. . .I use this technique a lot. If I am short of one color in the middle of weaving a tapestry, I can combine different colors to make a hue similar to the original hue. . . I have also found that weaving in patches has added some character to my work “Daylight” had a great impact on me, not only in the technical but also in the aesthetic elements of production. Pam's small patch technique certainly changed my weaving. – TT p.5-6

below, Pam Patrie (after Astrid Preston), Daylight, 1991-2
Daylight can be seen in
Shuttle Spindle & Dyepot, (summer, 1993)

Peter Horn

Kiel, Germany

The renewal of tapestry weaving in North Germany began in 1896 in Skærbek, now Danish but, at that time, a city which belonged to Germany (Scherrebek). While a school for tapestry weaving existed in Skærbek for only about six years, its influence extended to many parts of Germany and Europe. I myself researched this subject because I discovered that most of the art historians who wrote about tapestry were not aware of the significance of the Skærbeck school. – TT p.8

below, Frida Hansen, Die Milchstraße (The Milk Street)
from Scherrebek, School for Art Weaving
To see more: Very fine examples of Skærbeck weavings can be seen in several museums in North Germany, for instance, at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg, Schleswig-Holsteinishces Landesmuseum Schloß Gottorf in Schleswig, Städtisches Museum in Flensberg. (This last museum has the largest collection.)

Skærbeck also taught me that weaving a tapestry is a very useful way to become aware of time, both what it is, and how it flows: you need patience and inward calm and the will to develop a special time-feeling in order to tolerate the discrepancy between describing an event that only took 15 seconds and weaving it during almost a whole year (as I did in my four-piece tapestry “Ranger 7” in 2001). – TT p.8

Pat Taylor

Chichester, England

Medieval tapestries honor the medium, arrest the eye and above all display the idealized vision of the age. “The Apocalypse Tapestries” and “The Lady and the Unicorn” tapestries have all these qualities and have transfixed my gaze since the early days of my understanding of tapestry weaving. . . In contrast, many other historical tapestries have been ignored or at best superficially glanced at, on the grounds that they were perhaps naive, overtly decorative, fixed on imitating paint, their content too bourgeois or they were just too beige. – TT p.9

right top, Medieval tapestry: The Trojan War: the Abduction of Helen, probably Tournai, 1470, 480 x 960 cm, Zamora, Spain, Museo de la Catedral
right bottom, Pat Taylor, interpretation
To see more: Visit West Dean College and/or the House of Parliament in London

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