Weaving Techniques

Though the word “tapestry” now describes a variety of textiles, historically, it refers to a specific type of weft-faced textile that is handwoven on a loom. In Europe, the loom is composed of two rollers, between which there are plain warp threads. In the large tapestry factories of France and what is now known as Belgium, these warps were made of wool. In Germany, they were made out of linen in artisanal production. The warps are either stretched vertically or horizontally, depending on whether the loom is oriented higher or lower. On high-warp looms, the warps are stretched vertically; on a low-warp loom, horizontally. Either way, the weaver works on the underside of the tapestry while weaving. The warps have a small space between them, which is called the shed. The weaver passes colored threads wrapped around a shuttle through the shed. Alternate warps are attached to drawstrings, which the weaver can either pull forward (in the case of a high-warp loom) or backward (for low-warp looms) in order to create another shed for the weft to be passed back through again. When they pass this weft back and forth through these sheds, the weaver places the weft over one warp, then under the next, in one direction, and then repeats the same process in the opposite direction through the alternate warps. From time to time, the weaver will beat down the web that develops in order to ensure the warps are entirely covered by the weft. By using a variety of colors of weft, the weaver creates an image or pattern.

In present day tapestry production, the weft threads are usually made of twisted wool, but in the past, some high-end tapestries included silk. In between 1400 and 1530, the Flemish weavers created a new weaving strategy that enabled them to use hatchings (interlocking triangles of color) and a combination of different materials to create more realistic and interesting textures, recreating the appearance of paintings. In Medieval and Renaissance times, tapestry designs were copied from what was called a cartoon, a full-scale pattern that is still used today.

High-Warp Versus Low-Warp Looms

Before beginning, the weaver will trace the cartoon onto the warps. On a high-warp loom, the cartoon is hung behind the weaver; for a low-warp loom, traditionally, it was folded and placed underneath the warp threads, which was very useful for more intricate patterns. Low-warp looms offer another advantage in that the drawstrings that create the sheds are controlled with foot pedals, which allows the weaver greater freedom with their hands to pass the weft. When using a high-warp loom, the weaver must move the drawstrings using their hands, so the process takes longer. However, there are disadvantages to using low-warp looms. For example, because the weaver is copying the cartoon from the back of the tapestry, it reverses its orientation. This means that the cartoon’s designer needs to specially draw the cartoon in reverse for a low-warp loom. Otherwise, low-warp and high-warp looms are very similar; when looking at the two looms, there is very little distinction. In the Medieval period, the low-warp technique was preferred. This was due to the popularity of complex tapestries; they needed to be able to weave ornate patterns in a quick amount of time, making high-warp looms unsustainable.

Quality

There are four factors that contribute to the quality of a tapestry: the quality of the cartoon, the skill of the weavers, the fineness of the weave (impacting the level of detail and quality of the image), and the quality of the materials. In the late Middle Ages, how much a tapestry cost varied widely due to these factors. One of the key elements to the quality of tapestries was the amount of manpower involved. Producing tapestries was incredibly labor-intensive, and required many weavers, particularly large tapestries. It is estimated that weavers were able to produce one square yard of tapestry a month. The higher the quality of production, the slower this process was, meaning a weaver could produce less than half of a square yard of tapestry in a month. A tapestry that was six yards high and nine yard wide could take five weavers more than nine months to weave. The finer material (meaning the higher the warp count), the longer it would take as well. This means that a set of tapestries, which were commonly commissioned by noble people, could take thirty weavers more than a year to complete.

Material

The material with which a tapestry was made had an even greater impact on the cost of a tapestry than the sheer amount of labor involved. Most warps and wefts were made of wool from England or Spain. Higher quality pieces included silk from Spain or Italy, and the absolute highest quality tapestries incorporated silver-wrapped silk thread from Cyprus or Venice. Tapestries that included silk cost as much as four times as much as those solely woven with wool. Including metallic thread increased the cost of a tapestry by a factor of twenty compared to tapestries woven only with coarse wool. Of course, prices varied depending on the particular circumstances, but documentation from this time shows that these tapestries were consistently more expensive.

At Heirloom Tapestries, though our process is no longer as labor intensive as it was in Medieval times, we offer a variety of fine tapestries in Medieval and Renaissance styles. If that doesn’t suit your needs, we also offer custom wall tapestries so you can make the tapestry of your dreams. Shop our online store today!