Blog posts written by guest authors
Posted byKatrina Finch
Guest Post Tove Engelhardt Mathiassen, Guest scholar at The Centre for Textile Research, University of Copenhagen. Tove Engelhardt Mathiassen is trained as a crafts teacher with weaving as her main subject and as an ethnographer and social anthropologist at the University of Aarhus, Denmark. She has curated large exhibitions and has published extensively about historical…
Posted byKatrina Finch
Guest Post Tina Sinding Møller Dam, Karen’s niece In many ways my auntie Karen was like a female Peter Pan. Very modern and with the capacity for seizing the right moment in her own very visionary, clever way. What she believed in, she aimed for, and turned into reality. And like Peter Pan her arena…
Posted byKatrina Finch
Guest Post James Bulman-May, Karen’s nephew The warp and woof On the 100th birthday of my aunt Karen Finch née Sinding Møller, I would like to honour her achievements and independent spirit. I was fortunate to have Aunt Karen in London, and more so because she shared her home with family and friends. To me,…
Guest Post Kirstie Buckland I think I first met Karen Finch in 1975 when she invited the Costume Society into Hampton Palace to her recently moved Textile Conservation Centre. She was conserving a Grenadier cap and I was the only member who recognised what it was. We struck up a friendship, it was so easy…
Posted byKatrina Finch
Guest Post Ruth Sinding My sister would have been a hundred years old, had she still lived on May the 8th 2021. She was born at our farm in Jutland, Meldgaard, situated near a village, Rødding, to the north east of Viborg. She was the eldest of eight children and a beautiful child. My father…
Posted byKatrina Finch
Guest Post Maria Claydon I am very honoured to be asked to write something for Karen’s Centenary. I met Karen at a WEA evening class in History, many years ago. We immediately clicked and had a rapport, and after a few weeks of classes she asked me if I would visit her at her home….
Posted byKatrina Finch
Guest Post Elisabeth Thuesen, Copenhagen In October 2016 I was invited to pass some days together with Karens sister Ruth in London at the home of Karen, Katrina and Alan. Although Karen was at that moment physically weak she received me very kindly, and I was impressed by her experience of life and her education…
Posted byKatrina Finch
Guest Post Kitty Morris I would like to add a note about life at 7 Western Gardens when Karen ran a conservation studio from her home. In 1969 I was a fashion student with an interest in textiles. I was introduced to Karen by Zillah Halls, the curator at the Old London Museum in Kensington…
Posted byKatrina Finch
Guest Post Eva-Louise Pepperall As a young weaving apprentice in Copenhagen, I was one day invited to dine with my land lady Gerda Klint, widow of the architect Kaare Klint. Halfway through the meal Gerda suddenly threw out the question: “Now Eva-Louise, what are you going to do when you have finished your apprenticeship?” Totally…