visited the tapestry this past weekend.  It has been hung back on its wall, and I assume is enjoying its view of the beautifully remodeled sanctuary, and enjoying the music of the grand new organ.  And all the while, the congregation gets to enjoy having its intricate beauty on view once again.

And here it is, the whole thing, full on.  Seeing it close up, lying on the tables while working on it was surely impressive, but being able to appreciate the design in its entirety.... Well, see for yourself:

Textile Stories

A train of thoughts prompted by comments about my tapestry adventure:

Wouldn't be great if these wonderful textile elders could sit around the hearth and tell us their stories!  Just imagine the places a 500-year-old tapestry has been, and the hands that have touched it and taken care of it.

While I was working on it, I was musing about the people who made this piece, and how they had no idea, of course, what the world it now lives in is like.  Just look at their clothes for starters!  What would any of them think of me bending over it and sewing, wearing jeans and a baggy purple sweater, no hat on my head!

.... and now for something completely different

Networking is great.  A year or so ago, my art quilter friend Pat Kroth electronically introduced me to her textile conservation friend Patricia Ewer, just because.  And it turned into a wonderful adventure for me.

Patricia was hired to spend a week in Milwaukee, cleaning and remounting a tapestry for St. Paul's Episcopal Church.  The church had just installed a new organ and done a big remodeling job along with that.  The tapestry was removed during all the construction, and so this seemed a great time to do an assessment, spiff it up, hang it according to more modern techniques, etc.

Since Patricia's usual assistant was not available for a couple of those days, she called on me.  How wonderful!  So I read up on tapestry construction, and then had two days of vacuuming and stitching and learning way a lot more about tapestry and about being a conservator.  And we were set up in a lovely hotel with a delicious restaurant to boot!

The tapestry has been dated to the early 1500s, probably made in Belgium, which was the capital of the tapestry industry at that time.