For the Love of Textiles

The 6th of April 2013 was the day of Bram's funeral. A day I will never forget. Filled with memories and warmth from friends around me. It is a day to remember every year. For me it will be a day to celebrate life. One year later I came up with the idea to go together to Insel Hombroich in Neuss (Germany). I had been there once together with Bram, but that was many years ago. Started in 1987 by Art collector Karl-Heinrich Müller (1936-2007). It is a beautiful combination from Art and Nature. Once you enter the grounds (it is really an island),you enter a world of beauty. You forget the daily worries and your soul is going to be touched deeply. On the grounds are several buildings as a Tower, a Labyrinth, the Orangerie, the Graubner Pavillion and a few more. Inbetween is a restaurant and a simple, but very tasty lunch is included in the entrance fee. The tower is the first building you find. It has 4 doors on each side. There is nothing in it. But when the door close...

Being in Amsterdam very often nowadays,  there are things to discover.  Sometimes there is suddenly an unexpected surprise you come across. On a sunny Sundaymorning a few weeks ago I went to the "Amsterdam museum" , which tells the history of Amsterdam.  The museum also offers one free attraction which is called: "de Schuttersgallerij". It is a narrow lane in-between two buildings of the museum covered with a glass roof.  On the walls big paintings: the so called Schutters-stukken. 17th cenury paintings similar to a painting as "De Nachtwacht" It is always a joy to walk that lane and I hadn't been there for ages. I went in and first had a look on the walls to see the paintings. But than my eyes caught a huge carpet on the floor. A patchwork of different fragments with different details. All kind of different fragments from 80x84 cm and with a width of 3,2 meters by 40 meters length. Titled: "A celebration of diversity". ...

Last Monday (on 2nd Eastern day) we visited the Marimekko exhibition in museum De Kunsthal in Rotterdam. I must admit: I don't like that building at all. It is so complicated to find your way.  There are different exhibitions at the same time.  We didn't had enough time to see it all, because first we visited the Boijmans van Beuningen museum. No on is the show with works by Rosso, Brancusi and ManRay. About sculpture and photography. One wasn't allowed to take pictures, but my favourite of the three of them is Brancusi. His works are so intense and so about shape and meaning. I bought the postcard with the famous Kiss sculpture which was used as a grave-monument on the Cimetiere Montparnasse in Paris. I did buy the postcard, because I did start collecting postcards with the theme: Kisses.\ A link to that blog with the name; Duizend Kussen (Thousand Kisses)  can be found HERE . After coffee and applecake we made the walk to the other exhibition with w...

With my 3th year fashion students I have done a "collar-project". Based on collars traditional worn by the Dutch in the 17th Century. To get inspiration and starting points we went to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam to see paintings from that time. The famous painter Rembrandt Harmenz. van Rijn is the so named painter of light. In all his paintings it is about shadows and lightning. Because our department also contains photography, we decided to do this project together. First they had to make collars from paper. Pleating, folding etc. Paper is the perfect material to get volume. After that is was time to work with other fabrics.  Next to the collar they also had to make garments to be worn with the collar, or find another way to get the atmosphere right. The whole project was about creativity, and it was a joy to see them at work. A few weeks ago it was time for the photoshoot. Roza Aziz, a 2nd year student from the Photography department really enjoyed it. ...