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Haute Bordure: Catalogue to the exhibition with the same titel in the Fries Museum, Leeuwarden, the Netherlands (2021).Willem and I have just returned from another visit to Friesland, both to see an embroidery exhibition at the Fries Museum, Leeuwarden, and to hear further details about Akke Scheepsma from the village of Schettens, who stitched a sampler in 1852. We were also privileged to go to the village of Pingjum in order to see an early Mennonite chapel that is ‘hidden’ behind a small private house (more below on all these subjects).

For over a year we have been unable to go anywhere, let alone see exhibitions, so it was with great relief when on Friday we went to the Frisian capital of Leeuwarden to see Haute Bordure, about 400 years of hand embroidery in the Netherlands, and especially that associated with Friesland. We were shown around by Eveline Holsappel, the curator of the exhibition.

It is a lovely exhibition that is well-worth seeing. It shuts on the 18th July, so you have to be quick. You need to book in advance and we were told that many tickets are already booked. The exhibition includes examples of embroidery of various types that date from the early seventeenth century to ‘yesterday’, including regional, fashionable and royal forms for men and women. I have been asked to write a review of the exhibition for Selvedge, the London based textile journal. As soon as it is published I will let you know.

We officially opened on Monday (5th June) and straight away at 10.00 there were two visitors to see the paisley exhibition, and the promise of more visitors for the exhibition over the next few weeks! Life really is returning to the TRC premises!

Quilting is not limited to bedspreads. Print published in the UK in 1885, showing quilted armour for men and horses, from Abyssinia (Ethiopia) (TRC 2021.0284).

Sampler made by Akke Scheepsma, aged 12 or 13, Schettens, Friesland, in 1852 (TRC 2021.1805).A few weeks ago the TRC Leiden welcomed 25 samplers of various types, from Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, which date from the mid-19th to the early 20th century. One of the pieces caught our eye, namely TRC 2021.1805. It has a (partly faded) black ground. The colour black for the ground is generally associated with Friesland in the north of the Netherlands. The ground is made of linen and is embroidered with woollen yarns in cross stitch and double running stitch (Holbein stitch).

The central design is a stylised tree of life in the form of a decorative V-shape with a pair of small, stylised birds. The tree is surrounded by vases of flowers. Along the upper edge of the sampler there is the name AKKE S SCHEEEPSMA and the date of 1852. Akke, it should be added, is a traditional Frisian name for a girl or woman.

Who was she? A Google search led us to a woman with the same name who in the nineteenth century lived in the village of Schettens, Friesland. With the help of a local historian, André Buwalda, we subsequenly learnt more about the girl. She was known as Akke Simons Scheepsma. She was born in the village of Schettens, some 30 km southwest of Leeuwarden, on 1st October 1839 to a well-established farming family. Her father was Symon Klazes Scheepsma (1811-1857) and her mother was Gerbrig Wybrens' Scheepsma-Douwsma (1805-1886). Her parents married in 1835. They had six children, Akke being the third.

Nahla Faray wearing her winning mask for the competition organised by The World Makers Foundation and others, Amsterdam 2020.The following blog was written by Ann Cassano, co-founder together with Karim Adduchi of The World Makers Foundation. Together they initiated the collaborative embroidery project The Social Distancing Fabric.

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Even with the face mask on, I can see Nahla is smiling when I take her picture. The mask which she made herself is cut from fabric with little Nemo and his fellow-fish on them. She has added a fluorescent yellow strip over the nose from ear to ear. It had won her first prize, and a voucher for supplies at the local craft shop.

Lots to think about this week as we explore the idea of how to expand the TRC Leiden and include a far greater number of workshops, courses and internships, as well as a new cycle of lectures - and yes, we have faith in the future, although, thanks to the corona crisis, it will be different from the one envisaged a few years ago.

School sampler worked by Lena van Eyck from Eindhoven, the Netherlands, in 1927. The embroidery is worked first in square letters, then in rounded ones (TRC 2013.0286).

Long-sleeved everyday blouse decorated with paisley motifs, Kihnu island, Estonia, early 21st century (TRC 2021.0408c).Kihnu island is a unique place, situated in the Baltic Sea along the western coast of  Estonia. Kihnu was described as having Europe’s last remaining matriarchal society and featured in a film and article by the BBC.

As part of the TRC’s current exhibition about the buteh, which is better known in the West as the paisley motif, we were given a woman’s daily outfit from Kihnu island, Estonia (click here). The donation was made by Merle Ernits, who is originally from Estonia but now lives in the Netherlands. The following description about Kihnu dress is written by Heidi Stanionyte, Merle Ernits’s daughter, who lives in Estonia.

Moroccan woman's kaftan made from a Japanese obi, 1950s (TRC 2001.0074).Contemplating the some 34,000 textiles in the TRC collection, Gillian Vogelsang, the TRC director, writes about the close relationship between historical and modern textile designs and production methods, and the ages-old, continuous and global process of adoption and adaption of forms, motifs and techniques.

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I am currently busy working on the Cuvelier collection of 20th century textiles – as mentioned in an earlier blog, this is a very large donation to the TRC of twentieth century, printed, woven and machine embroidered textiles that were collected by Prof. Yves Cuvilier (1913-2005). He was closely involved with the Parisian fashion industry in the decades after the Second World War. The textiles eventually came to the TRC Leiden via Pepin van Rooijen, the Amsterdam publishers.

I am just working on the Icelandic chapters of the Encyclopedia of World Embroidery, vol. 4: Scandinavia and Western Europe (Bloomsbury, London) and I thought people might enjoy trying out some Icelandic counted thread patterns. These are based on some patterns given in two manuscript pattern books (sjónabók) from the latter half of the eighteenth century, from southeastern Iceland.