Katie Schwab: 'small wares'

Small wares

Small wares is the trade term for narrow textiles used for reinforcing seams and preventing fabrics from unravelling. These unassuming articles, which often remain invisible and yet lend a garment strength, are referenced in Katie Schwab’s new body of work. small wares is an examination of processes of repair in both textiles and civic architecture.

Darning samplers

The ability to repair textiles by hand was once commonplace. In the aftermath of industrialisation this has become an increasingly rare skill. Katie Schwab’s research took her across the Netherlands to view darning samplers (stoplappen) in museum archives in Middelburg, Zutphen and Leeuwarden. Created by girls as young as 8 years old, these embroidered linen cloths document precise darning exercises and colourful repair stitches. A record of their learning, these samplers were shown to potential employers to demonstrate that these girls and women were adept in invisible mending.

Colours

The colours of the darning samplers inform the palette of small wares & hard wares (2021), woven at the TextielLab, the TextielMuseum's professional workshop in Tilburg. In collaboration with the passementerie expert Veva van der Wolf, Katie Schwab created three ribbons on a band-weaving loom from 1880. Embracing the spirit of sampling, the ribbon eschews uniformity and includes a myriad of stripes, holes and repairs in silk, cotton and linen. The vivid oranges and pinks of the ribbon’s warp make reference to madder, a plant-dye that was historically grown across the region of Zeeland—a technique that Katie Schwab explored during her spring 2021 residency at Cove Park, Scotland.