Being a Fashion Designer was my dream
I was about 10 years old when my mum taught me how to sew. We shared her sewing machine until I left to study Fashion Design in Maastricht. That was the moment that I got my own machine.
After my graduation in 1998, I began working as a designer in the fashion industry for different Dutch brands and retailers–mainly developing collections for babies, toddlers and pregnant women. In 2014 I decided to leave fast fashion, totally fed up with overwhelming the market with too many collections each year. I stepped into a new world of slow fashion, re-designing new products with surplus clothes and textiles. At the same time, I re-discovered my sewing machine that I had barely used after graduation for making my own clothes again.
Weaving has always been woven into my life: as a designer and during my travels abroad. When I look back at my photos, looms and weaving mills are part of my memories. During my stay in Bali in 2016, when I was admiring a double ikat cloth in the village of Tenganan I decided: I want to weave.
Beyond fashion
Back home I found an introduction course in Weaving at The Dutch Open Air Museum in Arnhem organised by Crafts Council NL and Weefnetwerk. The intensive included three whole days of weaving on different looms, alternating with lessons on the theoretical side of weaving. It was the beginning of a new passion. A month later I bought a table loom, the Jane by Louët, with 70 cm weaving width and eight harnesses. We did some amazing colourful projects together, but in the end… size does matter.
In 2018 I took a 15-week course at the Ambachtelijke Weverij in Amsterdam to experience how it feels like to weave on a countermarche loom. During the first day of class, I fell in love with this Öxabäck, a large Swedish loom. About 8 weeks later my very own Öxabäck was laying in pieces on the floor of my studio at home: 115 cm weaving width and 8-shaft vertical countermarche, 8 treadles. This course gave me a clearer direction for my dreams & goals: 8-shaft weaving.
Exhibitions
2022
IJ kunst collectief #IJKC6 a group exhibition at Beautiful Distress & Nieuw Dakota, Amsterdam (NL). Landscapes II are on view 20 & 21st of August 2022.
zeven x weven a group exhibition at de Katoendrukkerij in de Volmolen, Amersfoort (NL) ran from April 13 to July 10, 2022.
Courses & masterclasses
2021 Masterclass linnen weven with Eva Klee and Crafts Council NL | Amsterdam
2019 Masterclass double weave with Hermine van Dijck at Textielmuseum | Tilburg
2018 Weaving course at De Ambachtelijke Weverij | Amsterdam
2017 Masterclass ‘The Living Blue’ natural indigo dyeing with Aboubakar Fofana and Threads of Life | Ubud, Bali
2016 Masterclass WEVEN! with Weefnetwerk and Crafts Council NL at Openluchtmuseum | Arnhem