The Historic Tapestry Shop was set up to design and make kits that I’d want to stitch.
I’ve been sewing for nearly 10 years now, I used to sit and watch the then girlfriend,
a professional embroiderer of some repute, producing some utterly beautiful things,
the looking became helping and the girlfriend became the wife. We sew together,
even the son's get involved.
About me
The little feller at his work station. He is working at a slate frame with tressels, prices available upon request.
The Historic Tapestry Design Philosophy
Here at The Historic Tapestry Shop we take our inspiration from important events and locations. These moments and places conjure up images, these images still resonate today, whether its walking around one of our charming old town’s or city’s or nose deep in the diary of an old soldier.
When we first think of a new project (or one is suggested to us) the subject needs to be researched, we really enjoy this bit. Whether it’s from our groaning book shelves, going there or the internet, we pride ourselves on understanding the subject in hand. Now comes the tricky bit, how do we represent that on canvas with stitches. After a cushion friendly size is decided upon we now have to fit in the important stuff, whether it is a street lay out or the dispositions of an army. For example, the canon on the field of Waterloo appears larger than the infantry unit next to it; I can’t think of a way to make the cannon smaller so artistic license occasionally takes hold. We are ever mindful of sacrifices that were made upon many fields and any errors are solely ours. Was the third house down the street that colour at that time? It might have been, for examples like this our poetic license is more freely applied. It is difficult to draw a balance between current understanding of history and what we hope will be an interesting sew. Early on a decision was made that certain symbols will never feature in our kits.