Glossary of Terms

 Basic Glossary of Tapestry Terms



Beat, beat down 
to push the weft into place, using the bobbin, fork or other tool


Beater 
  a tool to push the weft into place

Bobbin 
  a pointed tool with a shaft around which the weft can be wound, used to both carry the weft and beat it into place 

Buckling 
  when the tapestry doesn't lie flat, often caused by excess weft

Cartoon 
  the full-size drawing, design, outline, used as blueprint for the tapestry

Closed warp 
  a warp covered by weft in the previous half pass. In tapestry, tabby or plain weave, every other warp along the fell is closed

Discontinuous weft
in tapestry, the weft does not go edge to edge each time and is therefore discontinuous

Fell                 
the leading edge of the piece being woven, where the last weft has been placed

Loom               
a device for maintaining the warp under tension

Open warp          
a warp not covered by weft in the previous half pass.  In tapestry, tabby, or plain weave, every other warp is open

Pass                
taking the weft once back and forth over the warps, that is, two rows, so that every warp is covered

Pick                 
half- pass or one row of weft

Pick and Pick       
a technique for weaving contrasting colours of weft into
the two opposite tapestry sheds, resulting in narrow vertical stripes

Shed               
the space between the warps through which the weft passes

Slit                 
in tapestry weaving that does not use the interlock
method, a slit is formed between adjacent areas of colour

Tabby              
plain weaving, such as tapestry weaving, in which the
weft goes alternately over and under the warp

Warp               
the yarn that is under tension on the loom which will be
interlaced at right angles by the weft

Warps per inch     
the number of warp yarns in a given inch of the width of
the tapestry.  A lower number of warps makes a heavier and chunkier panel, while a higher number allows more detail.  The more warps per inch, the slower the weaving.

Weft               
the yarn inserted at right angles to the warp
Weft-faced fabric a textile in which the warp is completely covered by the weft, such as a tapestry

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