Last weekend we were at the historic open air museum in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. While the men of the St.Thomasguild did all the hard work, the ladies were very busy embroidering. But with results! The first panel of the tapestry was finished; and the second one is nearly finished as well!
It was indeed hard labour for the men of the St. Thomasguild ...
The first panel finished. Details and faces that were also on the original tapestry, but have disappeared (or better faded) through time.
Katinka's panel is also nearing completion. At the end of the day she only needed to do a small piece of green and the details of the faces.
With the first panel finished Anne moved the canvas roll to the next the next scene of the Thomasteppich: St. Thomas spending the money for the King's palace to the poor and his imprisonment. But there was a surprise! We we unrolled the canvas it became apparent that some years ago Anne already had outlined some of the scenes and windows with black wool. The new canvas panel was fastened again with extra thick thread (as shown in a previous post in July 2013) at the short sides first, followed by the long sides. The tensioning is necessary, as embroidery will cause the canvas to "shrink". When we measured both the embroidered panel and the unembroidered canvas, a difference of 1 cm had occurred. This difference would have been much larger without tensioning of the canvas.
The next scene is unfurled ... with already some embroidery on it!
First the short sides of the frame are attached to the frame, followed by the long side. Note that the thread is first attached in the middle of the frame.
The second panel at the end of the weekend. One the left side, a horse of the first panel is watching the new scene. You can also see the difference in height of the embroidered and unembroidered piece.
'Do you think we get some apples at the end of the day?' 'No, Thomas will surely give them to the poor - as always'
'Sire, I have seen Thomas cheating on you with your gold. You must take care of this untrustworthy unbeliever' "I will send my noble knight to seize him!
'Here rides the gallant knight on his noble quest, to imprison the vile stinkard Thomas.'
