That's the title of a new exhibition in the Staatsbibliothek Bamberg, starting October 15 with the opening at 11:00 - so if you are interested in colourful papers, that is definitely something to visit!

The exhibition is about "Buntpapier", coloured papers with a variety of motifs until about 1880 - things that are usually not appreciated on their own, only seen as part of book bindings or other papery items. I am definitely planning to go there while the exhibition is running!

Here you can see a glimpse of what awaits you:

It's paper with floral and architectural elements dating to the first half of the 18th century. Definitely adding some bling! 

If you're interested in the exhibition, here you can find more info (including the extra events going with it). The exhibition itself is free, so if you're in the Bamberg area at some time until January, go check it out!

In case you're in the area around Munich this weekend and are looking for something textile-related to do, there's the Textilmarkt Benediktbeuern - only this year, because of hail damage, it's been relocated to the Freilichtmuseum Glentleiten.

It's taking place both on Saturday and Sunday, September 16 and 17,  from 10 to 18 h. You can find more information on the website here.

I'm back from a wonderful trip to Ireland, where it was comparatively cool - and now I'm back to baking in the German late-summer heat. (Way too warm for the season, actually.)

The conference in Belfast was easily and by far the largest archaeology conference I've ever been to, with about 3000 participants altogether (online and on-site combined). I don't know how many people there were in Leeds when I attended it, many years ago, but it felt similarly huge. It's fascinating, and certainly has its pros, but personally I do prefer smaller conferences where I have less decision-making issues (what session will I go to?) and there's a little less noise in the common functions, and fewer people so it's easier to find somebody.

The programme was also very, very tightly packed, which meant that any of the (unavoidable) technical issues that could occur would throw the plan, and meant less time for questions and discussion. But these things aside, it was just wonderful to go there and experience this huge get-together of archeologists!

My own presentation was in the very last panel time slot of the conference, so everyone was already a bit tired (myself included). Nevertheless I think nobody fell asleep on me.

A friend made this photo of me during the presentation. As usual, I had a lot of fun doing the "dance" (I tend to hop around when presenting), and it was so nice to show the results of our membrane thread process reconstruction to other interested people! 

Belfast and the EAA are drawing nearer and nearer - so I'm packing and preparing. There was a bit more spinning of membrane thread today, to have a little more of a sample to show around at the conference, and some more packing and writing of lists and so on. 

 I've also done a little more other spinning - cotton this time, trying to reproduce a cotton yarn used in some non-European fabrics. It was very nice to return to cotton spinning (which I have not done very often), and a bit of a challenge to hit the right thickness (hint: it was not very thick) with the high twist required. It definitely is a rather slow process. Now the thread will go to my colleague, who will take a look at it and see if that would match her requirements, and then we'll see.

There was also some Textile Forum planning stuff (the preliminary programme has been updated, and you can find it here). I'm already very excited about all the workshops, we will be exploring so many aspects of the colour red.

And now it's time to wrap up the day, get some more packing done, and update the lists of things that have to be done before I leave for Northern Ireland. The presentation is already finished and only needs another practise run or two, the materials to show are prepared, and hopefully there will soon be a login for the conference app so that planning which session to attend where will be a little easier... because that, of course, is a challenge with about 40 sessions running in parallel, and a lot of interesting topics to choose from!

A good part of today has been conference preparation -  both for the Textile Forum (planning things, mostly including madder - red seems to be the dye that stimulates a lot of research) and for the EAA in Belfast.

Conference prep in that regard included going through the session list and trying to figure out what I will be able to attend, and downloading the abstract book. Like in all huge conferences, there's a lot of things on offer. Or maybe I should say A LOT. Or, to be even more precise:

A LOT.

There's three days of conference sessions (August 31 to September 2), and there's so many of these that of course most of them are running in parallel. The abstract book and programme book are online now, and the abstract book has a whooping 1192 pages. I kid you not. Almost two thousand pages!

As you can well imagine, I will not be able to catch half of the things that sound really interesting to me. At least there's one time slot where I don't have any trouble at deciding what session to attend, and that's on September 2, where I'll be giving my own presentation in session 468...

I've been delving into fabrics (well, images and descriptions of them) for a current project - and I am once more amazed at the colours, patterns, and complicated weaves of the Middle Ages. So many different possibilities offered by silks and human ingenuity, it really is mind-boggling.

Tomorrow will hopefully see one more step of this research and request part of the project done and dusted - and after sending that off, I will be packing for the event in Düppel on Sunday. 

I'll be in the "Museumsdorf" with my spinning equipment, and if you are close to Berlin, stop by, say hello, and have a go at spinning with spindle and distaff if you feel so inclined! 

Because I'll be working on the weekend, and will be travelling back on Monday, the next blog post will be on Tuesday. Have a nice weekend everybody!

And we go on with the series of CfPs - this time, it's sort of on my own behalf:

I am very happy to announce that the Call for Papers for the European Textile Forum 2023 is now open!

We will look into "Dimensions of Dyeing: Colours, Mordants, Processes."
The European Textile Forum in 2023 will take place in Mayen, Germany, in the Laboratory for Experimental Archaeology (part of the Leibniz Research Institute for Archaeology), November 6 to November 12. It is a small conference which aims to explore archaeological and historical textiles in both theory and practice. For this, we combine paper presentations and workshops or practical sessions on the paper's topic. These practical parts are either led by the presenter, for instance to teach a reconstructed method or technique and have the rest of the participants try it, or they can take more of a "community brainstorming" form, if the method is not yet known. With this combination, we also want to connect practical specialists and theoretical specialists.

This year it is time to look at colours and dyeing. Colours played an important part in historical textiles. Bright colours did not only show off wealth, they could also have symbolic meanings. Dyeing processes can range from very simple, with little knowledge and effort needed, to very complex, just as the dyestuff can be very cheap - such as leaves or walnut husks - to extremely expensive, such as Murex snails for true purple. At the Forum in 2023, we want to look at the many dimensions of dyes, dyeing processes, and the use of colour in textiles - including special cases such as the re-use of coloured textiles to make painting pigments, or the use of paints to colour textiles. Mordants and their role in dyeing should, of course, not be forgotten.

We'd like to invite you to do a presentation or workshop, or both, to explore the different procedures, tools, and materials related to mordanting and dyeing or otherwise colouring textiles. Work space outside and inside is available, so it will be possible to dye on open fire, or indoor using heating plates or similar equipment. Presentations can be between 15 and 45 minutes, with workshop time or time for practical exploration afterwards as necessary.
For more information, take a look at the full Call for Papers on our website. Registration for the conference is also open now, and you can find the registration form here.

Please do also pass this Call for Papers on to others who might be interested - thank you!