Textile
4 materials · 5 steps
Tapestry weaving
Pictures woven on a loom from coloured wefts, following a painted cartoon.
Tapestry of a unicorn within a fence on a flowering ground
Materials & tools
- Wool warp
- Wool and silk wefts
- Silver and gilt threads
- A painted cartoon
Tapestry is a weft-faced weave in which coloured threads are worked back and forth only where each colour is needed, so that the picture and the cloth are the same thing. Weavers followed a painted cartoon placed behind or beneath the warps. Large hangings in wool, silk and metal thread were among the most expensive objects of the late medieval court and travelled with their owners.
The Met: The Unicorn Rests in a GardenThe process
Step by step
- 1
Design and paint the cartoon
- 2
Dress the loom with warp threads
- 3
Weave the coloured wefts area by area
- 4
Sew up the slits between colours
- 5
Finish, line and hang