The Dundee TAPESTRY
Liz O’rourke learns about the project that has Dundee in stitches.
FOR two years, over 140 stitchers have been busy using their skills to create the Dundee Tapestry.
The project was conceived and developed by John Fyffe of the Weaver Incorporation of Dundee, one of the city’s Nine Incorporated Trades.
“The Dundee Tapestry is a form of visual storytelling that tells the amazing history of our city, including highs and lows, hardships and hopes,” John explains.
The public can now view the completed tapestry, consisting of 30 panels reflecting on Dundee’s past, present and future.
Dr Frances Stevenson is one of the founders of the project, having been invited by Andrew Crummy MBE, the artist behind the Great Tapestry of Scotland, to co-design the panels.
“Researching and illustrating the history, social history and current events has been fascinating,” she admits.
“Stitchers worked with the project design team to decide what to incorporate into the panels.”
The volunteer stitchers have had a huge input into this project.
I asked stitcher Jeanette Smeaton about her experience of working on it.
“When I noticed a post on Facebook looking for volunteers, I decided I’d like to be part of this and asked friends to join me. We were soon a group of five.
“I have never been a great embroiderer, but for years I’ve been keen on crossstitch and could manage simple embroidery stitches reasonably well.
“Within a few weeks our group had been assigned one of the panels relating to Dundee Culture. The basic designs were drawn on to the panel,” Jeanette explains.
“We were asked to use certain colours and stitches for the outer circles and diamonds, but could interpret the rest using any of the approved colours and stitches we wanted.
“Our group met up from time to time to decide what was to be done and by whom, but mainly we worked by ourselves, passing the panel on after roughly three or four weeks.
“However, this meant that with five of us involved we each had to wait quite some time for our next turn.
“For this reason, my friend, Maggie, and I offered to take on another panel, and so we took on Gaming to fill the gaps!”
“I stitched years ago, but would not call myself proficient,” Maggie Ballantyne adds. “But seeing what Jeanette had done inspired me to keep going, as it was a long haul.
“On the Culture panel I’m proud of two female heads I stitched.”
“I was pleased most of all by the work I did on the central motif and had fun stitching in some of the Dundee sayings,” Jeanette says.
Both ladies agreed that seeing the completed tapestry at V&A Dundee in January was a special moment.
“After all the weeks and months of stitching, of redoing the bits that didn’t seem right, it was fantastic to see the tapestry giving enjoyment to so many people,” Jeanette declares.
“The best bit was when it was finished as I could see the result and had a wonderful feeling of pride,” Maggie agrees.