VOA文化艺术2024--Spanish Tapestry Factory Creating Pieces after 300 Years

Spanish Tapestry¹ Factory Creating Pieces after 300 Years

　　Spain's Royal Tapestry Factory has been providing clothes, called carpets for the floor and tapestries² for the wall, for palaces and public buildings for more than 300 years.

　　Found on a quiet street in Spain's capital Madrid, its artisans combine long-held knowledge of the work with new methods to create cloth-based products.

　　The factory was opened in 1721 by Spain's King Felipe V. He brought in Catholic artisans from Flanders, an area found in today's Belgium, to get it started. At the time, the area had been under Spanish control.

　　Cloth like wool can be found in all colors in the factory. And tools like bobbins and spinning wheels are everywhere in the factory. Some of the original wooden machines are still in use.

　　Alejandro Klecker de Elizalde is the factory's general director. "Here the only products we work with are silk, wool, jute, cotton, linen," he said. "And these small leftovers³ that we create, the water from the dyes, or the small pieces of wool, everything is recycled, everything has a double, a second use."

　　The factory also brings old pieces that have been damaged through time back to good condition. And it keeps some of the most important cloth and material records in Europe.

　　Now, 70 percent of its buyers are individuals from Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East.

　　The factory recently received one of its biggest orders, 32 tapestries for the Palace of Dresden in Germany. The order is worth more than 1 million dollars and it will provide work for up to five years, Klecker de Elizalde said.

　　In 2018, the factory finished a tapestry for a Lebanese buyer based on the work Sabra and Shatila Massacre⁴ by Iraqi artist Dia al-Azzawi. The cloth shows the 1982-83 violence by Christian⁵ Phalangist militia⁶ in Palestinian refugee camps that were guarded by Israeli troops.

　　Creating a tapestry is a difficult process that takes several weeks or months of work for each square meter.

　　A tapestry begins with "cartoons," or drawings on paper that are later copied onto a system of material called warps⁸ which are then woven over.

　　One of the factory's well-known cartoonists was master painter Francisco Goya, who began working there in 1780. Some of the tapestries he designed are now found in the nearby Prado Museum and Madrid's Royal Collections Gallery.

　　Words in This Story

　　palace – n. the official home of a king, queen, or president

　　dye – n. a substance used for changing the color of something (such as hair or cloth) usually permanently⁹

　　recycle – v. to make something new from (something that has been used before)

　　warp⁷ – n. the threads that run up and down on a loom¹⁰ or in a woven fabric¹¹

　　weave – v. to make something (such as cloth) by crossing threads or other long pieces of material over and under each other

1 tapestry   

n.挂毯，丰富多采的画面

参考例句：

• How about this artistic tapestry and this cloisonne vase?这件艺术挂毯和这个景泰蓝花瓶怎么样？
• The wall of my living room was hung with a tapestry.我的起居室的墙上挂着一块壁毯。

2 tapestries   

n.挂毯( tapestry的名词复数 )；绣帷，织锦v.用挂毯（或绣帷）装饰( tapestry的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The wall of the banqueting hall were hung with tapestries. 宴会厅的墙上挂有壁毯。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The rooms were hung with tapestries. 房间里都装饰着挂毯。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 leftovers   

n.剩余物，残留物，剩菜

参考例句：

• He can do miracles with a few kitchen leftovers.他能用厨房里几样剩饭做出一顿美餐。
• She made supper from leftovers she had thrown together.她用吃剩的食物拼凑成一顿晚饭。

4 massacre   

n.残杀，大屠杀；v.残杀，集体屠杀

参考例句：

• There was a terrible massacre of villagers here during the war.在战争中，这里的村民惨遭屠杀。
• If we forget the massacre,the massacre will happen again!忘记了大屠杀，大屠杀就有可能再次发生！

5 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

6 militia   

n.民兵，民兵组织

参考例句：

• First came the PLA men,then the people's militia.人民解放军走在前面，其次是民兵。
• There's a building guarded by the local militia at the corner of the street.街道拐角处有一幢由当地民兵团守卫的大楼。

7 warp   

vt.弄歪，使翘曲，使不正常，歪曲，使有偏见

参考例句：

• The damp wood began to warp.这块潮湿的木材有些翘曲了。
• A steel girder may warp in a fire.钢梁遇火会变弯。

8 warps   

n.弯曲( warp的名词复数 )；歪斜；经线；经纱v.弄弯，变歪( warp的第三人称单数 )；使（行为等）不合情理，使乖戾，

参考例句：

• This wood warps easily in damp conditions. 这种木料受潮容易变形。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Matt Lauer: Renewable biofuels. Park Ranger Rick Marshall Close. Time warps. 马特·劳尔：“可再生生物燃料。”瑞克：“不说了，时间都扭曲了。” 来自互联网

9 permanently   

adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地

参考例句：

• The accident left him permanently scarred.那次事故给他留下了永久的伤疤。
• The ship is now permanently moored on the Thames in London.该船现在永久地停泊在伦敦泰晤士河边。

10 loom   

n.织布机，织机；v.隐现，(危险、忧虑等)迫近

参考例句：

• The old woman was weaving on her loom.那位老太太正在织布机上织布。
• The shuttle flies back and forth on the loom.织布机上梭子来回飞动。

11 fabric   

n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织

参考例句：

• The fabric will spot easily.这种织品很容易玷污。
• I don't like the pattern on the fabric.我不喜欢那块布料上的图案。