Tapestry

textile art · hand-woven · wall decor · fiber art

Woven by hand. Tapestries are made on looms where a weaver carefully interlaces colored threads to build up detailed images, one row at a time. This takes a very long time and requires lots of skill.

Pictures, not patterns. Unlike many other fabrics, tapestries are designed to show images like scenes, people, or stories rather than repeating geometric designs. Artists treat them almost like paintings made from thread.

Delicate and precious. Tapestries are fragile and difficult to make, so they were historically valuable treasures that people hung on walls to show off their wealth and artistic taste.

Fancy thread choices. While the main warp threads are usually wool, linen, or cotton, weavers might add silk, gold, or silver threads to the weft to make tapestries extra shiny and special.

Furniture decorations too. Some tapestries draped horizontally across tables or beds, while others were made long and narrow to frame the edges of other textiles like curtains or wall hangings.