Needlework Museum in |Salzkammergut

We've just been off in Salzkammergut (Bad Ishl, Hallstatt etc.) for a few days. I found out about a small handwork museum in Traunkirchen set up by the Goldhaubenverein. In parts of Austria there is a tradition of womens festival wearing golden bonnets. I've enjoyed seeing them from a distance, but had no idea how they were made. I have a much better idea now. The embroidery is done with tiny gold sequins and beads, and the shape is formed by gathering a long rectangle. (see http://www.e-punkt.net/html/badischl_goldhauben.htm ) The exhibits also included many other techniques. I was particularly intrigued by the Teneriffe lace. I want to do it!

Dressing up over a century ago

For general specifics of the new exhibit 'Grosser Auftritt' at the Wien Museum, see my Vienna blog. For the stitcher, there is lots to oooh and aaah over. How much of those bands on the underwear are hand stitched, and how much already machine work? How long did it take to iron some of the underwear? There is a ball gown with straw embroidery. I had seen this sort of work before, but it still boggles the mind that you would do such a thing. On the other hand it covers better than thread. Other gowns had sequin embroidery, and it occured to me that it also is faster than working in metallic threads. (That wouldn't have anything to do with replacing hearts with lots of quarter stitches with beads and buttons on a sampler I'm working on, now would it?)

My favourite dress is a mother of the bride dress in black with a wide ivory lace collar. Parts of the collar are needlelace. Severe squares with fancy fillings. But around it is other lace that is rounded and less open. A very different feel. The catalog speaks of 'breitem Ätzspitzenbesatz'. Apparently another word for that is Guipure. As always, that gown only has a small picture in the catalog.

If you are going to be in Vienna, and have even a small interest in the textiles of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, this is a must.

Venice

We spent a week in Venice recently. Mom was able to join us and we had a really great time. I've started putting a few pictures up at http://public.marthajeanne.fastmail.fm/pictures/ if you want to see what we were up to.

One thing you won't find there is pictures of the Museum for the History of textiles and fashion in Palazzo Mocenigo. I found it fascinating. There weren't a lot of displays, but the ones there were very interesting, and having them in situ in the Piano nobile of a Venetian Palazzo was wonderful. At the end there was a display of lace. Not only were there several examples of old Venetian lace, but also partially done pieces, and a Doge's hat made in 1999. After seeing a dummy dressed as a man of fashion, I was dying to peek under his jacket and see how far the fancy embroidery of his vest went. A few rooms further (the Bedroom, I believe) a few vests were laid out, and my question was nicely answered. The really fancy stuff was right where it would be visible under the jacket, but it tapered off in such a way as to make the garment attractive even without the coat.

I bought the catalogue, but it is only available in Italian, which makes it somewhat less useful. For those who do textile research, I should add that the Palazzo also houses a study centre, and without actually penetrating into the library proper, I did get a look at some of the shelves. The books I saw were mostly fairly old- Not old, old, but certainly several decades old, and were in a wild mixture of languages. Italian, of course, but also French, English, German, Russian... and besides books of local interest, also were on topics ranging from Mexican Indian clothing, to textiles from India.

Another museum with interesting textiles was the Hebrew museum in the Ghetto. There were several items of interest, and apparently there will be more to see there next year. The top of my list will probably stay the 18th century lace circumcision outfit.

Hohe Wand

We thought we saw some sun yesterday, and the new car hadn't taken us out of Vienna yet, so we headed down to Hohe Wand. There is a Nature park there on top of a small plateau. Not as high as Schneeberg, it is one of the hills leading up to it. It takes about an hour to get there by way of the Suedautobahn. Once you leave the Autobahn at Wiener Neustadt West the fun begins, as several ruined castles are visible from the road. Eventually you reach the road up the mountain. Here you are stopped to pay road toll and entry fee to the Nature park. It is 1.50 each for the car and adults, (over 15) . That is on weekends. During the week you are expected to pay voluntarily at the park shop. The ticket also allows you to enter the museum. Along with your tickets, you will also receive a small brochure with a map. It's not a great map, but does help.

