Weaving is one of the oldest forms of textile production. There are several hundred practising weavers in Switzerland. One of them is Isabel Bürgin.
Isabel Bürgin has been plying her craft ever since she began training to become a textile designer and hand weaver in 1981. Her bright, high-ceilinged workshop in a rear building located in the Klybeck district of Basel has been well used in the past. Bürgin’s grandfather and an uncle of hers used to run a confectionery business there. Confectionery and weaving are traditional crafts, says Bürgin. “I am continuing the family tradition.”
The studio in Basel is both an office and a showroom. The largest tool of the trade stands in the centre of the room: the three-metre wide loom, which is as tiring to operate as it looks. Photo: Lisa Schäublin
Her workshop contains three looms and also acts as an office and showroom. Visitors can come and see and feel her colourful rugs, blankets and scarves for themselves. And Bürgin can talk to her customers face to face. She would never sit in a shop and wait for people to walk in. No, she has to work and move at the same time. “I love walking.” Bürgin wanted to become a dancer when she was younger. She has an agile physique. Her daily walks are a form of stimulation. “It could be a noise. Or a woman might pass me with an interesting colour combination on her clothes. Or it could be nature itself. Or the light. Inspiration can’t just be plucked like an apple from a tree. But you need to be receptive to it.” Bürgin creates her designs at the loom. She tries out different patterns and experiments with colours and yarns, constantly checking, discarding and changing. She gradually comes up with a blueprint that she can refine on her computer. “My ideas come from doing,” she explains. “And I translate my ideas into pictures.”
Fascinating – but too difficult
Isabel Bürgin learned how to weave in her textiles class at the Basel School of Design. However, she initially had trouble understanding the technical ins and outs. “It was fascinating, but I couldn’t get my head around it.” Everything changed when she and her five fellow students managed to get the curriculum reorganised into teaching blocks. This gave her the time she needed to focus on every element of the course. Bürgin gained a better grasp of the subject and was able to conceptualise what she was doing. “I was smitten. I finally understood textiles.”
Bürgin explored the following question in her thesis: how would I like a tactile walkway to feel if I were blind? “I wove my first-ever carpet back then. It was a runner.” Little did she know that she would be weaving carpets for 37 years and probably longer. “It has become a real passion.”
After scarves and blankets, rugs are the main product in the collection. Photo: Lisa Schäublin
No fear of failure
Bürgin set up her own business in 1986 at the age of 24, armed with a hand weaving apprenticeship, a degree in textile design, and the worthwhile experience of doing an internship at Ulf Moritz’s design studio in Amsterdam. The “Dutch approach” of trying out off-the-cuff ideas and not being afraid to fail was particularly inspiring. Bürgin twice won a federal scholarship in applied art from the Federal Office of Culture at the beginning of the 1990s, which allowed her to work for a while without any financial worries. It was at this time that she created her classic “sch-nur-zufall” floor carpet made of natural goat’s hair and recycled coloured string. “It is the basis of my collection.” Prospective customers now had something they could run their hands over and imagine having in the home. Bürgin still enjoys weaving “sch-nur-zufall” to this day. “It is an extremely exciting carpet to make, because the string colour always varies.”
Ready-made blankets and scarves
Bürgin has been exhibiting at trade fairs for years. Yet few would come to a trade fair and dish out on the spot for an expensive rug. Products that people can take home with them, like her varied range of multicoloured woollen blankets, sell better. Woven using seven colours, her “wollok” blanket features an abundant fringe of hand-spun yarns and, according to Bürgin’s website, is “no comfy blanket but a multi-functional piece of body furniture”. Her soft scarves and shawls also come in bright colour combinations and are designed to keep people warm.
Does Bürgin earn a good living from weaving? “I have learned to be realistic,” she replies. She did side jobs for 23 years to ease some of the financial strain. These included running workshops and teaching at art academies. In 2005, she was appointed as a professor for a very demanding three-year term at Kassel Art School in Germany. That was her last “side job”.
“Such a beautiful, tactile craft”
The structure, density and design of the different yarns and fringes that she employs lend notable variety to her rug collection, despite her carpet loom only having two shafts. This limitation requires Bürgin to be extremely creative. The loom is just three metres wide, so she has to exert herself when using it. She never sits down and has to constantly move with the loom. Although air pressure helps her to change shafts, weaving a rug remains hard work. She should outsource this job, some people say. Bürgin laughs. “That is the last thing I would do! Weaving is such a beautiful, tactile craft.”
New book about weaving in Switzerland
The article above is an excerpt from a new book called “Alle Fäden in der Hand. Weben in der Schweiz”, which profiles 13 different weavers of all ages, across three generations, in Switzerland. The oldest is over 90 years of age, while the youngest recently completed her three-year weaving apprenticeship. Their different experiences and working methods demonstrate the potential of this ancient craft. The book also explores the story of weaving over the past 100 or so years, documenting the efforts that have been made to preserve the tradition and enhance its appeal as a viable profession in today’s world. At present, some 650 weavers in Switzerland are affiliated to a professional textile association.
Thank you for your comment. Your Comment Added Successfully.
Thank you for your comment. Comments are approved within one to three days.
Oops! Something went wrong, please try again later.
Subscribe to the SwissCommunity newsletter
We thank our partners:
top
Cookie settings
We use cookies on our website. Some of them are technically necessary, while others help us to improve this website or provide additional functionalities.
Comments