Crafts of Scotland...

 ~Tapestry-weaving ~

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whilst Tapestry-weaving is not one of Scotland's best-known Crafts, none the less, there is a project being carried on in Stirling Castle that shows the skills and endeavours of the Tapestry-weavers Art to a very high standard indeed.

This ambitious project is to recreate seven great renaissance tapestries to hang in the Queen’s Inner Hall within the Renaissance Palace at the Castle. The four shown here are presently hanging in the Castle's Royal Chapel .

Work on the tapestries is being carried out by two teams, one at Stirling Castle, and at the other at West Dean College in Sussex. The weavers based at the Castle are, at time of writing, a bit past the half-way point on the fifth, which is called The Unicorn at Bay.

The Stirling Tapestries are new versions of the fine surviving set, called the Hunt of the Unicorn series, kept in New York's famous Metropolitan Museum of Art. The original Design and cartoon has been attributed to the Paris workshop of the Master of the Très Petites Heures of Anne of Brittany, and the pieces were woven in an unknown workshop in the southern Netherlands, in around 1495–1505.

The tapestries are all hand-woven. Each piece takes two-and-a-half to four-and-a-half years to complete. So even with the two teams of weavers at work, the project will have taken 12 years by the time it is complete in 2013. Each tapestry measures around 12 feet by 14 feet and is made from wool, silk, silver and gilt wefts.

A special studio has been set up within the castle grounds, where visitors can watch the tapestry being made, and there is a short talk by one of the Weavers, every working day, at 1pm.

 (photographs courtesy of Historic Scotland)

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