Testing natural dyes. Photograph by author.I attended the five-day TRC Intensive Textile Course, 25-29 August 2025. Below I will describe what we did and what we learnt, and how much I enjoyed the course.
Day 1 was spent looking at and identifying fibres. It was also spent getting to know the amazing people who participated and organised the course, along with taking a quick tour of the TRC. This was an extra special time to look around, as plans for the TRC to move to other, and larger premises were being finalised. It was exciting to get a glimpse into the work being put into moving the collection of more than 51,000 objects from one location to another.
Fibre identification was a great first day activity. It is the most basic part of what makes up a textile, so logically it made sense to start with that, but it was also a great ice breaker. There was a lot of socialising while collecting our fibre samples, as well as a lot of learning, and a group favourite was identification through burning small samples of cotton, flax, silk, wool, and even eyebrow hairs!
Day 2, spinning and yarns, was when our group's fun (chaotic) nature started to show. We learned the difference between combing and carding, and the outcomes these preparation methods had on the final spun product, namely worsted and woollen threads, respectively.
Participants of the TRC 5-day Intensive Textile Course, August 2025. Photograph by author.
Our hand-eye coordination was put to the test. In the end, thanks to Gillian’s support and patience, we all managed to spin … something. However, the point of the course wasn’t to train master spinners, but to understand what spinning is and what a thread is. By doing these practicals, we learned so much about the processes and techniques that go into creating textiles, which meant we could understand what these objects actually are.
In the afternoon, we started looking at dyes and dyeing. We tried five different resist-dyeing techniques: ikat, batik, plangi, Taiwanese tie-dye, and laheri. We also set up the natural dye solutions and the mordants, as the wool samples would take some time to soak up the colours.
Practising the craft of weaving. Photograph by author.On day 3, one of the TRC volunteers demonstrated weaving on a table top loom. Watching the levers lifting and lowering the warp threads to create the patterns on the weave was mesmerizing. I particularly enjoyed the sound it made. After that, we were tasked to recreate the weaves on miniature looms. This ended up becoming an infamous day in our group! Many of us struggled with this practical, but we all had a lot of fun and, more importantly, understood the process behind making a weave. Weaving on our mini looms took up the rest of the day, and to the horror of some of us, continued into the morning of day 4, when we learned how to make velvet.
Afterwards, Gillian brought out some weave and velvet samples from the collection to look at, and we spent some time identifying the types of weave and discussing forms a woven cloth. This allowed us to cement the knowledge we gained over the last four days and ask questions about the textiles we were shown. We spent some time linking the concepts we learned in our practicals to the objects in the TRC’s collection. We also got to drool over (metaphorically speaking!) all of the wonderful textiles in the collection.
Our final day was very busy. It was spent frantically sticking our natural dye samples into our handouts and going over the last few bits of the course. In the morning, we took a look at non-woven materials and paid extra attention to leather (did you know salmon leather existed?!). We also got a surprise visit from a friend of Gillian's, who said she wanted to drop off a box of textiles to donate to the TRC. We then proceeded to help unload the box… and six large bags from her van into the TRC! After lunch, the day mellowed out. We looked at decorative techniques and more pieces from the collection. It is called the intensive course for a reason!
Over those 5 days, I learned so much, and I have a greater appreciation for the amount of work and thought that goes into creating, studying, and caring for textiles. This course has equipped me with a strong foundational knowledge to pursue future career aspirations. It has also given me at least five new hobbies! I would like to extend a big thank you from all of us who participated in the course to Dr. Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood and all of the volunteers at the TRC.
For the upcoming editions of the 5-day TRC Intensive Textile course, click here.
Sophie Hardwick, University of Glasgow, 10 September 2025