As we headed up the hill it was raining, and we weren't sure the whole thing had been a good idea, but we went up anyway, and (taking the left turn at the T crossing) drove to the large parking lot. At this point the rain stopped, and if not sunny, it at least got a lot brighter, so we set out into the woods. There was a thin covering of snow on the path - just enough to give a nice mood, without being at all difficult to walk on. Ideal! We headed for the 'Tiergehegen' and were rewarded by seeing many of the resident animals. My favorites are the 'Hirsche' - the large deer. At first we had trouble finding them, but then we realized that some of the stumps in the snow weren't. First we saw two young males. But then the capital male with his 7 females became visible. He is really very impressive!

The next fenced off area has Steinboecke' - mountain goats. In the summer we have seen the young males run at each other and smash heads together. This time they were all lying down either near a stump or in the shelter where hay is put out for them. Cutest was a baby with pencil thin horns - he was trying to pose impressively. Very funny. Next door was one 'Reh' - these are the smaller, much more common deer. This one was all alone and obviously lonely. She came up to the fence to be patted, both by us, and then by the children in the next family.

A bit further on, we heard a horrible racket. We went off the trail to a poultry house. It held a pair of beautiful white pheasants (the sign said gold, but he was white. She, of course was plain brown.) There were two fairly normal looking roosters, and about half a dozen 'Perlhuehner'. One of them was squawking. One. The others were all very quiet, but this one kept up his noise almost nonstop. We left to get out of ear range.

Then Steven discovered that he is getting too big for a lot of the climbing equipment. The trail has several nice playgrounds, but now that he is bigger than his parents, he doesn't fit through some of the openings. Also the slides were all wet. The round trail we take takes up about an hour to walk.

After that we were ready for some food. Several of the Gasthaeuser were closed. Our favorite up to now will be open again next weekend after remodeling. That is Kohlrosenhaus, where you can also admire a lot of minerals. We were wondering if we were going to have to go down to the valley to find food, but then we noticed a board at an intersection saying that another one was open, so we headed into new territory. The food was excellent, and we haven't been walking in that area, so next time ...

Depending on the season there are lots of different activities possible from Cross country skiing to rock climbing and paragliding. There is also a cave to visit, and a petting zoo. I guess we're boring. We usually just take the one walk and get some food. The museum is worth seeing once. For us it has the advantage that the trails are wide and fairly level - There is some up and down, but not more than I can handle. At this season you have at least a good chance of getting above the fog.

Mariazell

Mariazell is I think my very favorite place in Austria. On Sunday we needed a day off from the moving, so we went to Mariazell.

Mariazell is Austria's major pilgrimage centre, and since the iron curtain fell, it has recovered a lot of its earlier importance for Eastern Europe as well.The Basilica there is absolutely beautiful. I've always loved it, but they have recently restored it, and the results are spectacular. The major difference is that they reopened windows, letting light in. At the same time they cleaned/repainted the walls and ceilings so that they are again white instead of blackened by candle soot. (They also no longer allow pilgrims to light candles in the basilica. Instead there is a candle grotto behind the church. Quiet and meditative last February, this week it was busy, and very hot. Every spot for a candle was taken. Or nearly so.)

When you enter the church you see the central chapel with the medieval wooden statue of Mary and the child, but if you go around that you see the lovely main altar. With the window behind it, and the gold and silver cleaned it is now visible and well worth seeing. The globe below the crucifix is again usable as the tabernacle. It is also a real globe, showing the geographical image of the world at the time it was made.

Even on weekdays you are likely to find a service of some kind going on. On Sunday it is not surprising that there was a Mass when I went in. I stayed for the rest of it, and it was just what I needed.

Afterwards I wandered about in the stalls that surround the entrance to the church selling candles, souvenirs, toys, ... I found one I didn't know before - one selling products from monasteries. I had a lovely talk with the shopkeeper, tasting some of the liquors, discussing the preparations for the Pope's visit in September, and generally enjoying myself. I left with three bottles in my bag. Do stop by 'Klosterschätze' at Stand 46 if you go. Much as I enjoy the stalls, it was nice having a change from the general run of them.

With my bag really heavy, I headed for a bench near the central fountain to wait for my menfolk. They had headed up the mountain on the cable car. Soon Steven arrived. He said that Jerry would be along soon, but was coming down the mountain on foot. Steven was full of the changes made to 'Holzknechtland' since he had last been there. He still loves the models of how wood was harvested in the region, and especially the working model with water and small logs. (See June 13). They had also gone up the Aussichtsturm - viewing tower and seen Schneeberg very clearly. Steven headed off to do some window shopping, and finally Jerry hobbled into view. He had fallen on the mountain and was in quite a bit of pain.

