In the western European tradition, wall tapestries have their earliest beginning in the medieval period, roughly from 1200 to 1400 AD. Of course, there are much earlier traces of wall tapestry, but little has survived. While the methods used to weave wall tapestries have changed with the times, the basic principles remain: all wall tapestries are still flat woven, using strong vertical "warp" threads to form the structure around and through which the horizontal "weft" colored threads are woven to create the design on all wall tapestries. Medieval tapestry weavers often travelled to the site where they were commissioned to produce a series of wall tapestries for a castle or chateau. They would set up camp on a nearby river bank, using the water to dye the wool fiber with vegetable-based colors. At this time, the wall tapestry weavers themselves performed all the functions which later became more specialized. Medieval tapestry weavers were multi-talented; they designed, dyed and wove the wall tapestries for their wealthy clients. These wall tapestry designs capture a less sophisticated, more folksy and simply crafted sense of the world, showing people as they appeared in daily living, complete with wall tapestry hunt scenes set in "mille fleur" (thousand flowers) designs, depicting a wide range of subjects from religious themes, to battle victories to "my ladies fantasy", according to their wall tapestry client requests.
