Twill tapestry
Also: tapestry twill
Twill tapestry is a weave in which colored weft threads build a pattern directly in a twill ground, as used for Kashmir shawls.
Twill tapestry is the technique behind the finest Kashmir shawls. The weaver builds the pattern from colored weft threads worked only where each color is needed, in a twill structure instead of a plain weave.
How did it work on a Kashmir shawl?
The Cleveland Museum of Art describes fine, soft goat-hair wool woven in a 2/2 twill tapestry weave, "the equivalent of painting with colored weft threads." The RISD Museum adds that the technique was slow: one complicated shawl might take three years. That labor is one reason European makers began to imitate the shawls on faster looms.
Sources
- Apricot Long Shawl, 1785–1800 (2008.215). Cleveland Museum of Art
- What's in a Name? The Paisley Pattern in Kashmir Shawls. RISD Museum
See also
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