The Inventory Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) in the Netherlands contains ICH of which the communities, groups or individuals involved have written a safeguarding plan. Those plans are reviewed by an independent review committee. Every three years an evaluation of the safeguarding takes place.

Description

Weaving is a technique to produce cloths with simple to very complicated patterns. The principle is that horizontal and vertical threads are interlaced, crossing each other at right angles. The longitudinal threads are called the warp and the threads that are laterally woven into these are called the weft. Depending on the way in which certain warps threads are raised, the pattern develops. By raising the threads, a clear space is created between the warps. The weft threads, or filling threads, are passing through these openings. Traditional weaving is virtually always done on a frame or a loom. For loom weaving next to skills, much knowledge is needed, not only how the operation of the loom, but also about material and weave structures. It is also possible to weave with cards. Many textiles are woven, but nowadays this is done mechanically. Traditional weaving, meaning manually making cloths by weaving, has developed into a form of art and craft in the Netherlands.

 

Community

In 1974 the National Weaving Contact Federation was established, as an umbrella association for amateur weavers. In 2008 this federation was reorganised and given a new name: Weefnetwerk (Weaving Network). This national association has 1500 members. The Weaving Network association momentarily focuses particularly on young people and has already executed several projects in cooperation with art academies. Textile training institutes are interested as well.

 

History

Weaving is an old technique. In the Netherlands remnants of woven clothing were found during the excavation of a bog body, ‘the girl from Yde’. In the past, during the winter months, people wove with the wool of their own sheep at farms. For household textiles people wove with flax, that had been cultivated by the farmers themselves. The fabric was first of all intended for their own use, but leftover cloth was exchanged or sold. In Twente and Brabant in particular, people wove in this way at home. In Leiden laken was woven, a precious woollen cloth, and in the fourteenth and fifteenth century Leiden became an important centre for the laken trade. The world population grew explosively between 1750 and 1850, which massively increased the demand for clothing. It was not possible to weave such an amount of textile in the traditional manner and a tremendous revolution came when large amounts of cloth could be woven on mechanical looms, in factories. With the arrival of the steam machine, the process went much quicker and it became cheaper to weave cloths. Ever bigger and faster industrial looms were developed, but this type of textile production also disappeared from the Netherlands in the seventies of the last century, due to the competition by low-wage countries. The weaving itself remained. Children were taught paper weaving at kindergarten and later on weaving on a frame. Most people who weave nowadays, do that as their hobby. The emphasis is now on artistic weaving. For this purpose ‘strange’ material is also used, like copper and iron wire, rubber and paper yarn.

 

Contact

Weefnetwerk
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Website