Blog

Hand woven ikat cloth from East Sumba, Indonesia, early 20th century (TRC 2000.0085).by Dr Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, Director TRC, 11 June 2024

Part and parcel of the TRC are the absorption and dissemination of knowledge about textiles and dress, and especially about items that are already in the TRC’s large and diverse collection.

This is done by studying specific aspects and publishing about them (such as via the Bloomsbury embroidery encyclopedia series), or by focussing on parts of the collection and expanding the information provided in the online catalogue (such as by TRC’s intern student Olivia Buchan’s study of the lace collection).

We also invite groups of people to come and talk in an informal setting about specific forms of textiles and dress. This is the series of meetings: Let's talk about ... , for which people with specific interests, from different communities or with various ethnic roots are invited to the TRC to see and talk about groups of objects from the collection. 

A significant aspect of these group visits is to make items from the TRC Collection available for discussion purposes. We want to learn, and record information for the future.

Japanese kimono from the 20th century, died with ikat technique (TRC 2022.0977).A tool, piece of cloth or a garment on the table can open up lines of discussion, as well as bring forth new information or perspectives on a particular technique, uses, symbolism or indeed, a whole culture.

Over the last year or so, there have been a Romanian embroidered blouses day, a Moroccan henna afternoon, a group visit of embroiderers from different countries organised by Museum De Lakenhal here in Leiden, not to mention the regular visits of a group of bobbin lace makers who help further identify and describe our collection of bobbin lace and equipment.

And just a few days ago, an ikat afternoon was held at the TRC with a group of ikat weavers and wearers, whose ancestors originate from various parts of the world, including Indonesia. 

By Shelley Anderson, TRC volunteer, 8 June 2024

The recent five-day ErasmusPlus study tour to Finland by five TRC volunteers, supported by European Union funding, was a stimulating learning opportunity.

Mannequin in regional Finnish dress, holding a hand carved, decorated distaff, late 19th century. Such spindles were given to women as part of courtship for marriage. From the National Crafts Museum, Jyvaskyla. Photograph by Hanke van ProoijeWe were introduced to the work of Taito (Finnish for 'craft'), the national Finnish umbrella organization for the promotion of crafts. Taito's activities to preserve traditional skills, including weaving, knitting, rug making and basketry, are truly impfessive. We also visited the KSL Study Centre (run by the KSL Civic Association for Adult Learning), which uses crafts such as sewing and quilting to promote community participation and social dialogue.

We visited KSL’s stall at the World Village Festival, an annual Helsinki weekend event that each year attracts thousands of people. We assisted in distributing a small kit with felt, a needle and different coloured thread, with a flyer about craftivism, for free.

With this kit, people are encouraged to start embroidering something of their liking and thereby help to build a world where nature, animals and humans are all respected. “We want to inspire people, especially people who might not identify with traditional means of activism (e.g., marching or gathering signatures for a petition), to take part in social debates,” said KSL coordinator, Riina Nasi.

KSL also helps pensioners in different senior citizen homes to embroider panels for a massive “memory” quilt, in order to share those memories with others. Another craftivism project involves bringing people together to stitch “My Promise to Finland”--an individual action each person promises to make towards building a better society.

Collar decorated with floral broderie anglaise, handmade, c. 1900, the Netherlands (TRC 2007.0755).Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, 1 June 2024

While working on the various European volumes of the Bloomsbury World Encyclopedia of Embroidery, we often come across  broderie anglaise, otherwise also sometimes known as broderie de Calais, although there are minor differences. There are various examples of this type of embroidery in the TRC collection.

In the US the term Madeira work is frequently used. As such it is named after the Portuguese island of Madeira, which lies in the Atlantic Ocean, west of Morocco. It was probably introduced on Madeira by Catholic nuns who taught in convent schools.

But what is broderie anglaise?

Basically it is a type of whitework, i.e., embroidery using white threads on a white ground, with the pattern mainly made from eyelets. These are small, round or oval holes deliberately cut into the ground material.

By Shelley Anderson, friend and long-time volunteer at the TRC (27 May 2024)

A recent visit to the Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam made me think about velvet, and especially the gorgeous velvet pieces in the TRC collection, and the TRC online exhibition: Velvet!. And please note, there are still some places left for the TRC study day on velvet, on Friday 31st of May. If you are interested, let us know asap.

