I'm sorry for the much delayed post - our Internet was acting up, just when I was about ready to post this, and it took a good while until it recovered.


The Textile Forum planning is progressing nicely, and I have just updated the Forum website with the workshop offers.

We have received a number of really, really yummy topics for the workshops, and I'm already afraid that we will have a hard time to make the schedule in a way that will enable as many people as possible to attend as many workshops as possible. And the range of workshop topics is huge as well - from stone-age twining techniques with tree bast, Iron-Age tablet weaving techniques and felting of hollow forms to Norwegian Twined Knitting, there's bound to be something that tickles your curiosity.

Thus if you are interested in the Textile Forum, now would be a good time to click your way to our site and have a look!

I am sadly, badly lagging behind now with a medium-sized stack of paperwork that I don't have much energy for at the moment, but need to tackle really soon ("really soon" as in "yesterday"). So... the plan for today consists of going to the kitchen to make some tea, sit down at the tent to work some, change to the computer and desk to take a break from sewing and do some of the relaxing paperwork, change back to tent, and so on, all the while consuming medium to large quantities of tea and chocolate.

The tent (as you can glean from the fancy progress bars now in the side of this blog) has already gotten a nickname: Tente à Grande Vitesse, short TGV. There's still a huge lot of work left on this, but things are not looking as bleak as they did on Saturday afternoon. We might even have enough wood in our stash to make the wood structure (which consists of only two uprights and one crossbeam) from non-hardware-store wood.

All the practice sewing on the other stall tent, by the way, seems to have elevated my saddler's stitch working speed quite a bit. When we started on the TGV, I checked how much seam I had gotten done in an hour, just to get a feeling if this project was doomed before it really started or now. If things run smoothly and I am not too tired, I sew about one metre in an hour. That's actually not too bad, I'd say.

On a totally different note: If you are waiting for updates on workshop offers for the Textile Forum, that is one bit of the paperwork I'm due to tackle today. Updates thus coming soon.

Not only one, but two (almost three) calls that I can call out here today. If you know somebody who might be interested in either of these events, please pass the Call on!

First of all, the Call for Papers for the EXAR conference 2010 is up and running. EXAR's topic is Experimental Archaeology in Universities 2010. You can get to the full invitation and the registration form for the conference in Berlin, which will take place on October 8-10 2010, via EXAR's website.

And then there is the Call for Papers and Call for Workshops for our own dear Textile Forum:

Working in historical textile crafts can be a very lonely affair. To help remedy this, we are again organising the European Textile Forum for people working in historical textile crafts. The event will take place September 6-12 2010 in ArcheoParc Schnals, South Tyrol/Italy.
The programme consists of three parts: Free time to work, try out things and talk about textile techniques in the mornings; the possibility to attend workshops about historical techniques in the afternoon; and a series of short paper sessions in the evening hours. We would like to present current projects, reconstructions, technical problems or research work during those talks. Poster presentations, including a "show-and-tell" of your current project in progress, are also very welcome.

The museum that generously hosts our Forum is very close to the place where Ötzi was found, in a valley in the South Tyrolean Alps. With this quite early background for the Forum week, we do not want to set a focus on single techniques; instead, we would like to think about and discuss the question of what makes a textile. Is it the material? The production technique? The use? The properties of the piece? What is the difference between a mat woven from grass and a mat woven from stiff threads? What concept does every single one of us have in mind when the word "textile" falls?
Papers or posters about this topic, or papers and posters about objects that are not "standard textile", are thus especially welcome.

We want to give up to thirty textile experts and enthusiasts the opportunity to meet at the museum for one whole week, each with his or her project(s), and there is free time to work, chat, demonstrate and talk about textiles and textile crafts during the day. The museum is open to the public and we welcome other weavers, spinners, dyers, to come so they can also sit, work and talk with both guests and participants. With this opportunity for everybody interested in textiles, we want to help establish a better communication between professionals and non-professionals like Living History enthusiasts. Evening paper sessions and workshop participation are for participants only.

We have organised an accommodation and full board for the participants. The lodgings are two- to six-bed rooms in a guesthouse, all rooms with shower and toilet en suite. If you prefer a more luxurious room, you can book your own accommodation in Unser Frau in Schnals. Full board consists of breakfast, lunch and dinner; water to drink will be available at all times, and coffee or tea can be bought at the museum café during the afternoon and the evening. Meals will be served in the museum café, providing even more opportunity to talk textiles. The conference fee, including accommodations and full board during the week, is 350 Euro per person. Workshops can be booked at additional cost.


For the Forum, we are looking for both paper or poster presentations and workshop offers. Workshops will take place in the afternoon and can take up to four hours per afternoon. They will be booked separately by the participants, and teachers will receive a reimbursement.
Due to space restrictions, there will be no market held at the Forum this year. We regret having to take this decision, but we hope to offer you a market opportunity again in the next Forum. However, we will put up a little "exhibition stand" for small goods, info leaflets or books that participants might want to present or sell on Saturday. If you have something for the exhibition stand, please contact us per mail and tell us about it.

