Stitches and Thrills

Last weekend the Weaving Revolution took place in several Dutch towns. The event was organized by EtsyNL . Keep an eye on their Facebook page if you are interested in joining this kind of events, Etsy Labs, etc. The first days were already succesfull in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. On Sunday I joined the 3rd gathering to weave in Utrecht @ the 'artist in residence' location of Casco . Guided and inspired by Travis Meinolf people of all ages learned to weave and contributed to making a big blanket. Travis is an American artist, now living in Berlin. You'll find a full overview of his projects on his website: Actionweaver . It was very interesting to (re)learn a traditional technique that is and has been used all over the world. ( I've done some dabbling in weaving when I was about 8 yrs old....), Just as fascinating are the ideas behind it. Like the idea that me making a piece of fabric in my leisure time means it was made by someone who at that moment wanted to do t...

When I (only recently) discovered the IJhallen car booth market, my first reaction was: Why didn't anybody tell about this?  But since then I got the same reaction from everyone else I told about this market. So I wasn't the only one in oblivian. IJhallen is a huge flea market / car booth market in Amsterdam. In summer it's in open air (700 booths) and in winter indoors (500 booths). This photo is of about a fifth of the market, to get an impression: The market is super easy to reach for both Amsterdam people as out of towners: From the Amsterdam Centraal station you take a free ferry to NDSM (about 10 minutes) and you walk to the IJhallen in a few more minutes. Entrance is €4 for adults, €1.5 for children. What's also nice: it is every first sunday of the month from 9.00 till 16.30, so after visiting IJhallen you can go to the free Sunday Market (12.00-18.00). On the Sunday Market artists, designers and independent companies sell their products (fashion,...