Portuguese Synagogue, Amsterdam (1675). Photograph by Massimo Catarinella. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

by Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, 23 May 2024

We have just had several groups visiting the TRC to see what the TRC is doing, to look at the current exhibition about Chinese garments and in particular to discuss the role of embroidery, past, present and future. And the reactions were positive, as more and more people are getting interested in embroidery and want to acquire the skills behind this ancient textile form. Not surprisingly, given the extensive nature of the TRC’s embroidery collection, everyone was intrigued, interested and surprised by what is in the archive and collection boxes! There were various request to have this box and that box opened.

Our visitors were also very impressed by the Bloomsbury World Encyclopedia of Embroidery – they had not realised that there are so many different forms of embroidery produced, sometimes for thousands of years, in almost every corner of the world. This is a craft that certainly deserves an eight-volume series.

Given the various reactions we thought we would write an embroidery update. We just finished the final proofs of the fourth volume of the series, which is about embroidery from Scandinavia and Western Europe. It is c. 600 pages in length (the maximum we could have in one volume), with hundreds of colour pictures, black and white illustrations as well as diagrams. Again there are numerous maps and stitch illustrations, drawn by our colleague Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken.. The volume will be published on the 14th November 2024.

We are now working on the fifth volume, which is about embroidery from Eastern Eiurope and beyond, from the Baltic countries to Macedonia and Greece, not forgetting Russia, Turkey, Armenian, Azerbaijan and Georgia, to name just a few countries. We have had offers of help from various people and groups, including Armenian, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian and Russian embroiderers and historians.

by Dr Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, Director TRC, 22 April 2024

Lace cap made from a very fine net (tulle) with applied embroidered and appliqué motifs of various types and sizes. The Netherlands, 19th century (TRC 2024.1174).It has been a funny old week at the TRC! Lots of things happening, even more to think about and some unexpected donations that have led to totally different thoughts!

We have had various meetings over the last few weeks about the future of the TRC, its role in Leiden, about textile studies in general, about the nature of the TRC Collection, how we can improve the TRC website, especially the database, not to mention the question whether we really need to regularly set up small exhibitions.

It has been a confusing, frustrating and at times enlightening time, with the promise of more discussions to come, but in the long run, the TRC will be the stronger for this period of ‘soul searching’.

I would like to thank everyone who has been helping, thinking with us and adding useful and constructive comments.

by Marije Boerma (20-04-2024), who recently completed a Research Master of colonial and global history at Leiden University. The topic of her thesis was the East African kanga.

Black and speckled with red and white designs of hearts, crosses and dots: the kisutu cloth, for wrapping around the body, from the island of Zanzibar along the East African coast may be the oldest type of kanga. The TRC has a large collection of these garments, and hence it seemed appropriate to write a short blog on the subject.

Kisutu from Zanzibar, 2004 (TRC 2004.0162).

Studyday: What is a thread. TRC, 15 March 2024.by Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, Director TRC, 17 April 2024

We have recently had three very different groups visiting and working at the TRC Leiden. How enjoyable it was to talk about various forms of textiles and to listen to what people could tell us.

The first group consisted of students from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, who are studying a variety of textile-related subjects including design, interior design and textiles in general. The group included students with very diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds. There were some lively discussions about cultural appropriation, return of artefacts, role of museums, handling of objects, symbolism and textile designs.

What struck me most was the enthusiasm and understanding of the subject by the students with multiple cultural experiences. What all of the participants enjoyed, however, was opening boxes with objects from the TRC collection and physically handle textiles from around the world.

I am looking forward to hearing more from the students and learn what they gained and how they turned the newly acquired information into practice.

The second group was there for the study day ‘What is a thread?’ There were eight people present, some of whom had considerable experience with spinning, others with no experience at all.

The day started with looking at various natural fibres and their properties and then we went on to the theory of fibres (natural, artificial, synthetic, metallic, etc); at the TRC we strongly feel that if you do not understand the initial composition of cotton or wool then you will not understand how and why the fibres react when turned into a thread.