Blog

Three generations of quilters at the TRC display of quilts in Rijswijk, the Netherlands, October 2021.Last weekend, the TRC had the opportunity to display some of its collection of feedsack quilts at the Patchwork & Quiltdays, which is held every year at De Broodfabriek in Rijswijk, close to The Hague – normally in April, but this year, as with many other events, it had to be rescheduled to October.

On Thursday evening we arrived, along with other exhibitors and quilt shops to set up our wall of seven quilts and a table of original feedsacks, along with a dress to show examples of other things that were made in the 1930s from such sacks. The TRC has published an online exhibition about these feedsacks and their quilts, but it was great to show the real thing!

The exhibitions were at the back of the hall and on Friday, at opening time, we already had one or two visitors who had rushed past the shops in order not to miss our quilts – we knew then we would be in for a busy time…

The quilts generated a lot of interest – many people had not heard of the feedsack phenomenon in 1930s America and were amazed at the stories and ingenuity involved. One lady recounted how she lived in a baker’s shop in the Netherlands during the war and also had items of clothing made from floursacks, but wished they could have been printed with pretty designs like those on display.

Collar and neck opening of a recently acquired men's jacket from Indonesia, late 20th century (TRC 2021.2940).I have been asked about a typical day or week at the TRC. I am no longer sure I can give a relatively coherent reply! What I do know is that things just happen and often, what I expected to be a quiet day, changed quickly via an email, phone call or personal visit into yet another exciting experience. 

Over the next few days we are organising workshops on bobbin lace making and Palestinian embroidery – as part of TRC’s active policy of developing a varied programme of workshops and courses on a range of artisan textile skills.

On Saturday we are the venue for the annual meeting of OIDFA (Organisation Internationale de la Dentelle au Fuseau et à l'Aiguille) Nederland, an international lace making group. It will be interesting to hear about lace, how it is made and about the various lace collections in the Netherlands. And I suspect there will also be a discussion about some of the problems and challenges faced by lace makers in various communities.

During the last few days we have been offered a collection of Indonesian batiks and if all goes well, we are going to have a book presentation and pop-up exhibition at the TRC about these items in December 2021.

Wrestler's trousers from Iran (zurkhaneh), Tabriz, late 20th century, with buteh motifs (TRC 2000.0025). For a TRC YouTube film, click on the illustration.Since the start of the corona pandemic in early 2020 the TRC has tried to use a wide range of media to continue its work and tell people about the fascinating world of textiles. Apart from a long series of blogs, which are published on the TRC website and on the TRC Facebook pages, we are also using direct mailing via our Newsletter, and a TRC Instagram account.

A new medium we are exploring further is YouTube. We are going to publish a series of short films on various subjects, ranging from TRC exhibitions, brief talks about specific objects in the TRC collection, informal lectures on specific subjects etc., and all of this on a special YouTube channel.

Chinese tiger hat, 20th century (TRC 2021.20360). For a TRC YouTube film, click on the illustration.We do so, not only to reach our audience, but also to help our volunteers, many of whom are students at Leiden University and elsewhere, to gain experience in as many aspects of curatorial work as possible. The TRC YouTube channel can be accessed here.

We uploaded three short films made by Augusta de Gunzbourg, who recently graduated from Leiden University (MA in Asian Studies), and who made a film introducing the past, present and future of the TRC; about the current paisley exhibition at the TRC, and about the recent donation to the TRC of a collection of Chinese tiger hats. Enjoy!

Bib for a baby girl, Japan, 1920s-1940s (TRC 2021.2135a).Among the Japanese items recently donated to the TRC Leiden by the Noda and Shibata families there are various items relating to children’s rites of passage at various ages within Japanese family life.

Baby clothing and the Omiya mairi, the first shinto shrine visit

The baby’s bib (TRC 2021.2135a) and cap (TRC 2021.2135b, see also TRC 2021.2136) were used for the first omiya mairi (Shinto shrine visit) in the 1920s - 1940s of the children of Minoru and Tokiko Noda. This age-old custom originated in the Kamakura period (12th century), and was meant to tell a local god about the safe arrival of a baby. The ritual took place one month after birth.

Back then child mortality was high, and the family expressed their gratitude to the god and prayed for the baby’s health. The pink bib and cap were used for the girls (TRC 2021.2135b) and the white cap was worn by the boys (TRC 2021.2136), who would also wear a bib with the white side outwards (TRC 2021.2135a). The caps and bib have embroidered cranes that symbolise longevity.

Fatima Abbadi from Capelle aan den IJssel, near Rotterdam in the Netherlands, is a TRC volunteer and teacher who specialises in Middle Eastern embroidery, especially that from Palestine and Syria. As part of her many activities she is giving various workshops at the TRC about Palestinian cross stitch (22nd October) and Jordanian rekme embroidery (12th November). She is also working with various other groups to promote Middle Eastern embroidery and to help preserve this important part of the cultural heritage of the region. Below is an account of one of her recent successes.

