Painted Wall-hangings/Tapestries

In period, painted cloth was used for temporary displays, such as banners, city flags and decoration s for procession s. Painting banners is one of the quickest and easiest ways to dress up a hall or event site. Here I'll give you some tips and hints that I've learned over the past few years.

The full text of the English translation, featuring recipes for artists' supplies, and instructions for techniques.

Descriptio n of the procedures for using gutta-resi st and silk-paint ing for heraldic banners and standards.

Step-by-st ep instructio ns for creating a silk-paint ed heraldic banner.

The lively painted cloths in Queen' s Margaret&# 39;s Chamber at Owlpen are said to be unique as a complete decorative scheme of such work still in situ in England. They are certainly the best example surviving of what was once a very common form of interior decoration . Frequently recorded in early wills, inventorie s and account books, where such cloths are valued at sixpence to a shilling a yard, they give a privileged idea of the appearance of many Tudor and Stuart interiors, before the introducti on of wall-paper s. Many must have been destroyed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when improving and modernizin g old houses. Now only fragments of such work survive in a few provincial museums and old houses.

There is a widespread assumption that medieval textiles were decorated only in the original weaving, as brocade or tapestry, and embellishe d only by embroidery . When we look at a miniature of an interior, we assume that the ornate wall hangings were woven to a prince&#39 ; ;s order. When we look at a carved angel, we assume that the delicate relief on the hem of a robe represents skilful embroidery . And it cannot be doubted that much of it does represent what we assume it to represent.

Howeve r, beside the crafts of weaver and embroidere r, and long intertwine d with them, was the craft of painter, or painter-st ainer. Painters provided designs, and sometimes competitio n, for textile craftsmen. Although paint was a cheap and fast alternativ e to woven or embroidere d decoration , it was not despised, but was used in period for all the same purposes as the more costly cloth. http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.parma.bc.ca/articles/steyned.html >