I have just returned from a holiday in Holland, in early June, where I went to several wonderful exhibitions for West Weeft and I also had the pleasure of meeting Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, the director of the Textile Research Centre in Leiden.

We chatted enthusiastically about our different interests in textiles, and how the centre relied on the help of volunteers and that recently they had set up a section on their website for textile wow moments, so I hope my small contribution will be accepted. Here goes, firstly the exhibition at the TRC was a WOW moment. Walking in to find displayed 7000 years of textile history is amazing. To be able to look closely and even try using some replica looms similar to those used by early mankind was fascinating and very humbling. The generosity of people donating textile artefacts, clothing, books and more to their ever increasing collections adding to the accessibility of knowledge for everyone is incredibly important.

None of this would be possible without the dedication of the staff and the volunteers, so a big thank you for the privilege of visiting. Several days later we had another WOW moment, the www.weverijmuseum.nl/ at Geldrop, a very welcoming museum converted from a former textile factory that holds a superb collection of wooden floor looms and ancillary equipment from 18th century to large Jacquard, ribbon, double beam looms and all sorts of other equipment I knew nothing about but had fun looking at. There was a double sided sheet of paper written in English, but most of the descriptions were in Dutch and the centre was run by volunteers so I really need to return to Holland again and again and learn Dutch too!

Carolyn Griffiths, 18 June 2014
www.frometextileworkshop.com