Tapestry Weaving

Tapestry weaving is a weft-faced weaving technique in which colored weft threads are worked back and forth only across the section of the design that requires that color, rather than passing all the way across the loom, so that a picture is built directly into the structure of the cloth rather than added afterward by dye, print or embroidery. Because the colored wefts are packed tightly enough to completely cover the plain warp threads beneath them, the finished tapestry shows no visible warp, letting the weaver render detailed pictorial scenes, coats of arms or patterns entirely through the interplay of colored weft yarns. The technique has been practiced across many cultures, from the large figurative wall hangings produced in medieval and Renaissance European workshops to narrower woven bands and coverings made elsewhere.