Program / Course Availability

Fibers and Surface Design Program (Summer)

The three–day “textile road trip” into eastern Moravia and north and south Bohemia, takes students to textile collections and unique textile businesses scattered across the region, giving them a clearer understanding of the unique textile culture of the Czech Republic.

Driving east from suburban Prague by chartered bus, the first stop is in the town of Ceska Skalice to visit the Museum of Textil. The Museum is housed in a former inn which was built in 1824 but reconstructed for the collections in 1962. In 12 large rooms, spread eclectically through the old inn,  students wander among industrial textile product samples and early textile machinery used for fabric printing. The printed textiles on display represent a wide range of  daily use and cutting–edge commercial fabrics by Czech or eastern European designers. Of particular interest is a beautiful collection of printing blocks and rollers dating from the 19th century forward.One entire room is devoted to a huge temporary display of contemporary fabric samples from current textile companies in an overwhelming range of material, color, pattern and textures.

Next stop is Vamberk to visit the Muzeum krajky Vamberk (Lace Museum). The first Czech school of lace-making was established in Vamberk in 1889. The Museum honors and showcases its students and teachers. Lace making is a treasured and uniquely developed art form in the Czech Republic. The examples which are preserved by the Museum, dating from the early 18th century forward, defied the notions we have in America about lace as merely a “frilly decoration.” Czech artists have pushed the boundaries of this medium from clothing and household linens to jewelry, avant-garde couture wear, wall hangings, and large-scale installations. Used to seeing primarily monochrome lace it is surprising to see some colourful samples. The Museum’s collection is extensive, well preserved and displayed. Through detailed accounts and stories, the tour guide placed the works in firm historical context. In the Museum shop, where contemporary lace products made by the local lace guild are purveyed, an accomplished artisan demonstrates bobbin lace-making on a necklace. The resulting necklace was a gossamer “cobweb” of delicately intertwined threads.

Day Two

The trip continues on to Valasske Mezirici to visit textile artist Jan Stricek at his Mroavsak Gobelinova Manufaktura (Moravian Gobelin Manufactory)—a center devoted for the last century to the hand production of textiles, broadly embracing weaving craft, art, and textile design. The morning is spent wandering the vast rooms of the Manufaktura as Jan speaks about the history, mission, philosophy, and  products of his business––tapestries, rugs, theatre curtains, and restoration. Among other artists, Jan’s own tapestries adorn the walls of the company, clearly illustrating his gift for both image-making and adeptness at the craft. In one room women work on large-scale tapestry and rug projects. Students try their hands at a pile rug in progress on a large upright loom. The hand-dyed New Zealand wool yarn used by the business provides a lustrous and durable structure whether woven in the classic Gobelins style or in the original oriental techniques of hand weaving. Jan explains some of the tricks of tapestry illustration by comparing a full-scale tapestry cartoon to the finished work on the wall, especially noting the many ways to blend or contrast color and shapes. The Manufactura proudly displays installation photographs of the several dozen theatre curtains they have woven over the last 30 years using their unique ten-metre hand loom and a variety of weaving techniques. Fifty years ago the Manufaktura added tapestry cleaning and restoration to their services. Today they restore ancient tapestries for public and private owners from around the world. The patient and highly skilled staff restore the worn areas in medieval tapestries using hand dyed silk threads.

Next stop:  Roznov pod Radhostern, walking through the adjacent Wallachian Museum in Nature. Here, traditional architecture from around the Czech Republic has been assembled–much like our Williamsburg in Virginia–for visitors to roam freely and imagine life in earlier, more rustic times. The buildings have a severe grace, a simple interior structure, and unusual roof lines that are distinctive to the region.

Day Two ends in Straznice with wine tasting in a 16th century cellar Vin Morava owned by the Sebesta family, and dinner at the Restaurant Below the Tower.

Day Three

The town of Olesnice in the Czech-Moravian highlands, visiting one of the few remaining blueprint workshops in the world, Modrotisk Danzinger. The family-owned company resist–prints and indigo dyes fabrics, patterned with designs handed down for five generations in the Danzinger family. Jiri Danzinger shared the history of this unique business. Jiri has students practice applying the resist paste (the recipe a family secret) to the fabric and demonstrates the indigo dyeing in huge vats dug into the floor with pulley lifts for allowing oxidation of the dye between dippings. The blue patterned fabrics they produce are made into bandanas, table mats, bookmarks, napkins, tablecloths, aprons and other household items, distributed only in the Czech Republic.

Last stop: tour of a weaving mill in Strmilov. The co-owners, a brother and sister, opened the mill and cheerfully chat about this 'labor of love.' They acquired the family mill which had last been active in the 1930s. Instead of trying to manufacture again at large scale, they use the old machinery to weave handsome limited editions and one-off wool blankets, throws, shawls, and fabrics for clothing. They demonstrated the machinery and toured us through the various aspects of their production process. Like many of the textile companies in the Czech Republic, this mill’s high quality wool products find a market only within the Czech Republic or in nearby eastern European countries. A side-line of elite coffee products keep the brother and sister solvent.

The trip introduces students to a world of hand made Czech textiles where individuals of great skill and vision are passionately devoted to textile making and preservation.