One of the other important sights of Mariazell is Pirker's. They make lebkuchen and other things for the physical needs of the pilgrims. Jerry rested from his adventure while Steven and I enjoyed the lebkuchen ice cream.

The best route from Vienna is Westautobahn to St. Pölten Süd and route 20 South. To get there by train take the train to St. Pölten and change to the narrow gauge railway. This takes a lot longer, but is a lovely trip, and highly to be recommended for the tunnels and views of the mountains.

The upshot of the day, unfortunately is that Jerry has a torn ligament in his left ankle. This week he is in a plaster cast. Monday it gets changed to an 'air cast' that should be more comfortable, and can be walked on, and even removed for bathing!

Outings - easy but fun hikes

A good way to introduce your family to hiking near Vienna is the Hagenbachklamm. It is a good, clear path. (You might be able to get lost, but you would really have to work at it.) The scenery is lovely - you follow the line of a creek through the woods, with some rocky outcroppings. Where needed there are wooden bridges. At the end of the Klamm is the opportunity for pony riding or for visiting a center for breeding birds of prey. Some of the birds we saw at Kreuzenstein came from here. 'Officially' the walk takes 45 minutes in each direction. That sounds about right. There are no proper playgrounds, but there are several places where earth 'slides', root 'ladders', and side trails up and over rocks or stepping stones instead of the bridges tempt the younger crowd. Also a mysterious stone doorway into the side of the hill. There are very few steps involved. I wouldn't do it just after a period of heavy rain, as parts look like they get very muddy. There were a few picnic tables.

We really enjoyed the falcon station. We were handed an information book keyed to numbers on the cages. The information was in German, but Latin and (usually) English names were included. The first bird we saw was an owl, who immediately turned away from us, raised its tail feathers and dribbled. But most of the others looked like they wanted to pose with their best sides to the camera. The aviaries are large, and had lots of green. That made it harder to see the birds, but it gave them a lot of privacy.

There is a fair amount of parking available at the entrance. There is also a back way in only 10 minutes walk from the falcon station. Drive through Klosterneuburg direction Tulln. The entrance to the Klamm is between Maria Gugging and St. Andrä. We saw mountain bikes and a twin buggy. Not my idea of fun, but possible.


OK, now you've had a taste of it and want something similar, but a step wilder. Try 'Erlebniswelt Mendlingtal'. This is a museum and two hour hike that shows the way wood was brought into the valleys for burning into charcoal for the iron industry. (The two hours does NOT include getting back to the car!) As the driving time is also about two hours each way from Vienna, this is a fairly major undertaking.

The wood was cut in the mountains, and somehow (often just dropped down steep side waterways) gotten to the small river. A dam in the river allowed the workers to send large amounts of water through at times to carry the wood down to the next collection point where it could be sorted and passed on, or used. The dams and associated engineering have been restored and replaced with the help of an EU grant. Twice a month there are regular shows of how this was done. We were once there when an extra show was being done for a group. Exciting! (First Sunday and third Saturday of the month.)

Much of the museum is concentrated at the lower end of the walk. Exhibits try to explain what jobs needed doing around the valley, and how the families of the woodcutters lived while their menfolk were up in the woods. Unfortunately, the commentaries are spoken, and the sound quality is awful, making the German quite hard to understand. A bit further up there is an old water powered sawmill. Then you hike past the various sites needed for the 'triften'. Other items along the path are an eating shelter and a flour mill. There are frequent commentary plaques with interesting information in German. At the top of the hike there are trout ponds. (Yes, there is an coin-op machine that sells a generous handful of fish food for .50).

The 'Herrenhaus' (squire's house) has been turned into a Gasthaus. We'd had a late lunch and weren't ready for eating trout, but the Apfelstrudel was really good. Children will enjoy the play ground there and the rabbit hutches. There is also an example of the branch and bark shelters the workers would live in on the mountain. Steven thought it looked comfy until we pointed out that more than one person would live in it, and that with all the hard work there were no washing facilities.

