Focus Topic: EDGES & EMBROIDERY

After a few logistical issues, we finally have a date, place, and focus topic for the ETF 2024. It will take place in Mayen, Germany, on November 4-10.

Call for Papers (Untill August) ETF 2024: Edges and Embroidery

In the European Textile Forum 2024, we will explore edges and embroidery - two things that may not have too much in common at first glance. But if we look closer... there are connections!

The European Textile Forum 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.

For this year, we are asking for papers, presentations, and workshops that look at edges, whether those of clothes, fabrics, or fabric parts, and at embroideries. Of course we will also consider the intersection of these two - such as the treatment of cut edges by decorative stitching, or the treatment of the edges of embroidered elements that are applied to another fabric.
From the humble plain selvedge in weaving and the problems it may pose to elaborate edges of bands worked in a tubular structure or including fringes;

The European Textile Forum is a small conference about historical textile techniques, with a strong focus on the crafts aspects and practical work. Our aim is to connect practical and theoretical aspects of textile research: Craftspeople and archaeotechnicians profit by learning about new textile finds and detailed presentations of them, while archaeologists, conservators, historians and other researchers can get valuable input about the craft background of the pieces they work on, how they are made, and the limits and possibilities of the textile techniques employed.

The conference in its current format runs for one week, with Monday for arrival, setup and preparation for tools or experiments that need some preparation time, and Sunday as departure day. From Tuesday to Saturday, we aim for a conference programme with plenty of time for discussion and in-depth exploration of topics. Our usual format for the programme is a presentation, followed by a demonstration, a workshop, or a round-table discussion that offers the opportunity to discuss and explore technical aspects in detail. This includes the possibility to do tests and reconstruction trials with several pairs of hands and eyes right at the conference venue.

This format is unique and has already proven to be enormously helpful, especially if an object confronts you with a technique that you have no practical experience with yourself. Our venue this year is once more the Laboratory for Experimental Archaeology in Mayen, Germany. We are an international event, and the conference language is English.

For the European Textile Forum, we do select a broad focus topic, but talks outside of that focus topic are just as welcome. Due to the format and space restrictions, we are a small event, with only up to about 18 participants. The conference fee covers full board (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) with food, tea, coffee and water for the whole week. Our venue also provides beds in shared rooms.

While papers or posters about our focus topic are especially welcome, we are equally happy about papers on a topic outside this focus, so please do submit your proposal even if it's not about the focus topic. The same applies if you would like to offer a poster presentation or a workshop/demonstration only, or if you have an idea for an archaeological experiment to run during the Forum week.

With the European Textile Forum, we want to give academics and craftspeople working with historical textile techniques a place and opportunity to meet with each other. This is the perfect surrounding and the perfect place to solve technical questions regarding your textile and to get input from others working on similar pieces - both on the academic and on the craft side.

The proceedings of the first and second Textile Forum have been published as "Ancient Textiles, Modern Science", edited by Heather Hopkins. Our second volume of proceedings, covering a selection of papers and topics from the following Textile Forum conferences, are now also available, titled "Ancient Textiles, Modern Science 2", edited by Heather Hopkins and Katrin Kania. Both volumes are available directly from the publisher, Oxbow books (vol. 1 and vol. 2), or via your bookstore of choice.

And of course we are happy if you tell others about the Forum and the Forum proceedings!