I have the unusual privilege of living with unicorns – more than that I create them. Oddly enough the first one took nine months to the day. He now hangs on the wall of the Chapel Royal, and even though he was cut free from the loom some years ago I still look at him and think ‘that’s my boy’.

As one of the three-strong team of weavers based at Stirling Castle I have spent eight years helping create new versions of the magnificent Hunt of the Unicorn series, which dates from the dawn of the 16th century, and is displayed in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. I have just returned from an annual trip there to study the colours of the originals, to ensure our own work is absolutely right. However our tapestries, which will eventually hang in the castle’s royal palace, are not straight replicas. They are fresh interpretations, so they contain our own ideas and artistry.

Each time I go and see the originals I am awestruck by the technical skill of those weavers of 500 years ago. I’m also sometimes amused to see bits where one of them was lazy – like an area my colleagues have just finished where the holly berries are bright orange, like the juicy fruit on the orange tree next to it. The weaver just used what came to hand rather than going and fetching another colour. All very human!

New York was fun, and we got to do demonstrations of our work for about 170 museum visitors, conservators and staff. We spread the word about Stirling and the seven tapestries we are more than half way through weaving. But it’s good to be back, creating 7.3cm square of tapestry each day, and slowly watching the hunters, the hounds and their quarry – the unicorn – as they emerge, grow and finally depart the loom.

Louise Martin is a senior weaver based in the Stirling Castle tapestry studio.