The artist who is on a mission to create the world's largest tapestry talks to GEMMA SIMMS...

Lizzie Owen is a woman on a millennium mission - organising the world's largest tapestry involving more than two million schoolchildren.

The 42-year-old artist from Bloxham, near Banbury, came up with the unusual idea after hearing Prime Minister Tony Blair on the evening news talking about the Millennium Dome.

She said: "Tony Blair was saying the Dome was going to be the boldest and biggest exhibition site the world has ever seen, so I thought it would need the biggest exhibit.

"I wrote a letter to the Secretary of State for National Hertitage and after a meeting with the New Millennium Experience Company, we were given the go-ahead for a pilot scheme," explained Lizzie, who lives with her husband Robyn. Now she is on course to create a tapestry using the skills of children in 24,326 schools across the country.

It's a giant leap from projects she has been involved with in the past. Lizzie was originally a state-registered nurse but gave that up for a high-flying career in advertising, in which she travelled the world.

Later she decided to quit the rat race to take up art. Now she is chief executive of the Millennium Tapestry Company.

The pilot scheme, which begins in September, involves 12 primary schools in north Oxfordshire each making a square metre of tapestry which will then be hung together.

This will enable Lizzie to iron out any technical and logistical problems, and also to shoot a video diary of the work in progress, to form the basis of a training video.

The subject they will be working on - autumn - is deliberately unconnected with the millennium.

The project for the Dome will be on a much larger scale, with children all over the UK contributing a square metre. The intention is to hang the finished piece in the Dome using special equipment. It will also be scanned into a computer with all the details of the schools involved and what each square metre depicts.

Lizzie said: "More than two million children all over the UK will be getting involved. It will cost about 80p a head and at the moment we are looking for sponsorship.

"I have been doing this job unpaid for a year now and we need money for things like computer scanning and administration costs.

"The potential is there for it to go wrong but there's no reason why it should. Although the tapestry will be on a massive scale, it is quite simple really."

She added: "The kudos of working with the millennium is amazing and this really will be the largest tapestry the world has ever seen."

RECORD WEAVE TO TELL KIDS' STORY

*Every child in the country under 11, whether in a state, independent, religious or special needs school, will have the chance to contribute to the millennium tapestry.

*The expected size of the tapestry will be the equivalent of six football pitches.

*Work on the tapestry is intended to cover the entire spectrum of British cultures - imagine a Moslem school in Bradford, a Welsh-language school, a Gaelic-speaking school in the Western Isles, for example.

*Each primary school will be invited to illustrate an element of life as it is lived by the children in that school, reflecting their hopes, aspirations, opportunities and the issues that affect them on a square metre of canvas.

*The idea is that each school will get a starter kit of materials - a square metre of canvas and a rigid wooden frame that is easy to assemble. Once completed, the canvas will be sent to a company warehouse, where it will be given a barcode containing details of the school. *The millennium tapestry will follow the same basic format as the world-famous Bayeux Tapestry, which recorded the invasion of Britain by William the Conqueror in 1066. This means it will have a linear progression, with commentaries above and below the main images.

*With a potential 25,000 square metres of tapestry, the millennium effort will be far more complex than its Bayeux model.

*All the squares of the tapestry will be individually tagged and logged on computer.

*Every square will be scanned and stored digitally on compter, and ultimately the whole thing will be made available on the Internet.

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