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We have just shut the TRC doors on a very successful book sale at B6, our new home!

We have been working hard for the last few weeks to get hundreds of books, magazines, leaflets, etc., sorted according to subject matter – embroidery, woven, printed, knitted, quilts, general history, etc., not to mention prices. These were then put into boxes and organised on a variety of themes in the main gallery. We had hoped to hold the book sale in the garden, but the weather was not very helpful – rain clouds and strong winds all day long.

The sale officially started at 10.00 but people were arriving from 09.30 onwards, and the first purchases took place at 09.45. From 10.00 until 14.00, there was a constant flow of visitors to search for interesting books and items, as well as for inspiration. Then it gradually slowed down and the last sales were made just after 15.00.

Not just about books

But the day was not just about selling books, it was also intended as an opportunity for people to come and see the new home of the TRC and to talk with colleagues about what we are doing and plan to do, as well as to see the TRC’s current exhibition about appliqué textiles (khayamiya) from Egypt.

Het Leidsch Dagblad publiceerde vandaag, woensdag 10 juni, een artikel van twee pagina's over de TRC, de verhuizing naar de Boerhaavelaan en de ambities voor de toekomst. Het vestigt ook de aandacht op de textielboekenmarkt aanstaande zaterdag, vanaf 10.00 uur.

Find the books you have long been looking for, and help support the TRC by buying some of them! 

We are going to have our annual book sale on Saturday 13^th June, from 10.00 until 15.00. Hundreds of second-hand textile, clothing and accessory books will be on sale, at very reduced prices! 

The TRC regularly receives donations of books. We select them en see whether we can use them and whether the titles may already be included in the extensive TRC textile library. If we cannot use the books, we very much want to pass them on to other textiles friends against a low price.

Why don't you pop in and have a look? You may find the book that you have long been looking for. You will also have the chance to see the TRC’s current exhibition about appliqué textiles called khayamiya which come from Egypt, as well as seeing the TRC’s new building and garden, and of course meeting TRC staff and others.

Our address is: Boerhaavelaan 6, 2334 EN Leiden, just behind the Leiden Central Railway Station.

The Textile Research Centre, Leiden.For three years starting mid-2026, the Textile Research Centre, Leiden, the Netherlands, is offering a total of seven junior and four senior fellowships for up to six months each. The fellowships are being sponsored by the Gieskes-Strijbis Foundation, Amsterdam. Fellows are invited to carry out research based on the TRC’s extensive textiles and dress collection. The junior fellows will be supervised and assisted by TRC staff; senior fellows will carry out independent research.

The TRC will regularly advertise for the fellowships. Fellows are selected by a special committee of TRC staff and/or Board members after, if appropriate, the advice of external specialists.

The first fellow, appointed per 1 April, is Flora Kovacs-Wester, who on 23 May 2026 wrote an interim report.

We are now opening the second round of the fellowships that covers:

• Two junior positions
• One senior position

These will be starting in October 2026 (with a degree of flexibility), for a duration of up to 6 months. Applications for these positions should be submitted by email to the TRC by 20 June 2026 (Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken.)  with the reference: ‘Fellowship programme Junior/ Senior' (depending on the position applied for).

In diverse recente blogs hebben we verwezen naar de behoefte van het TRC aan extra opslagruimte voor de TRC-collectie. We hebben meer informatie beloofd en die volgt nu!

Voorzijde van pand Boerhaavelaan 6, het nieuwe onderkomen van het TRC. De Annex wordt links van het huis geplaatst.

Zoals u wellicht weet, is het TRC Leiden een internationaal kenniscentrum voor textiel dat onlangs is verhuisd naar een nieuw pand (Boerhaavelaan 6, Leiden) dankzij de hulp van de Leidse gemeente, de semi-overheidsorganisatie Monumentenbezit en vele anonieme weldoeners.

Het gebouw (B6) is een stadsvilla uit circa 1909, die in de jaren twintig werd uitgebreid. Het was bijna honderd jaar lang de woning van één familie, de Barge-Nauta's (zie een recent TRC-blogbericht).