To register for the Forum with or without a poster or paper presentation, please submit your current area of research, the title and abstract of your presentation (papers not longer than 20 minutes) until May 2 via the registration form http://www.textileforum.org/register_2010.html. If you would like to offer a workshop, please register and send an e-mail to Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist vor Spambots geschützt! Zur Anzeige muss JavaScript eingeschaltet sein. telling us the title and topic of your proposed workshop, time and space requirements, minimum and maximum number of participants and the cost per person (workshop cost plus approximate cost for materials). Please note that workshop offers have an earlier deadline and need to be made by April 15. The Forum workshops will be announced on the website on April 20.

For any questions left, you can contact us directly via Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist vor Spambots geschützt! Zur Anzeige muss JavaScript eingeschaltet sein..

We are looking forward to a wonderful conference with you!

If you want to know what "it" is today, it's both the Call for Papers/Call for Workshops for this year's Textile Forum as well as the tent for the market stall.

Writing the call for takes so long because, well, there are quite a few changes in comparison to last year, and we don't want to give a wrong impression by hastily written information.

And making the tent... well, everybody who has ever planned the construction of a tent/stall and then sewn that tent by hand knows how long that can take. Add to this the additional problems and challenges popping up - like the waterproofing issue - and it's no wonder that progress is slow. But it is there. After taking a nice, hot bath


the tent fabric is now completely dry again, and today it's time to test the construction basics by putting up the "framework". Most of the connections for putting up the wooden part will be temporary and provisional, since the tent structure has no stand-alone, rigid framework, but relies on combining wood and fabric. But I need to get a proper, hands-on evaluation of how large the inner space will feel in the completed tent, and I also need to mark where to put diverse bits and pieces for the construction on the fabric. So up it must go.

I'm back from a wonderful and very fruitful weekend of planning for Textile Forum 2010 - and that weekend fully deserves to be titled a perk of the job.

We met with Johanna, the director of ArcheoParc Schnals, to have a good look at the premises, discuss planning details, have a look at the accommodation reserved for the Forum participants (real beds in en-suite rooms this time!), and meet some more people interested in the Forum idea.

So what can you expect? In case you have never been to Schnals in South Tyrol, let me give you the list.

A very nice museum with a unique concept, showing the connection between the alpine region and the lifestyle in this environment, with an intriguing architectural design?


Check.

An open-air area belonging to that same museum, with some outstanding house reconstructions that have no nails and screws in them?


Check.

Typical regional food that is amazingly, mouth-wateringly yummy? Like Schlutzkrapfen, Speckknödel and Vinschgauer Paarl with Brettlspeck, plus a huge variety of cheeses and wines that earn lots of praise? Food so wonderful that of course I was not even thinking of taking a photo, because I was busy with eating and enjoying?

Check.

(To make up for the lack of photos here, you can read this article from the Guardian. Or maybe you would like to prepare yourself for all the food of the region - go to this tourism site that also offers recipes!)


Lots of fun?


Check.

And last but surely not least, more breathtaking, amazing alpine scenery than you would be able to shake a spindle stick at?

Check.


Sounds good, eh?

There is a German proverb that says "Gut Ding will Weile haben", which translates roughly to "a good thing needs its time".

Well, it has taken time enough, the planning for the Textile Forum 2010, and we can finally announce a place and time where the second European Textile Forum will take place. From the 6th to the 12th of September 2010, the ArcheoParc Val Senales will turn into a meeting place for historical textile workers. It will again be possible to share knowledge, experiences and problems with other enthusiasts and finally discuss all things textile (almost) 24 hours a day, without your conversation partner's eyes glazing over due to boredom. There will again be lodging with full board for the participants, keeping everyone fed and thus free to concentrate on the important thing only - talking and doing textile stuff.

We are working on the preliminary programme and will keep you updated - via the blog here, the Textile Forum Website and the Forum Newsletter. Stay tuned for more information on the programme, practical things and the Call for Papers!

During the Forum week, we of course chatted about all kinds of things (though most of them fibre-related), and of course there were requests to share this or that link or site.

So here's the Brain Test, my part - let's see if I can remember what I was supposed to.

First of all, of course, there's Phiala's String Page (where I made my first braiding steps many years ago) and where the now-famed and coveted pdf about tablet weave structures may be found. The accompanying talk lit quite a few lightbulbs in tablet weavers' heads!

There's a video on Youtube I talked about - no, wait, there's more. First there are the two wonderful and calming videos showing short-draw and long-draw spinning by Ruth MacGregor that I linked already here. (At the Forum, I had the joy of getting taught long-draw by Ruth herself. I can now spin thick and fluffy yarn, hooray and huzzah! And Ruth in person is even more calm and friendly than her videos suggest.) Then there's the incredibly speedy weaving on an inkle loom, to be found here.

Then there was mention of the Tsarina of Tsocks. If anyone can tempt me to add knitting to my stash of textile techniques, it is her with her incredibly beautiful socks! There's also a blog where she writes about tsocks (who would have guessed?)

Another thing I frequently mentioned to several persons (mainly day-guests and visitors, though) is Therèse de Dillmont's book. If you have not yet found out about it, go visit the webpage where the whole book (in the English version) is available for free!


Oh, and I am also supposed to put up pictures of the event (and the spinning) on the Textilforum website, send around the list of adresses of the participants and analyse and evaluate the data from the experiment. Which will all happen, and soon.