Artist Unknown, Tapestry with scenes of the war of Troy, (Silk, Wool), Tournai, Belgium, 1475-1490

● The War of Troy tapestry is part of one of the most important sets of tapestry still surviving from the latter part of the 15th century.

● The story of the Trojan War comes from The Iliad, one of the great epic poems of ancient Greece, but the scenes here are based on much later re-tellings.

● The Trojan War tapestries were made in Tournai between 1460 and 1490 and are the only set of Medieval tapestries for which the original designs still exist.

● This tapestry is from a much larger original set which showed a medieval version of the history of the Trojan wars. Some of the other tapestries survive and the original drawings are in the Louvre in Paris.

● This is relevant because of the use of a loom in creating art. This method is similar to your beaded loom bracelets.

Loom Weaving History• The bead loom was first used by the Ojibwa women

• They used a bow-shaped ash branch. To each upturned end they fastened a doubled-over piece of birch bark. Through a row of holes made in these pieces they threaded the loom.

• When they worked with sinew, they wove so that as the thread passed through the beads one strand passed over the loom string, the next passed under, and so on.

• When they used thread and needle, they strung the beads on the thread and then placed the strand under the loom threads, pushing the beads up between the strands. Next they passed the needle back through the beads, taking care this time that the needle passed across the loom strings on their upper side. The beads were then drawn up tight, and the next row was added.

• This bow-type loom was easy for an Indian woman to carry with her, but at home she often used a frameliked loom.

Native AmericanBeaded Loom Art

Beaded Artwork

Student Artwork

Meghan Foley - headband

Megan Jones - bracelet

Lexy Lyans - headband

Esha - bracelet