The Ros Tapestry

The Ros Tapestries depict events around the Anglo - Norman arrival in the South East of Ireland, specifically the founding of the town of New Ross, Co.Wexford by William Marshal and Isabel de Clare. The content for these tapestry panels was exhaustively researched and designed by Ann Bernsttorff.

Initiated in 1998, the tapestries will have taken sixteen years to complete before being installed in a suitable setting where they will remain on permanent public display. 

The appeal of embroidery has always been its beguiling attention to detail. This is the heart of the making of the Ros Tapestry. The embroiderers, the workers of magic, sit at a long frame and stitch the details of landscape - distant hills, rippling water and rough foregrounds using French and bullion knots, satin and chain stitch. Folds of dress fabric are done in couching skillfully adapted to effect the complicated pleats. Faces are done in smooth long and short stitch.