The walking is similar to Hagenbachklamm, but you are definitely going up hill, the path is often narrower, there are more wooden sections, often attached to the sides of overhanging rocks, more steps up to the bridges. The official word is that baby carriages don't work, but light buggies do. We saw a young child on a parent's shoulders. Another group had the buggy along - being carried in folded condition by one of the adults. About what I would expect from seeing the route. Comment about mud is also valid here.

Drive out the Westautobahn, get off at Ybbs and take 25 South to Göstling.

BTW If you want less walking, but still want to learn about the wood industry, there is an outdoor museum with models instead of the full size things if you take the cable car up from Mariazell. Hands on for children, but it might be a good idea to have spare shirts along for the kids in case they get wet. Steven loved it a few years ago. I enjoyed our first visit.

Eggs and more at Kittsee

The Web is great! Saturday morning Jerry was looking for something special going on to make an excursion of along with the wine tasting in Illmitz. What he found was an exhibit of Moravian Easter Eggs at the Ethnographic Museum at Kittsee.

The main collection at Kittsee is Folkart collected during the final decades of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to show the variety of customs of the Empire. The problem with the museum is that Kittsee lies off the beaten track, right at the eastern edge of Austria between the route to Bratislava and the route to Budapest. If you wait until you are passing by to visit the museum, you will only see it if you are deliberately tramping along the border. It's a small museum, probably not worth an extra trip from Vienna, but the drive itself is nice, taking you along the Danube, then through the old city gate at Hainburg. However as the whole area is only an hour from Vienna, it can easily be added to an excursion to the Roman site at Carnuntum Another possibility would be to connect it with a trip to the newly renovated palace at Schloss Hof a short way from the other end of the Hanburg bridge. Or use it as a cultural tag-on to a summer's day of swimming on the Eastern side of Lake Neusiedl.

But right now - and only until the 29th of April, they have a few hundred Easter eggs on loan from a Czech museum. Lovely eggs, new and old, modern and traditional, techniques ranging from painting with coloured wax, designs scratched out from a dyed egg, bits of cloth or lace glued on. Wire baskets formed around the eggs, Eggs done in 'plant batik' where a leaf has been laid down first, then the egg wrapped in onion skins and then boiled leaving a pale shadow of the leaves in a warm brown background. Wonderful eggs! If you like Easter eggs, even just these two rooms might be worth your while.

The main collection incudes all sorts of fascinating items: Stumps used as beehives carved with a picture of Samson tearing a lion's jaw apart - and the entrance for the bees in the lion's mouth, painted cemetary crosses from Romania, goat and horse costumes for processions, ceramics, decorated furniture, wood carvings, ...

And, of course textiles. One of the first was a few printing samplers- Strips of cloth with one design after another printed on them. Of the many embroidered items I particularly noticed a decorated kitchen towel - just a normal striped linen towel with rows of embroidery along one edge. There were many shirts of the several rectangles sewed together variety. I like these as they give so much scope for decorating each piece and also using decorative seams. Each is different, and even with similar ones I love looking at the individual touches of the needlewomen who made them. After the last few exhibits I have seen of ecclesiasical embroidery done either by professionals, or at that level of experitice and care, it was fun seeing things done with large stitches, with awkward stitches left in. The whole thing done either as showoff pieces or just for the love of colour and pattern. Remember - just the fact that someone had the time and materials to create a fancy embroidered shirt was show off of wealth. It said that the family didn't have to work hard from sunup to sundown just to survive.

My very favorite piece was a 'Sunday coat' for a woman. It was made of white leather with a sheepskin lining. I bet it was warm. But it was also beautiful. The outside was pieced, with major seams decorated by having folded lengths of other colours of leather worked in. The pieces themselves had fancy appliques of brown leather sewed on with tiny stitches. And between the appliques were various small motives in colourful satin stitch. And all of this on leather! The mind boggles. And here the stitches were small and regular. Wow!

