Tag: tapestry

Oxfordshire Sheldon Tapestry Map Will Be Taken Off Display

Published on by Jonathan Crowe
A detail from the Oxfordshire Sheldon Tapestry showing various villages around the city of Oxford.
The Oxfordshire Sheldon Tapestry (detail)

Bodleian Map Room Blog: “In early September one of the library treasures, the Oxfordshire Sheldon tapestry, will be taken off display. One of a set of four there’s been a Sheldon tapestry on display in Blackwell Hall for the last ten years, a riot of colour and history which has drawn visitors to them and will be missed when no longer there.” One of four tapestry maps of English counties commissioned in the late 16th century by Ralph Sheldon, the Oxfordshire tapestry went on display at the Bodleian in 2019, replacing a display of the Worcestershire tapestry. I assume it’s coming down for conservation reasons (they don’t say); no word either on what will take its place.

Previously: Sheldon Tapestry Map of Oxfordshire on Display; A Video About the Oxfordshire Tapestry Map.

Vanessa Barragão’s Botanical Tapestry

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

Vanessa Barragão, ”Botanical Tapestry,” 2019. Wool, cotton and jute, 6 m × 2 m. Heathrow Airport, Terminal 2.

A massive, six-by-two-metre textile tapestry map of the world is now installed in the departure area of Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 2. It’s called “Botanical Tapestry,” and it’s the work of Portuguese textile artist Vanessa Barragão. It took her 520 hours to make, using different techniques like latch hook, crochet and felt needle to achieve different textures; it also took 42 kg of recycled wool, plus another 8 kg of cotton and jute. [Geography Realm, My Modern Met]

Sheldon Tapestry Map of Oxfordshire on Display

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

The Sheldon Tapestry Map of Oxford (detail)

In case the Talking Maps exhibition (previously) was insufficient cause for you to visit the Bodleian Library in Oxford this year, here’s another. The Sheldon Tapestry Map of Oxfordshire, one of four tapestry maps of English counties commissioned in the late 16th century by Ralph Sheldon, is on display at the Bodleian’s Weston Library. The tapestry is partially complete—intact it would have measured 3.5 × 5.5 metres—and on display for the first time in a century, having gone through a “painstaking” restoration. BBC News, Londonist.

The Oxfordshire tapestry map replaces a display of the Worcestershire tapestry map that had been running for the past four years: both were donated to the Bodleian by Richard Gough in 1809. The Bodleian acquired a sizeable section of the Gloucestershire map in 2007 (it went on display the following year); other parts are in private hands. The fourth tapestry map, of Worcestershire, is the only one that is completely intact and not missing any pieces: it’s owned by the Warwickshire Museum, where it’s on display at the Market Hall Museum.

Sarah Spencer’s Giant Star Map Tapestry

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

Sarah Spencer (Twitter)

This huge star map tapestry is the work of Australian maker Sarah Spencer, who created it by hacking a 1980s-era knitting machine. Yes, this thing was knitted: it apparently took more than 100 hours and 15 kg (33 lbs) of (locally sourced Australian) wool to produce this 4.6×2.8-metre (15×9-foot) monster, which is accurate (with the caveat that an equatorial projection distorts familiar circumpolar constellations) and reasonably detailed: the constellations are labelled and the stars’ apparent magnitude is indicated. Space.com has the story. [Boing Boing]