The making of a Wall Tapestry.  How Jacquard woven fabric is done.

A well-made wall tapestry is usually jacquard woven.  The Jacquard loom operates on cards with punched out patterns that direct the position of each thread in a wall tapestry. Though tapestries woven on a Jacquard loom are machine made, they are manually directed from start to finish.

An artist works from the original wall tapestry, first to determine the reproduced tapestry's final sizing, and second, to paint a replica of the tapestry in that size. The hand painted grid matrix includes the minute details of the original wall tapestry.

The next step in creating a wall tapestry involves creating the punch cards. The punched positions on the cards correspond directly to the hand painting’s colors and forms. The punch cards control all the threads of the warp and weft. Before jacquard weaving begins, an artist/weaver threads the correct mix of colored threads that correspond to coordinates on the punch cards for the original wall tapestry.