---
title: "Twill tapestry"
description: "Twill tapestry is a weave in which colored weft threads build a pattern directly in a twill ground, as used for Kashmir shawls."
type: Glossary
url: https://teazle.art/glossary/twill-tapestry
published: 2026-10-14
updated: 2026-10-14
author: "The Teazle editors"
---

# Twill tapestry

*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](https://clevelandart.org/art/2008.215), "the equivalent of painting with colored weft threads." The RISD Museum adds that the technique was slow: [one complicated shawl might take three years](https://risdmuseum.org/exhibitions-events/exhibitions/whats-name-paisley-pattern-kashmir-shawls). That labor is one reason European makers began to imitate the shawls on faster looms.


## Sources

1. [Apricot Long Shawl, 1785–1800 (2008.215)](https://clevelandart.org/art/2008.215). Cleveland Museum of Art
2. [What's in a Name? The Paisley Pattern in Kashmir Shawls](https://risdmuseum.org/exhibitions-events/exhibitions/whats-name-paisley-pattern-kashmir-shawls). RISD Museum

Canonical: https://teazle.art/glossary/twill-tapestry