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6th EWA Study Tour Texel

EWA STUDYTOUR to TEXEL, The Netherlands
25th, 26th, 27th of March 2025

Organisation
Renske van den Tempel, www.texelseschapenwol.nl

REPORT EWA STUDYTOUR
Hostess: EWA founder member Renske van den Tempel

Texel is the sheep island of the Netherlands and six wooly women came to the island to discover it for themselves. The sun shone every day, there were many sheep and there was even more to discover about wool.

Monday
Participants from Finland, Iceland, Spain and Wales arrived. It turned out that they had the hotel in the small village of Den Hoorn to themselves.

Tuesday
First we visited a typical Texel sheep shed where a special art installation has been made with wool. Then it was explained how the landscape has been shaped by centuries of sheep farming and we visited a sheep farm. It was 'lammerij', the time of birth of the lambs.
We visited the island's cultural and historical museum. Then, especially for us, three sheep were sheared on a large sheep farm: one by hand with the shearing blade, one in the old-fashioned way and the last in the modern way, both electric. The most beautiful fleece of the three will be send to the EWA European Fleece Competition in August this year in Finland. This demonstration was followed by a demonstration of how the wool on the sheep is cut and sheared prior to a studbook show.
After dinner with Texels Lamsvees we had an inspiring evening with the members of the Texels wool guild.

Wednesday
A large map of Texel hangs from the ceiling of a Texel museum. This is made from spun, felted and knitted Texel wool by the artist and 25 Texel wool lovers. The artist gave us a good explanation. After a further visit to this museum, a visit to the Texel yarn shop and lunch we had an interesting tour in the Duvet factory. This processes (almost) all the wool on Texel: 25 tons. In addition, about 100 tons from the mainland. On the island is a woolcollection place, the wool is scoured in Verviers, Belgium.
During a visit to Renske's son Noordkroon's company (skincare based on lanolin) we filled our own box with ointments and cream. In the evening, each participant received the English book ‘Living with wool on Texel, history and past’, written by our hostess.

Thursday
After an explanation about the composition and production of the woven Texel cloth, we left for the northern tip of the island. We drank coffee with shepherd Daphne and her 150 rare breed sheep (and a few goats) in the dunes. Some of us climbed up the lighthouse or took a nap in the afternoon while they were wrapped in carded wool: the wool bath.

On Friday everyone went back to their own sheep and wool world, tired and inspired.
See you in another interesting place in Europe!

Studytour Texel