(Po Chun Hsu [Travis], 1 August 2026) It has been a few weeks since the workshop, and the colours of the memory are still so alive. I can vividly recall all of us sitting in the garden with Dr Gillian in the shade, spinning and learning to weave just as people would have done in earlier times: in a circle, leaning in and working together as a family. The five-day intensive course was an intimate and enriching experience that altered many of my perspectives on textiles, interweaving hands-on practice such as spinning, weaving, and dyeing, with a genuine skill set in textile appreciation, immediately applicable to textile studies, further academic pursuit, and textile connoisseurship.
I would like to start by highly recommending this course to anyone interested in textiles, whether you are an expert or just beginning the journey, to textile and fashion designers, or to anyone who simply wants to acquire an appreciation of what we wear every day. Dr. Gillian's passion and immense expertise made a course already magical in its own right, set in a culturally layered townhouse that encompasses Leiden's own history, now home to world textiles from all kinds of cultures and all walks of life, all the more memorable and lasting for a textile student. It was also a wonderful experience to study under a world-class expert in a subject she is passionate about. It’s moving, and there are always takeaways studying under a master like that.
The course is structured on a linear foundation and framework. We started from an introduction to the common fibre materials and progressed into textile analysis as we became equipped with material-identification skills. Over the first few days, Dr. Gillian built us up from the organic fibres such as cotton, silk, wool, and flax toward the more technically complex synthetic ones, and let us find our own way into the materials through scientific approaches, with microscopes and magnifying glasses; we ran countless tests on dyes and on the ashes of burnt threads, forming a rounded view of how to differentiate materials.
As we proceeded, Gillian provided generous assistance tailored to every student's needs: she explained genuinely difficult concepts in the simplest terms, expanded on the special areas individual participants were curious about, and recommended wonderfully handy textile books for future research. As an art history student who had read some of the standard books on textiles, I found her explanations exactly on point and easy to understand. My sincere advice: take the course, then reread everything. The books come alive differently once your own hands have spun, woven, and dyed. Her approach created a wonderful space for participants to thrive at their own pace and learn comfortably across the fundamental areas of textile study.
The last three days were an exhilarating journey for textile lovers. We roamed from Italy and France to Rome, Egypt, Iran, Japan, China, India, and Indonesia, from the Neolithic period to modern and contemporary production, learning how textiles were used and appreciated, and how to identify and cross-examine them through their techniques and terminology. Having handled samples of every nameable textile technique in the first days, this became a full-circle moment for many of us, as the fruits of our learning grew evident. I was extremely happy to find I could now differentiate damask, brocade, and lampas, questions that had been stuck in my head for a very long time. Delighted as I was, I also realised I could never go back to the perspective I held before the course, which has since caused serious trouble when shopping and at museums, gazing at dresses that sit so far behind the glass. The course ended with Gillian's first collected textile (the Egyptian fragment bought with a week's allowance) and maid-work rolls that documented everything the girls learned from needlework schools, which was an encouraging and heartfelt endnote for all of us still learning on this path.
I would love to recommend this course to anyone interested: it fundamentally alters your perspective and offers practical skills, accessible research resources, an open and culturally layered learning space, and an amazing experience at a wonderful price for everything it gave me. The place has all my blessings, and I can definitely see myself coming back to the TRC for more.
The Textile Research Centre (TRC) in Leiden runs regular intensive courses. Details and booking are available on the TRC website.
The remaining dates for 2026 and 2027 are: 12-16 Oct.; 22-26 Febr.; 19-23 April; 21-25 June; 23-27 Aug.; 25-29 Oct.