A panel with six Palestinian embroidery samplers, worked by the women of an embroidery group in Capelle aan den IJssel, 2021.

Last winter, during one of the embroidery lessons, I asked the women of the embroidery group, what was their dream? Among many of those that spoke out, one of them expressed the desire to do something for the municipality. A sort of a 'thank you' gift for what the municipality is doing for the refugee women in Capelle aan den IJssel.

A few days ago the TRC in Leiden published a blog about pins and pin heads that were found in Zeeland, the Netherlands, and date to before 1532, and were recently given to the TRC. The donation also includes several hooks and eyes and I would now like to put these unprepossessing items under the Dino-Lite microscope. 

Two metal hooks from Zeeland, before 1532. Magnification: 15.2. Dino-Lite microscope (TRC 2021.2739a and b).

There are various forms of hooks and eyes present, but basically the hooks (TRC 2021.2739a-l) are made by using a length of wire with loops at each end, which was then folded in half, probably with pliers of some kind, into a long U-shape leaving the two loops next to each other at the top. The lower half of the U-shape was folded back on itself to create a hook.

Two eyes with twisted ends, Zeeland, before 1532. Magnification 16.8 (TRC 2021.2741e-f).

Three wire-wrapped pin heads, pre-1532, from Zeeland. 36.3 magnification, Dino-Lite microscope (TRC 2728a-b and TRC 2021.2735a).Some medieval Christian theologians allegedly debated on the question how many angels could dance on a pin head, and I always thought such a discussion would have been a bit of a waste of time. Yet over the last few years I have become fascinated with pins and pin heads! The handmade pin heads, for example, associated with a textile linked to Napoleon Bonaparte, as well as a pin cushion from 1826 were subject of an earlier TRC Blog.

I ‘knew’ that up to the 18th century pins in Europe were handmade, rare and expensive. Hence, I assumed, the English term ‘pin money’, namely the money given by a husband to his wife to spend at the New Year fairs on buying pins. But I have long suspected this knowledge was far too general and just recently a donation by a friend of the TRC, Sytske Wijnsma from Wormer in the province of Noord-Holland, has left me wondering even more about this subject.

A few days ago, on a sunny Saturday morning, I hopped onto a train to Leiden to reconnect with Gillian Vogelsang after far too many years. She used to be my mentor on all things textile when I pieced together my MA thesis on Mongolian attire at Leiden University. I fondly remember mornings spent at the TRC photographing and cataloguing the latest batch of clothing that had come in as a donation. Just as clearly I remember the TRC’s ever pressing issue of not having enough space for about everything. That appears not to have changed much, as Gillian points out when welcoming us to the TRC’s premises at Hogewoerd 164. The TRC was still housed at the Volkenkunde Museum when I was around, and yet, it eerily feels a bit like coming home at the Hogewoerd!

The Good Growth Company supports yak herders in Mongolia.

I was accompanied by Mandar Jayawant, founder and CEO of the Good Growth Company, which he set up together with Nick Keppel-Palmer. Recognising the need to address the environmental devastation caused by conventional fashion industry supply chains, Good Growth Company has made it its declared aim to regenerate depleted places. This sounds complicated, but it doesn't have to be. According to Mandar and Nick it actually needs simplicity rather than complication. They believe that instead of using complicated production chains for the trend-hungry low-cost consumer, the Good Growth Company wants to create products that put the local natural environment first. In other words, Good Growth Company replaces the question of what the consumer wants, with the question of what a given region can provide or needs to regenerate and then to develop products from these materials.

Yaks in Khangai region, Mongolia ( Good Growth Company 2019).To drive home this concept Mandar points to the desertification of the Mongolian steppes as a result of herders having turned away from the traditional production practices and herd compositions to a single-minded focus on cashmere goats. Desertification in Mongolia is a direct consequence of consumer/retailer dictated production. To turn this around the Good Growth Company commits to buying everything herders produce — cashmere, yak, camel, and their coarse as well as their fine fibres. For a community of herders in Arkhangai province in Mongolia this means income options from all of their yak fibres while not long ago there were none.

Making good on this promise, Good Growth Company has now become the proud owner of a large consignment of fine yak underhair (wool) and of coarser yak guard hair. There is no shortage of ideas of how to use the fine underhair - a fibre of cashmere quality that has caught the attention of the sustainable fashion crowd in recent years. But the no-waste policy of the Good Growth Company goes beyond this and challenges the company to come up with innovative fabric and design ideas to create value for the coarser yak hair which is conventionally treated as waste to be discarded.