Guided tour of the Manufacture des Gobelins
L'enclos des Gobelins it's 80 artists, 23,000 shades of color, 600 furnished French Republic palaces and 3 factories with a unique and traditional expertise in weaving which endures and grows over time. Dedicated to the furnishing and decorating in tapestry and carpets of official palaces, the factories have since 1900 made more than 2,000 masterpieces.
The Gobelins Manufactory fashions tapestries by using the high-warp technique; the Beauvais Manufacture however uses the low-warp method; and the Soap Manufactory specializes in carpet weaving.
Your tour guide will take you to the nearest loom-warp craft-site, by taking you two of three active workshops! Open your eyes wide and gaze at the meticulousness with which the craftworkers practice their art.
The delicate handling of the spindle, comb, and traced design; the perfect mastery of knots; the meticulous positioning of the mirror which is used to look over work in progress; as well as the preparation of the "warp"--all these techniques turn the human hand into the accomplished artist hand and the majestic machine into a delicate, high-end instrument.
You'll understand why the completion of a piece is proudly famous. After years of work, the masterpiece can be delivered, and the artist can finally look upon his work which, until then, can only be appreciated with frugality as conventional smoothing methods dictate.
