Page 53 - Studio International - July/August 1967

3 The full-size transcription is placed directly behind the warp, weavers refer continuously to the original design.
and the individual threads are marked with indian ink. 6 The whole woven area must advance up the warp at the same
4 Once the marking is done, the transcription is removed, and used time: no area can be allowed to move too far ahead of the rest.
only for reference. Weaving proceeds across the full width of the And this simple practical issue involves the painter designing
loom, with the unused warp on the top roller, and the completed for tapestry in the biggest of conceptual difficulties. In painting,
part being rolled down on to the bottom roller. The design can a mark made on a surface has a special kind of relationship to
therefore only be transferred to the warp in strips about 18 in. that surface. The surface remains 'behind' the mark, the neutral
wide. ground for the positive figure. But in the tapestry, figure and
5 In many of the French weaving shops the tracing is very ground are woven at the same time and in the same way, and
elaborately detailed, and the weavers' role, in relation to the have similar identity. All the marks are in the ground, none are
design, is largely a mechanical one. In Edinburgh, the informa- on it. Consequently, where the painter might possibly leave
tion conveyed by the tracing is minimal, and in making decisions large areas of the canvas untouched, making use of its special
—how to treat a boundary between two areas: how many inter- identity, its positive neutrality, a similar approach to tapestry
mediate tones should be used in making a tonal transition—the would tend to give a very disjointed result.