How to Commission a Tapestry

    Wall tapestries have a long history that stretches back well into the Middle Ages where kings and lords commissioned large teams of artisans to produce elaborate suites of tapestries to adorn the walls of their castles. Amazingly, tapestry artists today are creating even more beautiful and elaborate works of art that can adorn the walls of your castle, or single-room, loft apartment. You can even have a tapestry commissioned, creating a one-of-a-kind, personal piece of art for your home. To help you do just that, I sat down with tapestry artist Pamela Topham and had her walk me through the tapestry commissioning process. After all, who better to get advice from about tapestries than from a tapestry artist.

Step 1: Determine What you Want

    How can you find someone to make you something if you don't know what it is you want? So, sit down, and spend some serious time reflecting about what would fit best in your home and in what location the tapestry would hang. You can find tapestries that range from gorgeous landscapes, Pamela's specialty, to minimalistic, modern motifs. Use your imagination and see what comes out. If you can imagine it, you can find an artist to create it.

Step 2: Find the Right Tapestry Artist

    Once you know what you want, it's time to become more familiar with tapestry community. Search the Internet, browse galleries and find tapestry artist that do work similar to what you envision.
    "Look around at many different tapestry weavers," Pamela suggested. "You can see on the Internet now, you can find different artist, and it gives you the idea of the composition because it's very hard to copy the texture. So, if you take some time to look around and find the kind of thing you like and then you might have a studio visit to that artist and sit and talk with them."
    According to Pamela, having an in-person conversation is very important because both you and the artist must be on the same page. The end result is really a collaboration between both your vision and the artist's vision. So getting to know the artist and selecting an artist that fits with your vision in vital.

Step 3: Setting up the Project

    Once you have narrowed your artist search and found the best artist for your particular tapestry, it's time to make the necessary arrangements. Those include deciding on a size, rough timeline and price. The size is determined by what you would like in the envisioned space. The timeline will depend on the scale and complexity of your piece and the artist's prior engagements.
    "I could be able to say, 'okay I can start that right away,' or it could be, 'I have to finish this and I'm putting together a whole show; I can't start till next November,'" Pamela explained. "But if I can start it right away, then I'll know about how long it will take, a month, two months, whatever."
    As for the price, that will vary greatly depending on the artist and the piece. But the important thing to remember is, no matter the price, get a contract. Often artists will let art galleries handle the business arrangement, which frees the artists to concentrate on doing what they love: creating the art.
    "You can write out a contract so that everybody knows what to expect," Pamela said. "Mostly I've dealt with the gallery, and they'll write up the contract so that the business side is taken care of. If you're doing it personally, sometimes that can be a little harder. So, it's nice to have that professional, you know, the gallerist that knows exactly how this is done and that's how they get their commission."

Step 4: Approving the Mock-up

    With the logistics out of the way, you and the artist can begin the creative process where you describe what you envision, with photos, words, in writing, etc., and the artist translated that into a rough sketch. Now, no two artists have the same creative process, but in general there will be a rough sketch, and once it is approved then the artist will start weaving the tapestry.
    "For the most part you're going to start with a drawing of some sort," Pamela said. "You might come to [the artist] with a photo graph and say, this is a place where when I was in Italy, and I want this in tapestry.  Then for me I have to work from a drawing, I can't work from a photograph. So I'm going to interpret that photo in a drawing, and then it goes from the drawing to the weaving."

Step 5: The Unveiling

    With much anticipation, the finished tapestry will be delivered on site and installed where it can be admired and enjoyed for years to come. Just as no two wall tapestries are alike, no two commission processes are the same, and the amount of satisfaction during the unveiling hangs on how well you handle the process as much as how talented the artist.