This is an elegant how to book on everything you ever needed to know on the art of Tapestry Weaving. Rebecca Mezoff does a lot of teaching, on YouTube and elsewhere, and is very skilled indeed. She got Sarah Swett to write the foreword, so that inclines me to study this book.
Aside from the instruction, there's a gallery of tapestry art, from very modern, tapestry is art, and it changes as art does
all the way back to medieval, the Unicorn Tapestries. There is a collection in the Cloisters, part of the Met, which I've visited, and another in the Cluny Museum in Paris which I totally failed to visit when I lived there, because I didn't know about it.
And here, harking back, is a stitching I created years ago, been exhibited and had a good deal of attention. It's from a picture of one of the Cluny tapestries, stitched in a single strand of floss, on 38 count silk gauze canvas. I just used the picture as a reference, working on a blank canvas.
It's 6" x 4" framed in a little wood frame which works quite well for it. I've also used this image, scanned it and taken transfer prints from it. Got my moneys worth, I'd say.
Meanwhile, if you're interested in tapestry, Rebecca covers every sort of loom, from the large floor loom to diy pipe looms and wooden craftsman made looms. I don't think there's anything you can't find in this book. She also deals with color and design, just everything.
Even if you don't plan on working in tapestry, it's a great book to wander through just for the visual pleasure of the whole thing.
It does look like a wonderful book! I love the creativity of the pipe loom in the first picture. Happy New Year to you dear Boud!
ReplyDeleteHappy New year to you too, good health to you and your family.
DeleteThank you for the nice review and book recommendation. Good reference books are always welcome.
ReplyDeleteYes, I like them. Especially when you can get them from the library.
DeleteI don't know this book. It is possible to make a little tapestry loom at home.
ReplyDeleteHappy new year.
Remember my diy pvc pipe tensioned tapestry loom I blogged about a while back? And my cardboard ones, and picture frame ones, etc. Great fun. You can build a loom easily at home. And you can make it just the size you want.
DeleteInteresting! It's important to note that European tapestries are all, of course, the work of women, usually anonymous women of the upper classes. This is how women expressed themselves within the patriarchal confines of medieval society.
ReplyDeleteThank you for coming in! You might enjoy my more daily blog, https://fieldfen.blogspot.com
DeleteYou'll be welcome there, too!
You raise an important point, which is that the term tapestry has been used to mean the embroideries of women, just as you describe. Noblewomen with the ability to buy the materials, and the time to design and stitch, did do a lot of the early stitching we see.
DeleteHowever it's not weaving, and is not tapestry as described in Rebecca Mezoff's book.
In fact she devotes part of her early pages to this history, pointing out that the term was used very loosely. What we're talking about here is weaving, tapestry being weft faced weaving done on a loom.
The medieval and later tapestries, such as the Unicorn tapestries, were high end commissions, massive works for decorating and draft proofing castles and beds, and were executed in a male world of artists and weavers, in workshops. Women were not permitted, since they claimed the work was too heavy for them. It's certainly demanding physically. Teams of weavers worked together on each section then moved along in unison.
Women typically spun the threads they used, spinning being largely a woman's world.
I've done all the above for many years,currently spinning yarn to knit with or possibly weave with. Surface embroidery you refer to was a wonderful art form, and yes, could be a subversive one, too. The stitcher often designed her own work, then executed it. Sometimes she would have a companion to stitch along with her on a big piece if it was mounted on a frame. But they also stitched individually, using hoops.
I have probably told you more than you wanted to know! But this is a great interest of mine, the whole world and culture of textiles, and I'm glad you're interested, too.
You have educated me on the difference between embroidered tapestries and woven tapestries, thanks!
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