Beginning at the glacial formation of mountains and glens, spanning from the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 to the reconvening of the Holyrood parliament in 1999, up to tennis star Andy Murray’s Wimbledon victory of 2013, the Great Tapestry of Scotland — an ambitious project to render the nation’s story — can be viewed for the first time in its new and permanent home from next week.
Comprising 160 panels — finely stitched, vividly colorful and animated with detail — it is thought to be one of the longest tapestries in the world, at 143m, 70m longer than the Bayeux Tapestry in Normandy, France.
Now hung in a purpose-built gallery in Galashiels in the Scottish Borders, the panel were created by 1,000 volunteer stitchers from across the country working with more than 480km of wool over two years.
The tapestry initially toured Scotland on its completion in 2013, but this is this first time is has had a permanent display, in a gallery equipped with specialist lighting, temperature control and screening from direct sunlight.
The brainchild of detective novelist Alexander McCall Smith, the tapestry was designed by artist Andrew Crummy and based on a narrative written by Scottish Borders-based writer and historian Alistair Moffat.
“When the idea was first hatched, there was no question of what cost or where it would go, it was just: Let’s do it,” McCall Smith said. “So it’s a bit of a miracle and a wonderful tribute to all the people who worked so hard on it to see it in its new home.”
“It is beautiful seeing it as a continuous work, and reading it as you walk along,” he said.
The inclusion of relatively recent events in the panels was important, he said.
“People don’t think of history as still happening, so when they see things they have experienced themselves put into the historical sweep, that contextualizes those events,” McCall Smith said.
As coordinator of the stitching team, Dorie Wilkie knows the challenges presented by the scale of such a work.
“Whether it’s samplers or antimacassars, embroideries tend to be small and in cross-stitch, but here you have human heads a quarter-meter in size and we have used all the stitches in the alphabet,” Wilkie said.
Unusually for a piece of embroidery, the makers of these tapestry panels can be identified.
“In the past, you never knew who had embroidered a thing, so we made a point of encouraging stitchers to sign their work in some form, with their name or a design representing where they live,” Wilkie said.
On first viewing the tapestry, visitors are struck most by the colors and textures involved, she said.
“People involuntarily want to touch and stroke the panels,” she said.
“Every time I look at it I see something else, it’s full of surprises,” she added.
‘THEY KILLED HOPE’: Four presidential candidates were killed in the 1980s and 1990s, and Miguel Uribe’s mother died during a police raid to free her from Pablo Escobar Colombian presidential candidate Miguel Uribe has died two months after being shot at a campaign rally, his family said on Monday, as the attack rekindled fears of a return to the nation’s violent past. The 39-year-old conservative senator, a grandson of former Colombian president Julio Cesar Turbay (1978-1982), was shot in the head and leg on June 7 at a rally in the capital, Bogota, by a suspected 15-year-old hitman. Despite signs of progress in the past few weeks, his doctors on Saturday announced he had a new brain hemorrhage. “To break up a family is the most horrific act of violence that
HISTORIC: After the arrest of Kim Keon-hee on financial and political funding charges, the country has for the first time a former president and former first lady behind bars South Korean prosecutors yesterday raided the headquarters of the former party of jailed former South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol to gather evidence in an election meddling case against his wife, a day after she was arrested on corruption and other charges. Former first lady Kim Keon-hee was arrested late on Tuesday on a range of charges including stock manipulation and corruption, prosecutors said. Her arrest came hours after the Seoul Central District Court reviewed prosecutors’ request for an arrest warrant against the 52-year-old. The court granted the warrant, citing the risk of tampering with evidence, after prosecutors submitted an 848-page opinion laying out
STAGNATION: Once a bastion of leftist politics, the Aymara stronghold of El Alto is showing signs of shifting right ahead of the presidential election A giant cruise ship dominates the skyline in the city of El Alto in landlocked Bolivia, a symbol of the transformation of an indigenous bastion keenly fought over in tomorrow’s presidential election. The “Titanic,” as the tallest building in the city is known, serves as the latest in a collection of uber-flamboyant neo-Andean “cholets” — a mix of chalet and “chola” or Indigenous woman — built by Bolivia’s Aymara bourgeoisie over the past two decades. Victor Choque Flores, a self-made 46-year-old businessman, forked out millions of US dollars for his “ship in a sea of bricks,” as he calls his futuristic 12-story
North Korean troops have started removing propaganda loudspeakers used to blare unsettling noises along the border, South Korea’s military said on Saturday, days after Seoul’s new administration dismantled ones on its side of the frontier. The two countries had already halted propaganda broadcasts along the demilitarized zone, Seoul’s military said in June after the election of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, who is seeking to ease tensions with Pyongyang. The South Korean Ministry of National Defense on Monday last week said it had begun removing loudspeakers from its side of the border as “a practical measure aimed at helping ease
RSS