Featured Tapestry? Nope, Embroidery

That's the section I described in #16. We are all on the same page.

But why the distant view makes that section look uniformly black and the closeup view makes it look much lighter in color is in question.

 

Needlepoint pattern canvas Grand Bazaar
https://www.artneedlepoint.com/limited-editions/grand-bazaar-by-douglas

 

A painted design might explain what we are seeing dimly. The paint may have been thick enough to fill the gaps between the canvas threads, and so looks like there is something there in the areas where there is no yarn. Just an unfinished piece, as suspected by members earlier.

 

I dunno. The last pic @mmarco102 posted makes no sense to me.

But I'm really not a needlepoint person, so maybe one will come along and explain it all.

 

Well you all gave me a lot to think about, thanks

Last night when I got in I took a real quick look. Now I took in everyones comments and checked it out with a loupe, and I am shocked. Tapestry???????

There are absolutely no unfinished areas like I thought after looking at my photos. This is completely finished with approx 5 or more thickness threads including gilted color.

Here is the same flower with zoom in photos.




Here is the side area that looked unfinished, zoomed





The the bottom is completely finished everywhere.


My God who would give this away...

So Ottoman, Mughal Inspired?

I can’t stop looking at it with the loupe, everywhere is differnt weaving.

Leave plastic, cover, glass or open air. What is the professional preference.

Additionally, the back is completely sealed brown paper. No images from there.

 

Any other area I will post image of close up, just ask .....

 

So, now you understand that this is not "needlepoint" and not handwoven, but machine-made, right? It is lovely, though.

Leaving the fabric exposed to the air is not ideal (if I understand the question you asked above.)

 

Wow. That is completely different than we thought, and unexpected. I am not sure how to describe the technique used in the flat areas (what we thought was unfinished canvas). The weaver is carrying/floating multiple threads behind the ground weave, pulling them up when wanted. The improved close-ups also seem to show that the red is tufted/pile. Back to the books for awhile on this one.

 

Thank you @Bakersgma, can you please elaborate how this explains it is done by machine? Excuse my ignorance please


@2manybooks

 

I believe from the complexity of the design and uniformity of the weaving that this was done on a modern, computer-controlled Jacquard loom.

 

I feel a lot less crazy now. Yes, woven, not needlepoint.

 

@Bakersgma, got it. Did some D&D and a hand made would never show the vertical lines. The weave completely covers them as in this....

Thanks, I needed that...

 

I think this may be what is called a "voided velvet". It is a complex technique, created on a drawloom which allows the creation of elaborate designs by controlling individual threads or small groups of threads on the loom. The drawloom was in use in China by the first century AD. The technology was later transferred to Persia and the Middle East, then Europe. It required at least 2 operators - a weaver inserting the weft threads, and a "draw boy" who sat on a platform above the loom and who pulled up sets of warp threads as the weaver called out the pattern.

The red tufts are cut velvet - loops drawn up during the weaving, which are subsequently cut to create the pile effect. The flat areas (the "voids") are characteristic of drawloom work, with an intricate pattern incorporated into a base weave, with floats carried on the back of the cloth when a color is not needed. Complex brocades, satins, and other patterned fabrics were being created with hand operated drawlooms long before mechanization or computer controlled looms. Your textile is perfectly consistent with historical drawloom fabrics.

A semi-mechanized version was invented in France by Joseph Marie Jacquard in 1804. He substituted a series of punched cards and a pin mechanism, which replaced the draw boy.

While the colors and basic format seem derived from Ottoman or Mughal work, it seems to me to be more a European adaptation. Perhaps Italian.

 

The surface of a textile can be "weft faced", meaning the horizontal threads cover the vertical warp, as in tapestry. It can be "warp faced", meaning the vertical warp is most visible. Or it can be even, where warp and weft are equally visible. it has to do with how closely the warp is spaced on the loom and how tightly the weft is packed during weaving. All three effects can be created in both hand weaving and machine weaving.

 

An example of pre-machine complexity:

Textile fragment, possibly from a jacket, Safavid dynasty (1501-1736), Iran, mid-16th century. Silk, metal-wrapped silk; voided and brocaded velvet. The Textile Museum 3.219.
https://museum.gwu.edu/safavid-fragment

 

A traditional drawloom, still in use in Varanasi, India, used to create patterned silk velvet:

http://travelsintextiles.com/the-ro...temporary-india-an-interview-with-rahul-jain/