Page 44 - The Digital Cloth Issue 7

And since Dutch nature policy The museum shows impressive
requires that roadside is not mowed sample books. If the colours of the
too much anymore to allow for Leiden Cloth were not exactly as
natural diversity and insects, many required, the product was rejected.
weeds for dying grow very close It continues to amaze me that the
to home. In the Netherlands, it is Craftsmen in that age could work so
common to travel by bike. In the big precisely and exactly with the

bags on my bike, I always store a big natural way of dyeing. Most of the
bag and scissors. I harvest weeds recipes where so secret, that they
and berries like tansy, reed flowers have not survived the time.
and poke berries that grow along
the highway or on wastelands. There The area where I live is called the
are so many plants that give colour. ‘Bollenstreek’, the flower region of
These colours are not very strong the Netherlands. I am so lucky to
and don’t last as long as the more have a big studio on the top floor
lightfast colors like indigo, woad of an old flower bulb shed. It has a
and cochineal. My favorite colour roof terrace where I have my stock
range can be created with madder, of fleeces and a dying kitchen. Raw

dried and chopped roots. fleeces are stocked and sheltered
Depending on how they are used, in bulb crates outside, to avoid that
they give the most beautiful colours my wool is eaten by moths. There is
of orange, red or browns. an outdoor kitchen with big pans,
so the smell of boiling weeds, which
Next year, the historic city of Leiden can sometimes be quite
will host a large-scale Textile penetrating, does not reach my
Festival. Leiden is the city where husband and sons in our home.
I was born and raised. The textile

industry is very important to the I love sharing my felting
history of Leiden; the production experience with others. I teach
and trade of textiles determined the children at school as well as adults
economy in the 15th and16th in my studio. Most people are really
Century. Leiden was famous for the surprised about the magic of felting.
Leiden cloth, a firm cloth made of It is a soothing and artistic process
wool that was weaved, dyed, and everybody is really happy to
felted and shaven. The city also was have made something with their
famous for their dyeing black and own hands: from ‘nothing’ but loose
blue. fibres into to a work of art.
Instagram is also a nice way of

Museum The Lakenhal, that displays sharing the joy of felting.
the history of Leiden textiles, has
played a part in my own textile I very much enjoy the connection
history too. I used to live next door with like-minded people all over the
to it and visited often. A large part world.
of its collection is devoted to the
history of the textile industry and
the Leiden Cloth.