About tapestry
In tapestry, the design is not printed on the fabric, but is woven directly with colored threads. In Flanders, the history of tapestry weaving starts already in the middle ages. Wealthy people used tapestry wall hangings to decorate the halls in their fortresses and castles. They were once as valued as paintings.
Some cities became famous for their weaving mills: such as Brussels and Oudenaarde. But also Bruges became one of them.
Wall hanging tapestry, 17th century, Brugge
about hand made gobelin
The name "gobelin" is often used as synonym to tapestry and is derived from the city in France where an important weaving mill was established in the 17th century. The weaving mill still exists today and tapestries are still made by hand at the old fashioned way.
In Belgium the last hand weaving mill was De Wit. They do not make hand woven tapestries any longer, they changed to only restoring the antique tapestries.
Nowadays, these gobelin fabrics are still loved and their used expanded. The versatile fabric can be made into a handbag, a cushion cover or tablecloth. Our high-quality modern gobelin textiles are now woven by machine in Southern Europe.
tablecloth 'Iris', 100 x 100 cm