Monday, October 26, 2015

Tapestries, Whats in a Name? (part 1 of 2)


Tapestries, what’s in a name indeed? Yes, there are people today who have not an inkling on what tapestries are. It would be fortunate if they don’t think of it as some pastry or some sort of dessert. Some might have been introduced to the word from the films they’ve seen or books they’ve read. But still, their understanding of what the word describes might be different from what the object really is. So let’s stop his hoopla and begin discussing what tapestries are and what they are not.

Tapestries are big wall decorative fixtures. That’s one way of simply explaining it but the definition is an over simplification of what they are, the historic significance and the impact it had to history. Wait a minute, from overly simplifying things, you might think that I’m exaggerating the importance a bit. Actually, not really.

Making a tapestry is an art form. In fact, it is one of the oldest form of textile art. If we’re going to be strict about it, a tapestry can be described as a thick piece of fabric which has intricate designs and images created by weaving various colored threads into fixed warp threads. The closely woven the threads are the more detailed the images they can produce. Now, in those times weaving tapestries is done by hand. And depending on the design and the size of one, it may take months or even years for a group of weavers to complete.

Tapestry making has been around since the classical antiquity. There are tapestries that have been handed down from generations to generations. The practice of owning a tapestry lies on the ancient tradition that the presence of a hand-woven tapestry symbolizes wealth, power, and importance.


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