Ok People, I am going to do it, in spite many little whistles going off in my head. I found these photos on the internet, three of the 17 tapestries at Christiansborgslot.
I think a few of them are the drawn/painted cartoons, one of the many planning stages in tapestry weaving. And also I am not sure what size they have actually uploaded in, hm perhaps I need to take photos of the postcards and post those instead.
Photographing in the big hall where these beautiful creations hang is understandably not permitted so I left my camera in the luggage box, key #54, for me to have and to hold for as long as I was in the building still admiring the tapestries.
I went for 1pm since they have a daily guided tour at this hour every day. The tour goes into the history, layers upon layers of history which the artist Bjoern Noergaard carefully has built into each piece.
Starting up the stairs to the hall there was only me and the guide. She got rather excited when I told her I was there because I do weave some myself and it is always inspiring to look at someone else's work and figuring it out or try to figure it out - sometimes there is quite a divide between those two states of mind:-)
The guide had been to the workshops where these gobelins were woven in the nineties only this summer (Les Manufactures Nationales des Gobelins et de Beauvais, Paris) and she was amazed at the technique and skill she had seen there, however, since she had to understand everything in French her tapestry knowledge had not exactly grown to grand dimensions, and thus she declined my jubilant exclamation if she would allow me to ask a bizillion questions around the weaving. She was not sure that was such a good idea, but she was willing to do the history part and in there I could ask questions, just not on the technicalities of the actual weaving of the pieces.
Three more women joined us, two with no knowledge of tapestry but instead knowledge around the creative process of creating gold rings and jewelry. The last person turned out to be another Dane living abroad, an older woman who wanted to enjoy the tapestries. She has a tapestry loom behind a door in her house and when she returns to Norway where she has lived since 1959 after here little vacation she is going to go and finish what is on the loom and get started on her next project. Wonder what size it will be ;-)
A postcard, the photographer is Adam Rzepka, and now me copying him in not too graceful a way. A depiction of history in the late Middle Ages. I wish I could haul everyone I know and a few more through there one day, listening to the stories and layers and then observing some of the techniques and in general be awed. The tapestries are all close to 4 meters tall, I guess I shouldn't take one of them home after all before I have spoken to my husband about taking out a ceiling and adding another floor to the house. Hm, and we just got a new roof, hm again, perhaps not such a good plan after all.
Below are a few links to check out further tapestry information at your leisure.
I am off for a walk in the beautiful Copenhagen sunshine spreading over this day.
http://www.ses.dk/Home/SlotteOgHaver/Slotte/ChristiansborgSlot/Gobelinerne.asp
www.dronningensgobeliner.dk
http://www.gobelintapestry.com/
Have a grand one!
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