At the moment I am working hard on my quilt and the sampler. Putting the quilt together requires a lot more careful sewing that I am usually good at, and for some reason I decided that I had to add the whitework bands from Linn Skinner's 'Beds of Roses' to the bottom of my sampler. Linn warned me that they are difficult. I'm not sure difficult is the word, but you can't afford a second of distraction. Not to mention that the satin stitch really does have to be properly laid. The fact that I am actually finding both restful, in the sense that I can keep my fingers well occupied without having to use most of my mind, says a lot about how hard the infection hit me. Although I am basically well again, My creative urge is only back to the extent of wanting to be doing, but not if I have to figure out what to do. It is lovely seeing the quilt top come together. It really is going to be beautiful. But I think it is a good idea to keep working hard at the finishing while I am enjoying it.

Crusader Exhibit in Schallaburg

I'm almost feeling human again, so Jerry, Steven and I decided to make use of the lovely summer weather we are having to go visit the new Crusader exhibit about an hour's drive from Vienna.

In terms of textiles, the quantity was minimal. However, the quality was great, so we won't complain too much.

First was a chausuble from the 12th century (German). Long arm cross stitch in silk on linen. Lovely work, and in places the fabric was quite close to the side of the showcase. In style it reminded me of the set that is at the MAK, but much more consistency within the piece. The whole cloth was divided up into rectangles (perhaps 20 - 25 cm) each of which held one or more figures. There were fairly narrow borders separating the rectangles. The linen was only visible where the stitching had worn away. The rows of cross stitch were only a few mm wide, all very even, giving a striped or braided effect.

Second was a hood or bonnet from the late 12th or early 13th century. Sicilian work. It is now taken apart and shown flat. Unfortunatly, it was at the bottom of a tall glass showcase, so there was no way to really see the stitching. The cloth had been stitched in an all over pattern of whirls, couched gold thread on red silk.

Third was early 12th century Egyptian. This was a small bit of plain fabric with a woven in border.

There were also a fair number of chain mail outfits, but I don't count those as textiles. Oh, yes, one later tapistry depicting scenes from the crusades. Not in the things from then, but with the items showing how the crussades have been depicted in later eras.

Anyone interested in medieval ceramics from the Near East would love the exhibit. There were lovely tiles and containers. My favorite had been first glazed in a soft turquoise. That had been covered in black, and the design scratched out.

There were several models of crusader castles and cities of the time that were nicely done. Steven loved those, and either commented on how dificult aech castle would have been to attack, or wished that he had the original to climb around in.

Many of the larger items on display were casts or modern representations of the originals. In some cases this was fine, but the two graves of arab leaders of the time were more theatrical props than anything else. I would have wanted good detail pictures of some of the decorations on the originals, I assume these were inlaid stone? and not paint on fiber board.

As ever, the items I really liked were not available as postcards. The catalog (German) looked interesting, but at Euro 29, more than I felt like paying.

Schallaburg is a lovely castle, well worth visiting for it's own sake. I didn't think the exhibit was very exciting, but neither was it so big as to get boring. If visiting with German-speaking children, get the children's guidebook before going in, and try to answer the puzzles as you go through. There are two side trips off the main route. Follow them when you see the signs. You'll come right back to the main exhibit. There are a few special events planned during the summer if you are into tournaments and such. Basic information on the crusades was given in both English and German. There is also a spectacular dragon playground. All in all a good family outing. Combine it with a drive through the Wachau.

Museum Alert

The news last night mentioned that an interesting piece will be on view in Vienna for the rest of the year.

The emperor Franz Josef married Princess Elisabeth of Bavaria in 1854. The ceremony itself was fairly private. Afterwards the embroidered parts of her gown were used to create a cope for the pilgimage church of Maria Taferl, where it was in use into the 1950s. Snce then it has kept been in the church treasury. It was not clear whether on display or not. This year the church and treasury are being renovated, and this piece will be on display at the 'Sisi Museum' in the Hofburg. From the pictures I saw it is lovely work in silver thread, and I am looking forward to seeing it. They said it would be in one of the side rooms of the museum.

Interesting note: there does not seem to be any record of what the gown looked like before it was cut apart. A call has been put out for anyone with private diaries that might include any information about this should let the appropriate office know. As only family and court members were present, and the journalists and public never got to see the gown, this is only possible for a few people to have.

Anyway, if gold and silver embroidery is your thing, and you are in Vienna this year, make a short visit to the Sisi museum after seeing the Imperial Treasury. BTW, many of the vestments in the treasury were probably made in a similar fashion. Not, of course, the major sets, but the simpler individual pieces.