Vincent van Gogh Limited Edition Tapestries

Weave Art Gallery La Mere introduced, especially for the Van Gogh Year 1990, a weave art interpretation of Vincent van Gogh paintings.

Vincent van Gogh Weave Art

Vincent van Gogh paintings are translated into weave art, another medium of expression: full of life, warmth and joy. One gets the impression that one can participate in the experience depicted in the design. It's a life-product, made of wool and fully hand-made: hand-designed, hand-drawn, hand-woven and hand-stitched.

Limited Edition

The tapestries are woven in limited editions, with a maximum of 100 per design and style. With every tapestry a certificate is issued, with the number of the tapestry. The number of the tapestry is also shown on the back of a small silver plate with the name Vincent, that is attached to the tapestry at the right bottom of the design.

Origin

Weave Art interpretation of paintings is an old tradition, that was popular especially in the Golden Age. The painters Rubens and Frans Hals themselves designed tapestries of their own works. Recent examples are tapestries from works of Picasso and Chagall.

The Vincent van Gogh tapestries are woven in Pondicherry, South-India, at Tapisseries de la Mere, a weaving unit established in 1976. The female weavers of the unit have since mastered the art of gobelin weaving and can produce pieces with great complexity and fine detail.

Gobelin Weaving - the process

In gobelin weaving the wool is woven, thread by thread, part by part, on a strong cotton warp. After the weaving is completed, the piece is taken from the loom and the parts are stitched together to produce the final tapestry.

In weave art a different process is employed than in painting. In painting the painter himself paints, but in weaving the artist designs and the weaver weaves the piece. The process is that the designer draws on a piece of paper, the size of the future tapestry, the contours of every small detail in the tapestry. Within the contours he writes the number of the colour wool that is to be woven in that place. If a mix of colours is necessary, he writes 2 or 3 numbers within the contour. When the design is finished, the paper is fully covered with contours, filled with hunderds of woolnumbers. The original design is then copied by hand with the use of carbon paper.

Now the weaving can start. The lady weaver takes the copy paper to her loom and attaches the paper behind the warp (cotton threads) and starts weaving after she has collected all the necessary colours wool that are to be used in the tapestry.

Every little detail has to be woven seperately. After placing every single thread she has to beat the thread firmly into place. She has to use a different colour with every thread if the detail consists of a mix of colours. Detail by detail the tapestry is built up to its full size. Only after completion of the whole piece -many times after more than a month of weaving- one can judge the final result. Every tapestry can be seen as unique, because at every step in the process the human hand is at work and gives its own mark to every small detail.

Quality of Weaving

The quality of the weaving depends on several factors. There is the precision with which the weaver follows the pattern on the paper while she weaves, and most importantly there is the evenness of pressure that the weaver uses when she beats the woollen threads in their place. A small detail needs a relative light pressure, while a larger part requires a relative firm pressure. If the pressure is not exerted in the right way the tapestry will not have straight edges or will be 'baggy'. Because the Van Gogh tapestries are woven by weavers with 3 or more years of experience the tapestries are of very high quality.