Tapestry Arts

Medieval tapestries are a way of news reporting in pictures, to tell a tale or happening; here are some examples you can perhaps explore online:

The Tristan tapestries — wall hangings 1370-1400 V&A. An applique textile wall hanging stitched cloth and decorative stitching, telling the tale of Tristan.

The Beaux tapestry — older than the Tristan is a stitched textile wall hanging made to tell the tale of the conquest in 1066. You can read the story in pictures as you would in reading a book. Like a news flash but a lot slower.

The Cluny tapestries — the Cluny medieval tapestries include a series of 15th-century French woven wool tapestries, called “The Lady and the Unicorn”. These tell a story in picture scenes that explore the senses, with symbolic flower, plant and animal images. Others tapestries reflect the people, their clothes and the manorial life.

The Haverfordwest textile wall hanging is a new applique and stitched by the community to commemorate and celebrates a local event and the tale of the French soldiers landing in West Wales.

The two Llys Llywellyn textile wall hangings at St Fagans National Museum of History, are contemporary but using the colours, the type of fabric and stitching of 1250, as in the time of Llywelyn the great (Prince of Wales). They were made and designed by local school pupils and women of the community. They tell the tales from the Mabinogion, Branwen and Bendigeudfran and of the tale of Culhwch and Olwen. The story in the Branwen tapestry is depicted in twelve square panels, twelve scenes like a comic book strip. The story of Culhwch is in three long strips as the story is about a chase and the hunt for the Twrch Trwyth.

Tapestries or textile wall hangings are made to tell a tale a story about an event or happenings or of people and places. Maybe you could develop your own?

A family tale — the story and history of the family, where they lived, what they did, their work, play and pray. Their background and origins.

A tale and trail to school — what you see and hear, the history and stories on the trail. The buildings, the landscape, the environment, the plants and animals the happenings and characters.

Religion — the chapels and places of worship of the different people, their language, music and singing, culture and rituals. Festivals and traditions — e.g. Easter and Whitsun parades with banners.

Work — the industries of the area, e.g. coal and iron, what they made and how and where did they sell it.

Transport — history of the local transport, the trains, trams etc. where the trains came from, the stations and tracks. The people and the tails.

Home — where people lived, the famous terraces and streets on the hills, the type and style of houses. What they had inside, the furniture and objects.

The high street — shops and what they sell. What people could buy and needed, the buildings, shop fronts, goods packaging, graphics and posters for advertising. The pubs and what they sold, barbers, clothing, butchers, greengrocers, clothing, hats, ironmongers etc.

Events, happenings — the culture, the eisteddfod, celebrations, festivals, concerts, work holidays and trips.

Sports events — the tales, celebrities and famous people.

Research — online using search engines the types of tapestries - for ideas of how tales can be told in textile pictures. The colour, texture shapes and lines. How they used different types of stitching for outlines and patterns.

Look for —  family photographs and albums, magazines old pictures and paintings.

Use mobile phones and cameras —  to record walks - Images of what you see, the landscape, plants, insects, animals, buildings and people.

Drawing —  in sketchbooks or make your own sketch books by using different papers, wall paper lining, cooking papers, greaseproof paper, brown package paper, printing paper. Draw ideas of a tale or the trail. The characters the buildings and the places. Draw what you see of where you live, what’s around you. The buildings, people, animals and things. Tell the tale of where you live in pictures. Use pencil, paint, crayon, felt pen, ink or altogether. Look for four things in a drawing - the outline of things, the shapes, colour and texture.

Photomontage —  is a way of making pictures by cutting and putting together lots of different images to tell a tale. Photocopy and print lots of old and new photographs for making a photo montage of a tale. Different sizes of pictures, small and large, change scale on the printer. But don’t use the original photos!

Collage —  is to make pictures by using things you can glue down. Photocopied pictures, shapes in different colours of papers, newspaper or old books and magazines old wrapping paper. Collage can also be made by using textiles, by gluing and stitching different types of textiles to create a picture to tell a tale.

Comic strip —  like many tapestries they tell a tale like a comic stip. Create a comic strip of a tale and trail by joining a4 paper or square paper together  flat or to create a zig zag, concertina for folding. Draw or glue your pictures of the tale or place.

Eisteddfod purses or bags —  were small textile gift bags that were given to the winners at the local eisteddfod for singing, acting, writing etc. Each contained a gift and were decorated with patterns or picture. Make an eisteddfod gift bag for an object in a tale or for a small concertina strip of a tale. The image or pattern on the front should be a clue for what is inside.

Arts Education Networks — learning resources

BBC Bitesize may inform your learning; find free videos, step-by-step guides, activities and quizzes by level and subject. 

Pupils from Babanod Mochdre and Ysgol Cystennin schools visited Conwy castle (152 pupils aged 4-11) to take part in activities on site and develop an understanding of the castle and its context in Welsh history as well as to familiarise themselves with staff. They took part in drawing activities to inform their logo competition. Both schools have taken part in a tapestry twinning project, creating a medieval tapestry for the castle and a contemporary twin for the school with textile artist Cefyn Burgess. Could you stitch a project together?