Jacquard woven tapestries

The second method is Jacquard weaving. This is a machine process which substantially reduces the production time and thereby the cost. Joseph Marie Jacquard (1752-1834) developed the concept.

The first step is creating the Jacquard card, which is the most difficult part. The artist has to create a tapestry design during several months. Before the first tapestry is made, several samples and color tests have to be made. This is sometimes called the 'mise en carte'.

Once this card is made, the weaver is able to make the tapestry, more than once.
However before the actual weaving can start there is a lot of work in preparing the loom.
Thousands of dyed threads should be winded on enormous rollers. These threads will form the warp of the tapestry. The various colored threads should be arranged, side-by-side, in a specific order, depending the design of the tapestry.

The weaving can start. The intersection of two kinds of threads, the warp (lengthways) and the weft (crossways) will give as result a high quality jacquard woven tapestry.

Most of tapestries these days are woven on Jacquard looms.
All our fabrics are woven on such looms as well, however usually with lesser colors.
The chenille fabrics look great, although they do not have so much threads, the texture is rich because of a thicker chenille thread.

Beside wool, cotton is often used as well.

Cotton threads can be even finer than wool, so they can make a more detailed tapestry.
On the other hand 'feeling' of a tapestry in wool is more like the old ones.
Wool is more expensive than cotton, however the quality is really the same!