Last weekend I visited a  beautiful exposition of handcrafted textiles collected by Henriette Beukers. The charming venue was a little church in Hurwenen, a small village on the river De Waal.

Henriette Beukers and her late husband have been the main editors of two famous Dutch craft magazines (Ariadne and Handwerken zonder grenzen – Craft without Borders) for over 40 years. Handwerken zonder Grenzen was their brainchild, they introduced the Dutch to a world of cultural diversity in textile. Henriette is also well-known for authoring a comprehensive encyclopedia on crafts: Het Complete Handwerken (The Complete Crafts), a standard work in the 1970’s now only available on Marktplaats (E-bay).

Now, at the age of 76, she published a new book called Rondom Textiel (Around Textiles), which is dedicated to the story of her life, her work and her collection of authentic handmade textiles and woven natural materials from around the world.

The exposition was only open for two days, but the book is for sale online. Here are some of the objects that were on display and a picture of Henriette signing the copy of the book that I purchased. As you can imagine the very idea of a life devoted to all this beautifull stuff delighted me and I found her accomplishments really inspiring.
If you click on the pictures you can browse through them in large format. Enjoy the show!