The tapestry has been woven and will now be blocked and stitched in preparation for hanging.
The Marguerite Design
The Marguerite Tapestry
We were back again recently at St Mary’s Guildhall for the last weaving session of our residency. We were joined by a wonderful group of Caribbean elders from Hope in Unity and enjoyed a superb turnout of volunteers from The Weavers’ Workshop who are based in Spon End, Coventry.
Prepared butterflies were lined up ready for the off and we made good progress with the weaving during our morning session. We shared new skills with the visiting group and plans were hatched for this lively group of ladies to continue weaving.
The tapestry is edging closer to the finishing line, when completed it will return to the Guildhall to hang close to the inspiring Coventry Tapestry. See photos for progress and participation. Click on any photo to open up in gallery.
Just posting a couple of pics to share the wonderful space we are working in during the Big Weave residency at St Mary’s Guildhall. We are based in The Great Hall which houses the Coventry Tapestry, a 500 year old tapestry, thought to be the oldest still in its original place in Britain. You can find out more abut this amazing medieval artwork via this link
Two very busy sessions with Year 6 pupils from Joseph Cash Primary School, Coventry. We wove with 52 students and their teachers, each weaving their thread into the tapestry. While waiting for their turn on the Big loom, pupils had the opportunity to hone their skills on the small individual tapestry frames and the peg looms. It’s fair to say that the peg looms were the biggest hit, and not just with the pupils, teachers too were reluctant to leave and move on to the next activity. You could hardly hear a pin drop while all were engrossed in the rhythm of over and under.
Tapestry frames and peg looms kept hands busy when waiting for a turn on the big loom.
Every little helps - thank you to all the pupils at Joseph Cash Primary School, you were a joy to work with.
Day 9 - delighted with progress
Another public session, with some lovely conversations around weaving, dyeing, design and Coventry. If you’re wondering - why the luggage labels? - we have been using them to gather comments on the project from all participants. Here’s a couple…
….and in a few short minutes I have learned so much and have found myself connected to something new, and something old. (a visitor from London)
Wonderful relaxing experience. Love the fact that everyone who has a go…. Is immediately hooked! Love it! L
The marguerite is complete!
An enjoyable family day at St Mary’s Guildhall, sharing skills with some young weavers and supported by the wonderful volunteers from The Weavers’ Workshop based at The Weaver’s House Spon End Coventry
Just a touch of madder red!
A busy day on the tapestry, working with visitors and volunteers. During a quiet spell we completed the transfer of guidelines from the cartoon and marked the lines clearly onto the warp. These clear markings show where shapes need to be accommodated as we weave to and fro. We had an enjoyable visit from Wren Hall’s Creative Cafe and made great progress. Thank you to everyone who sat with us and took time to weave.
Progress - another petal added to the marguerite and within touching distance of the madder red area - about half way both in time and tapestry!
Today presented an opportunity for a spot of contemplative weaving in the inspiring grandeur of the Great Hall at St Mary’s Guildhall, making preparations for Monday’s public sessions on Monday 25th March 10 am - 12 pm and 1 pm - 3 pm. There will be two further public weaving days over the Easter School holidays on Friday 5th and Saturday 6th April times as above. The Living Historians will be busy in the kitchen on these days too. Do come along and weave in your thread, you can take part in the weaving with a general admission ticket.
Progress on the Marguerite petals today - making preparations for upcoming public sessions.
This was a great session with The Young Carers Trust - lots of peg loom weaving, youngsters thrilled to be doing it and wonderful conversations in the process. What a lot we learnt. We made great progress on the Big Loom too - see pics below.
We had visitors from CRMC join us today - such willing hands! Thank you for working so hard. We ended the session with volunteers from Coventry Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers and made excellent progress, one petal complete and space created for a second.
Progress to date on the Marguerite tapestry - one marguerite petal formed and a negative space created for another
Images of home educator group enjoying tapestry weaving, peg loom and stick weaving.
Images show willing participants on the first day of weaving
Using the design for colour reference yarns are selected, wound off into balls and butterflies blended using four strands in mixed colours ready for weaving
A Big Weave for All, weaving with community groups and visitors to St Mary’s Guildhall during a residency in the Great Hall. Weaving alongside the 500 year old Coventry Tapestry we have picked up on some elements of the tapestry as inspiration for our design.
The Marguerite tapestry design - signifying Margaret of Anjou, a principal figure in the Coventry tapestry. The falling petals and the curve of colour give movement to the design. The curve represents the sweep of fabric and the colours are taken from the dominant shades of the costumes in the Coventry Tapestry. The actual weaving will have more resonance with lots of shades of yarn making up the blue and red areas. A hatching technique (widely used in the Coventry Tapestry) will be employed throughout the new piece and will make the tapestry ’sing’. The tapestry will be woven on its side to enable 6 ‘weavers' to sit and work together, when finished it will be hung vertically with the marguerite in the top right corner as shown in the design above.
A development opportunity funded by Arts Council England with a ‘Develop Your Creative Practice’ award working from May - October 2021
A timely opportunity to pick up threads, to develop and extend my skills in flax preparation and spinning, to explore rhythm and ritual associated with craft gesture and attempt to translate these into sound and music.
I plan to work on a flax hoard acquired from one of the last working scutchers* in Ireland. This scutched flax is in a raw state and requires several transformative steps to bring out its natural qualities of lustre and strength. I will take time to explore and discover the materiality of this precious store to get acquainted with the fibres and tease out their inherent properties. To extend and build on received craft gestures used to prepare the fibre for spinning and to create yarns, tapping into muscle memory and tacit knowledge.
Repeated craft gestures are like beats in music. Spinning and weaving has traditionally gone hand in hand with the singing voice providing a steady rhythmical background to the work in progress. I have a unique opportunity to work with Tiwkilin a Berber/Amazigh performance duo (voice and percussion). Berber culture is rich in rhythm in both song and weaving. Together we will explore the rituals and sounds inherent in material processes and create melody and song in response to the associated rhythms - creating a layer of sound that reverberates with the making of cloth.
*Scutching is a process whereby flax fibres are separated from the woody tissue of the flax plant.
Please click on menu tab ‘Rhythm and Ritual in Cloth and Song’ for full report.
The completed collaborative tapestry was displayed in Coventry Cathedral 7 - 19 Jan 2020. It was wonderful to see the finished piece in this iconic setting. We had some lovely conversations and comments around the exhibition and enjoyed the Saturday weaving workshop kindly supported by expert volunteers from The Weavers’ Workshop.
Delighted to announce that the finished Coventry Skyline tapestry will go on display at Coventry Cathedral for two weeks in January from 7 - 19 Jan 2020. On Saturday 11 Jan 10 - 15.00 we will be running a drop-in weaving workshop alongside the display. More details closer to the time.
Here is a sneak preview of a section of the finished tapestry. Details of where and when to see the finished piece will be posted here in September.
The Tapestry weave was completed with weavers from The Weavers’ Workshop. A busy, productive and enjoyable day spent weaving in their company in the garden of the Weaver’s House, Spon End. This talented group of weavers supported and volunteered with the project all the way through. We very much appreciated both their company and their expertise.
