What Is a Terrapin Tapestry?

Turtles

• Turtles have long been the subject matter of artists because of their unusual shape, features and characteristics. All kinds of turtle paintings, sculptures and jewelry are sold in tropical tourist destinations due to the popularity of the turtle and its position in many island folklore. The terrapin isn't featured nearly so much, perhaps because it is a small turtle that was favored mostly for its flavor by early settlers of the United States.

Terrapin Tapestry Design

• The design of the famous Grateful Dead "Terrapin Tapestry" features a center oval mandala in two shades of blue with yellow and orange trim and a black line border. This is surrounded by six dancing terrapins and six banjo-playing terrapins in a much larger oval. It is ringed by a blue-green band with the words "Grateful Dead" spelled out twice in psychedelic lettering. The outer oval features 22 dancing and banjo-playing turtles plus four shell-style fans in each corner, all enclosed in a blue-green border that looks like pebbles.

Grateful Dead

• The Grateful Dead is a band that formed in 1965 in the San Francisco area. The band has played more than 2,300 live concerts that often feature lengthy improvisations. The style of the band is a type of fusion of rock, jazz, bluegrass and reggae. The band developed a large fan base that became collectively known as "Dead Heads," who spawned a multitude of products dedicated to and in support of the band. The Terrapin Tapestry is one of these products.

Turtle Tapestries

• Tapestries that feature turtles are sometimes called terrapin tapestries, even if the turtle in the picture isn't a terrapin. When looking for terrapin tapestries, it is helpful to look for turtle tapestries since often the turtle in the woven piece is not a turtle of a specific species. Sometimes the turtles are so small in scale that it becomes hard to say which type the artist intended to depict. The terrapin turtle was nearly hunted to extinction and remains a "species of concern" today.