25 April 2022

Crafts without borders: Blueprint dyeing techniques for clothing and home textiles are celebrated by crafts people from Austria, Czechia, Germany, Hungary and Slovakia at the Färbereimarkt (Dyer's Market) Gutau, Mühlviertel in Upper Austria

Blueprint is a good example from the fields textiles, fashion to show how traditional crafts cross country borders in Europe. The blueprint dyeing tradition was put on the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2018 as a result of the application of Austria, Czechia, Germany, Hungary and Slovakia. The countries are border on border and belonged in former times in various constellations together such as the Austro-Hungarian Empire or the former state Czechoslovakia. Also researches on early 20th century design and crafts from Vienna (keyword Wiener Werkstätte) follow these historical threads of interwoven cultural traditions concerning the reference of patterns to textiles of folk costumes. Europe and Austria have become increasingly more decentralized and many hubs for arts & crafts, design can be found in Central Europe nowadays. Gutau in Upper Austria is one of the crafts nodes. Every year on the first Sunday in May, the Färbermarkt Gutau (Dyer's Market Gutau) happens. This year, the 20th Färbermarkt Gutau will happen on 1st May with focus on blue-dyeing and crafts. It's announced that 15 blue dyers from five European countries and artisans, linen weavers, and textile designers will participate and exhibit their goods like clothing, bags, jewelry, furniture, home textiles or ceramics at around 100 booths.

The town Gutau in the Upper Austrian region Mühlviertel (inscribed explicitly as one of the blue-dyeing regions into the UNESCO list) preserves the blueprint tradition with the specialized Färbermuseum (Dyers' Museum' ) which is located in the baroque building of a former dyeing manufacture near the textile dyeing workshop. At the museum, the making of blueprints over the decades will be on show. At the textile dyer workshop, visitors can observe the production. In the last two years of the pandemic, the museum was extended and the drying tower of the textile dyeing workshop was built with funds of the European Union. At the Färbermarkt, the extended museum and the tower will be officially opened. Details of the programme with fashion show and gastronomy delivered by regional restaurants, farmers and bakeries is published at gutau.at/tourismus-freizeit/faerbermuseum/faerbermarkt-gutau.html.

Image: The campaign image for the Färbermarkt Gutau, Upper Austria on Sunday the 1st of May 2022 shows a fashion presentation with models wearing aprons, scarves, and skirts made of blueprint textiles in combination with white t-shirts. Photo: © Fotoclub Gutau.