A part of the participants of the 16th ETN Conference at the garden of the Čiurlionis National Museum in Kaunas, Lithuania Photo: Remis Scerbauskas

EDITORIAL

When preparing this issue, our journey to Lithuania and our celebrations in that country were still fresh in our minds (see pp. 8-13). We returned to our work in Hanover at a late stage as the Lithuanian dates were scheduled at the very end of September. Before our departure, our time-consuming preparations for the Kaunas events did not allow us time to conduct our research for TF 4/2011, so we were hard pressed to devote the usual attention to this issue.

Despite catching colds, we just managed to squeeze in a one-day trip to the Frankfurt Book Fair to review new publications released this year.

Our encounters in Lithuania gave us a whole range of interesting new insights into future developments, but it is likely that details will only be available for review next year. We were surprised to see visitors from Canton. Our Chinese guests are planning a new international biennial of textile art at home on which we will report more fully in TF 1/2012. Our Russian partners were also strongly represented and showed a definite interest in co-operating with us once again. The general atmosphere in both Kaunas and Vilnius was a highly productive one, and will result in further initiatives.

In the summer, we received news of a novel kind of paper art initiative conceived in Sofia that we review in more detail in this issue (see pp. 16-19).

The theme of this issue is partly def ined by two lace exhibitions currently running in the UK and Australia (see pp. 24-31), which interpret the subject in very broad terms. Dietmar Laue

A RECOMMENDATION FOR GERMANSPEAKING READERS Declaration of Berne, the Swiss environmental organisation based in Zurich, has released a CD-ROM that complements our contribution in BRIEF NOTES, page 2: Fashion, a global business The Berne Declaration (BD), a Swiss environmental organisation (http:// www.evb.ch/), has produced a CDROM for use in schools which merits attention not only from textile teachers. Using the fashion industry as an example, it explains global relationships in the economy, politics and civil society. Labour rights, human rights, poverty, trade union work and the options for action open to consumers are presented in a format suitable for secondary school students. In addition to short films, worksheets and ideas to use in class, the CD offers entire teaching units. Its themes are: Introduction to the global clothing industry; Global trade, spending capacity, power; Poverty despite employment; Labour rights and human rights for everyone?; What “ethical consumption” means; Is fair fashion really fair?; and: I am a consumer too.

The contents may be used free of charge for teaching purposes in the classroom; for private use, the CD is available at a price of SFr 12 from Erklärung von Bern, Dienerstr. 12 / Postfach, CH-8026 Zürich; tel: +44-44/277700; email: info@evb.ch

Centre: Street view, Kaunas centre Below: The ARKA gallery in Vilnius Beatrijs Sterk, Marina Mamyan/ARM and Dietmar Laue