Visitors have a treat in store at the moment with a delightful exhibition of 50 modern tapestries. These beautiful small-scale works have been created by skilled weavers from the UK and Europe and are on show in the Nether Bailey until April. Many are very colourful and beautifully textured – and if there is one that particularly takes your fancy, they are also for sale.

             

The exhibition is entitled Warp/Weft: Near/Far and the pieces on display have all been created by members of the British Tapestry Group, the European Tapestry Forum steering group, and members of WEST, who are professional tapestry weavers from the West Country. One of the exhibition organisers, Louise Martin, is also senior weaver in the castle’s own studio where some very different tapestries are being made. These are new versions of The Hunt of the Unicorn series and are being woven to hang in the castle’s Renaissance royal palace. The unicorn tapestries are huge compared to the modern ones – up to 3.8m tall, compared to 80cm.

Four of the unicorn tapestries are complete and can be viewed in the Chapel Royal, so it’s a great opportunity to see how the art of weaving has developed and changed over the centuries. The Hunt of the Unicorn series dates from around 1500 (the originals are in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art) and were probably created to celebrate an important marriage. Tapestries of this era tended to use splendid images to tell important stories, often with a religious theme, whereas many of the modern works are abstract.

The exhibition is included in the entry price for the castle.

The exhibition will run from 5th February - 3rd April 2011

Louise Martin is running a series of weekend weaving activities between now and April, with special discounts for Historic Scotland members. Places are limited. For more information email tapestrylou@hotmail.com.