Het TRC beheert momenteel een collectie van meer dan 54.000 geregistreerde textiel-, kleding- en accessoirestukken. De collectie omvat objecten van over de hele wereld (cultuur en textiel kennen geen kunstmatige grenzen), daterend van de prehistorie tot heden. We hebben bijvoorbeeld enkele van de oudste textielfragmenten ter wereld, maar ook moderne objecten die actuele gebeurtenissen en trends weerspiegelen.

De collectie is een van de grootste in dit deel van Europa, en we zijn ons er terdege van bewust dat deze in de toekomst verder zal groeien. Het is een collectie die mensen kunnen bekijken, aanraken en voelen, en waar ze inspiratie uit kunnen putten.

Fig. 1. Boerhaavelaan 6 as seen from the garden. TRC plans to use part of the garden to grow textile-related plants, in cooperation with the Leiden University Botanical Gardens. Photograph Willem Vogelsang, 2025.by Willem Vogelsang, 3 June 2026.

In April 2026, the Textile Research Centre (TRC) moved from its former address along the Hogewoerd in the centre of Leiden, into a new 'home'. It is an early-twentieth century urban villa just behind the main Leiden railway station (Fig. 1). The house, at  Boerhaavelaan 6, was occupied by the same family for more than one hundred years.

The last resident, Mrs Hélène Nauta-Barge, lived there for her entire life, almost uninterruptedly, until she died in 2023, aged 99. Since then it has become the property of the Stichting Monumentenbezit, which now rents it out to the TRC upon the recommendation of Leiden City Council,

The house has a fascinating background and reflects the rich, and sometimes turbulent history of Leiden.

TRC Intensieve Textielcursus, studenten aan de slagDeze cursus wordt sinds vele jaren gegeven door mevr. dr. Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood en trekt belangstellenden uit de hele wereld. De cursus combineert theorie met praktijk, met een nadruk op het uitproberen van verschillende technieken zoals spinnen, weven en verven, het onderzoeken en analyseren van organische en niet-organische vezels, en het bestuderen van complete stoffen.

Het is de bedoeling dat studenten leren wat er precies gebeurt rond de productie van textiel en welke combinaties van technieken kunnen worden gebruikt. Textiel, uit welke tijd of welke cultuur dan ook, kan daardoor beter worden begrepen. Gebruik wordt gemaakt van de enorme textiel- en kledingcollectie van het TRC. De cursus is een 'must' voor iedereen die betrokken is bij de studie van archeologisch, historisch of modern textiel, voor designers en mode-studenten, en in het algemeen voor iedereen die serieus is geïnteresseerd in alle aspecten van textiel, en meer wil weten en oefenen.

Cursussen in 2026: 22-26 juni; 10-14 aug; 12-16 okt.

In 2027: 22-26 febr.; 19-23 april; 21-25 juni; 23-27 aug.; 25-29 okt. 

By Frieda Chen, TRC Intern, 30 May 2026.

Frieda is a Master’s student in Asian Studies at Leiden University and an intern at the Textile Research Centre (TRC). With a background in archaeology in Taiwan, she is interested in how materials connect to human behaviour. Through working with textiles and indigo dyeing, she is still exploring whether she is a weaver, a dyer, or simply a researcher.

In 2019, the TRC received several tie-and-dye cotton samples from Zhuo Ye Cottage (Taiwan) (TRC 2019.2177, 2178, 2179, 2180, 2181, 2182). The textiles are dyed with indigo, a natural dye extracted from plants such as Strobilanthes cusia (known as “Malan” in Taiwan). Other plant sources also referred to as indigo include species from the legume family (Indigofera tinctoria L.) and the knotweed family (Polygonaceae), such as Polygonum tinctorium Aiton, also known as Persicaria tinctoria (Aiton) H. Gross.

Indigo is a widely used dye because it produces a deep blue colour that lasts well over time. Among natural plant dyes, indigo is one of the few that needs a special fermentation and chemical process to make the dye work. It cannot be produced in the way that is applied to most of the other dye plants, such as madder, by simply boiling or soaking the plant (Lai, 2016).

Fig. 1. Process of indigo dye production. Source: Zhuo Ye Cottage Indigo Dyeing Workshop. Retrieved from https://www.joye.com.tw/activity/about.php?PKey=11