Gyllian Thomson, Tapestry Artist

Gyllian Thomson graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art with a First-Class Honours degree in Constructed Textiles and Printmaking and enjoyed early success exhibiting work at the Royal Scottish Academy for the Scottish Society of Student Artists, and was selected for the International Trade Fair in Scotland for Applied Arts Scotland. Gyllian spoke to us recently about her passion for textiles and her practice.

“After 21 years focusing on my career in teaching, I have returned to my practice as a creator in my field of handwoven tapestry. In the past I had let this wonderful medium down, I had fallen out with it as life had taken over and I became too busy for art. I was also frustrated that not many people seemed to understand just how a tapestry is created and I was amazed and heartbroken that it wasn’t respected as much as painting and drawing. You only have to look at the work of the wonderful Dovecot in Edinburgh to see what we do as weavers.

Happily, I’m back on the tapestry horse although having a not-veryinteresting chronic illness has made me introduce pacing but hey, what other medium would suit me? Yes, tapestry is a slow ancient and economical craft and I’m loving every minute of it. I sit down to my scaffold loom (it’s made of scaffold pipes) and I choose my yarns of different colours from my shelf, and I wind my yarn around my handmade wooden bobbins (made locally), I’m ready to weave and drift into another time and place. But of course, I’ve missed out the less glamorous part where you have to warp up your loom, winding warp around 300 times. Then each warp strand must be secured, individually spaced and knotted. It’s time consuming but so satisfying, and if it’s good enough for the ancient Egyptians then it’s good enough for me. What a joy to see my initial painting appear slowly on my loom, translated into tapestry.

My work is driven by the balance of shapes and lines; however, the visual elements of colour are the life source in my tapestries. The power of colour in my work creates clashing and layering that when woven has a unique visual effect.

I use cotton, wool, embroidery thread, sometimes acrylic and plastic, and thread for the more subtle changes. It is this density and vividness that creates feeling when viewing my work and this is what is so important to me in my drive to show textiles as the art form it really is.

I am so happy to be working on my tapestries again and to be enjoying success in my art once more. This year I took part in Spring Fling for the first time. This gave me a chance not only to show my work but to give visitors the chance to weave themselves. Also, this year I won a prestigious prize in Visual Arts Scotland’s ‘Reverb’ exhibition. The prize is a solo show of my work at the Scottish Arts Club in Edinburgh in March 2023.” www.gyllianthomsontapestries. co.uk