Foraging for Tapestries
I have loved collecting wild food all my life, starting as a small child with wild strawberries and blueberries. When I discovered the books Stalking the Wild Asparagus and Food for Free in the 1970s, I broadened my searches to include plants such as wintercress…
What’s So Funny?
Tapestry is thought of as a serious discipline, historically used to impress its audience by showing the might, taste and prestige of its owners. Or it could cow viewers into submission by frightening them with images of the Apocalypse, suggesting that they should turn from…
The resurgence of tapestry
Happily we have seen a resurgence of interest in textiles as art in recent years. Great – but why is it happening now? We know that textiles have often been viewed as craft and that the practitioners have mainly been women – two strikes against…
How to make a tapestry about Islamophobia
I wanted to respond to Islamophobia, one of the great evils of our age. Along with everyone I know, I was horrified by the Christchurch mosque shootings on 15 March, and the following day I was at the Cordis Prize for Tapestry conference, where Lesley…
Are textiles art or craft – what the critics say
Those of us who create tapestries in the widest sense of the term consider that we are making art. However we are often annoyed or even angered by the way our work is perceived, especially by those who should know better, the art critics. Here…
The Cordis Prize exhibition and symposium
The Cordis Prize for Tapestry was initiated by Miranda Harvey and her husband, the crime writer Ian Rankin. https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/17498523.weaving-a-new-story-ian-rankin-on-how-he-fell-in-love-with-tapestries/?ref=twtrec They wanted to celebrate tapestry by offering an £8000 prize, the world’s largest, with an exhibition for shortlisted entries, to celebrate and stimulate the medium. This…
How long does it take to weave a tapestry?
Presumably every person who goes to a party and meets strangers knows the first question they will ask, once their job title has been established. For tapestry weavers, it may be, ‘Oh yes, my aunt does that,’ but more usually it is, ‘How long does…
Why bother weaving? What is the point?
When you embark on the weaving of a large tapestry, you know it is going to take months to complete, so you want to be sure it is worth the time and effort. Here are some of the things I try to consider. Is it…
Why is it so hard to sell tapestries?
No one becomes a tapestry weaver with the expectation of making their fortune. We all supplement our meagre incomes by teaching or other activities, from waitstaff to dog walking. But why don’t people buy our beautiful works of art? Tapestry suffers from a number of…
Is it a tapestry? No.
I think every tapestry weaver has had the experience of meeting someone at a party and, following the reply to the question, ‘What do you do?’, has got the reply, ‘Oh yes, my aunt does that.’ I inevitably suppress the inclination to sigh and give…