WISBECH, United Kingdom — Curled up on her sofa in the east of
England,
former teacher Mia Hansson carefully adds another stitch to her life-size
reproduction of the world-famous Bayeux Tapestry.
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Swedish-born
Hansson began the project in 2016, working for several hours a day to reproduce
the epic 70m embroidery of William the Conqueror’s invasion of England.
“I had nothing to
do and I was really, really bored so I thought I needed a project that I can’t
finish in a hurry, and what’s bigger than the Bayeux Tapestry?” Hansson, 47,
told AFP at her home in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire.
Mia Hansson sits on the couch at home while she works on her embroidery replica of The Bayeux Tapestry in Wisbech, east of England on February 24, 2022. (Photo: AFP)
The nearly
1,000-year-old original is a symbol of the frequently tempestuous relations
between the
UK and the European mainland.
Hansson, who has
lived in Britain for more than 20 years, has been working on her version for
three to four hours a day for the last five-and-a-half years.
In January, she
reached the halfway mark.
She must keep her
work rolled up as her house isn’t big enough to unfurl it, and knows the
tapestry so intimately that she even knows the little mistakes made by the
original creators.
“Look here for
example: you can see four soldiers’ heads but only four legs, something is
wrong!” she said. “But who am I to correct what they did?”
8,000m of wool
The 11th-century embroidery tells the story of events leading up to
William the Conqueror’s Norman conquest of England, culminating with King
Harold Godwinson’s death at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.
The tapestry,
believed to have been made in England, was recognized by
UNESCO in 2007 as a
“Memory of the World”.
Today it is housed
in a museum in the town of Bayeux, in the Normandy region of northwestern
France.
There is talk of
the original visiting Britain on loan, but not before a full restoration,
currently set for late 2024 and due to take at least 18 months.
Hansson said she
was not too interested in the history of the tapestry when she began the
project, but stitching the 626 characters has made her an expert.
“You have everything
— you have birds and dragons, camels, horses, ships, buildings... and nothing
is ever the same,” she says.
“Even if there’s
two horses, they’re not going to be the same. There will never be a repeat.”
Hansson is using
seven different colors of wool on a linen base.
“If I remember
correctly I calculated about 8,000 meters of wool in total,” she said.
She’s given
herself another five years — until July 13, 2027 — to finish the project, or a
total of 11 years to the day after she began.
“As far as I know,
there’s nobody else in
Europe” who has reproduced the tapestry, she said,
although Hansson heard of someone in Canada taking 10 years to make one.
Once hers is
completed, Hansson says she might sell the work, noting that her husband has
been working to support her obsession.
“It would be nice
if it paid for itself so I can put my feet up,” she said.
“If someone gives me an
offer I can’t refuse, that’s fine.”
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