One of the best parts of my job is assisting clients in accessorizing their homes. With the average house today having over 40 walls as well as an entrance and foyer in need of decorative art finding a quantity of diverse interesting and beautiful pieces can sometimes be a challenge. One of the decorative art forms often overlooked when focusing on paintings and photographs is the unique textile art of Tapestry.
Tapestry is a great fit with the higher ceilings and open foyers found in todays architecture.
Over a fireplace, along a stairwell, behind a sofa or in a bedroom are other suitable areas to hang your tapestry.
Tapestries are also found in today's large kitchens but be careful to place your woven art away from heat and steam and in an area where it will not absorb food odors.
Normal sunlight and humidity are fine for these hanging beauties but direct sunlight is not recommended.
Adequate ventillation is required if hung in a bathroom.
Your tapestry will provide excellent sound absorption and noise reduction, a benefit that is much sought after in the Arizona homes that boast hard surface flooring in an open area.
Additionally, it will provide not just interior beauty but a sense of history.
The tapestry is an ancient art form that threads through diverse cultures. Both the Incas and the Egyptians buried their dead in tapestries.
Throughout history we can find exqusite tapestries. The medieval, renaissance and arts and crafts periods provided masterful works that are often copied today.
During medieval times tapestries were used in castle furnishings to provide protection from the damp and cold weather. They would cover austere walls of big castles, be hung around beds to provide privacy and cover openings in doorways. These tapestries were produced on large looms and required many workers as well as high capital investments. They became symbols of wealth and power often travelling with royalty from castle to castle. In times of battle tapestries were sought after as a status symbol going to the victor as the spoils of war.
Today few tapestries are handwoven and modern yarns allow us to enjoy masterful copies of works of art at affordable prices. Nonetheless, much work is still required to produce a quality tapestry. The selected design and its colouring has to be transposed onto the cartoon with one square representing each single stitch. A series of up to 36,000 Jacquard perforated cards are prepared for each tapestry: these determine the movement of each warp yarn intertwining with the weft yarns. Fortunately some use can be made of computers to reduce the time involved but much skill and experience is still required. The weavers match the yarn colours from a selection of about 1,000 shades. The loom is threaded with about 12,000 horizontal warp threads which are placed in the correct order on the loom and passed through the eye of each of the corresponding 12,000 vertical loom heddles. Smaller tapestries utilize cotton (with rayon) for its fine detailing while larger ones introduce wool for greater fullness and richness. Once an acceptable trial result has been achieved the weaving can commence, supervised by a fully apprenticed weaver. www.tapestry-art.com
Today a common size tapestry of good quality may contain as much as 23 miles of yarn. Fine works may consist of as much as 64,000,000 interlacings and 100 colors. Look for high definition rather than the more pixilated image when choosing your tapestry.
In the 15th century it would take a skilled father and son team to weave one square foot of tapestry.
Lucky for us, modern contemporary tapestry artists can produce a multitude of styles to suit any design theme using high speed modern computerized jacquard weaving machines.
Decorative rods in a large variety of shapes, sizes and colors are available to hang your tapestries. Look for finials at the end of these rods to compliment the style of the image in your work.
Tassels are also available in a large assortment of shapes and colors and may be hung from the rod ends along the left and right sides of the wall hanging for a more dramatic effect.
Have some fun, come in and see me and we can find a tapestry to match the theme of the room you wish to hang it in.
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