Mervyn's Tapestry Gallery

I took up tapestry as a means of releasing the stress of modern life. It is a hobby and I do it when I get time. This is usually early mornings at weekends and sometimes while watching a film in the evening. This pages shows the results of the ones that I have worked on. While all the pictures are the same size, the canvases are not, hence the sizes are quoted for each picture.

Tapestry started with a small and now lost picture in 1984. The second attempt was the train seen to the right. ((76 by 38 cm) which was given to a close friend as a house warming present.

Following that was this picture of a tiger (48 by 69 cm) which has been in our front room for many years.

After the tiger came the Durham canvas (60 by 39 cm). Purchased on a reunion visit to the University in the City, it was taken to Italy on Holiday with me, the sky was one of the most boring bits of tapestry that I have done as it is all the same colour but the rest is stunning.

By now we are at the start of 1988/9 and I started the Owls (46 by 37 cm) which were almost completed when our first child arrived in June of 1989. At this point, there was no free time and the thought of wool and needles being round and about, put paid to the tapestry for many months and that spread into years.

At some point during 1997, the unfinished Owls canvas surfaced and I decided to complete it. So tapestry has returned as a major source of relaxation in my busy life.

The Japanese Water Garden (51 by 66 cm) was started in January 1998 and completed in October 1999 when the Japanese theme was continued with the Lady in Red which can be seen to the right. The Lady in Red is 69 high by 50 cm wide and from rough calculations, used about 500m of wool.

The Pharaohs was started in July 2000 and completed in May 2002, it is the biggest yet and is 105cm in length by 54cm high. It used 80 skeins of Anchor wool.

The Hornblower style Naval battle was started shortly after the completion of the Pharaohs in Mary 2002 and was finished in September 2003. It is 76cm by 49cm  and used 600 metres of wool. With an estimated 57000 stitches in it, it took many hours to do.

Since then I have been working on the tropical island sunset which I finished in October 2004. This is 92.5cm by 61.5cm and has an estimated 89,000 stitches.

December 2006 and I have finished the view of the Eiger Mountain which was started just after the sunset was finished. It is 130cm long and 65cm high, it contains 130,000 stitches, using about 1.1km of wool. ( and yes the units are correct). It took an estimated 260 hours of work which makes it the biggest that I have done.

After that I  finished off a very small (30cm by 22cm) one that Alison started and got bored with, which was completed in January. As seen below to the left, this was closely followed by another small one at 30cm by 40cm which was completed in July 2007.

In August 2007 I started the owl shown above which I completed just before Christmas the same year. The owl was closely followed by this scene showing Mount Kilimanjaro in the backgroup. It is 115 by 52 cm and was completed at Christmas 2008.

The Chateax with the swans was started at Christmas 2008 and completed just before Christmas 2009. It is 40cm wide and 50cm high and accounted for 44 skeins of wool.

The 50 by 40cm cottage in a sunset which was completed in April 2010 and also contained 44 skeins of wool. Large pictures have become very difficult to get especially with a picture that will complement the current collection. Thus I have decided to do my own having had a photograph that Alison took printed on white canvas.

Dec. 2010. The picture of me driving a Steam Train at Exbury Gardens has been printed at 70cm by 50cm. Unlike a standard tapestry where there are a set number of colours and a colour key, this does not have those boundaries, leaving the choice of colours and the boundaries of the colours to the tapestry maker.

The tapestry was started in February 2010 and completed in May 2011. Some liberties were taken with the colours to make bits stand out. Lots of left over wool from other tapesties was used to mak eup the colours and over 60 different colour wools were used. The finished design is 71cm by 53cm.

June 2011, I am now repeating the experiment with a Autumn picture that Alison took in the New Forest.

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Last revised: Saturday, 04 June 2011