In the town of Valašské Meziříčí in the Zlín Region of Czechia there is a gem I almost missed seeing, but which turned out to be a highlight of the trip: the Moravská gobelínová manufaktura (MGM).  MGM is Czechia’s oldest tapestry workshop, and one of the few working tapestry makers left in Europe.

Its set in a fairly unassuming building a few blocks off the main square.  The guidelines gave the opening hours for a tour, and when we arrived a small sign told us to ring a bell and wait.

So far, not very exciting…

But ah, when the door opened and we were taken in!  Magic!

Rooms of huge looms waiting to be warped:

Piles of designs, and samples of yarn in every shade imaginable.

A huge loom, with an in-progress rug on which a enormous monochromatic bloom was taking shape:

The rug-maker talked us through what she was doing, explaining the design and the process in Czech, with Hana translating the most interesting and important bits for me.

One particularly interesting bit, at least for me?  All their rugs and tapestries are made with NZ merino wool!

Every wall in the workshop was covered with tapestries and rugs, or designs for tapestries and rugs: both new ones, and antiques the workshop had repaired.

Do you know what these are?  They are tenterhooks!  For stretching the finished woven item, so it is even and smooth.  It’s where the phrase ‘to be on tenterhooks’ comes from:  because the fabric on it is stretched taut and under pressure.

And once the rug was fully stretched, it would be trimmed to be perfectly smooth and even with this exciting and alarming device:

In the next big, airy open room smaller tapestries were being hand knotted.

The skill and concentration to follow those designs and manage all those colours!

You can see there are three different schematics for keeping track of the pattern.  There’s a black and white outline that sits behind the warp threads, an overall large picture hanging over the top of the loom, and a broken-down guide that shows the primary colours that will be used in each section:

And the colours!  I would dearly have loved to take some of these delicious shades home!  (what I would do with them I don’t know!)

The colours are all custom dyed.  They use chemical aniline dyes for lightfastness.

The loveliest thing about the visit is that it wasn’t a formal ‘tour’ that you usually get in businesses that let you in to see their manufacturing.  Instead it felt like visiting a friend’s sewing room.  We got to wander around, look at things, and the tapestry makers just chatted with us and showed us what they were doing.

Once we’d enjoyed all the in-progress tapestries we got to explore the rest of the building to see all the other looms and equipment – both pieces still in use, and pieces they keep for historical reference.

 

 

We finished up in the pub, which was closed that day, but which we were told we could visit to see the tapestries on the walls.

As it turned out, the pub owners were in, tidying up, and they chatted with Hana and offered to make us drinks.

I will never say no to limonáda (in Czechia this is soda water poured over frozen crushed fruit pulp) on a hot Czech day, especially when one of the flavours available is maracuja (passionfruit – I was so proud that I knew that name for passionfruit and could recognise it on menus)!

And ESPECIALLY not when it served in a pub/cafe that just casually has a 17th century tapestry over the bar!

What a treat to end a treat of a tour.  I’m SO glad we stayed that extra day in Valmez to do this!