Located in the main village square, the Weberei Schatz is a top tip for visitors to Karrösten. This small family-run business today continues to make woven items and lace according to techniques passed down through many generations and is therefore the ideal place to pick up a high-quality tablecloth or a set of fine placemats.
The Schatz family are happy to show visitors around their workshop, where two generations of expert weavers and lacemakers have worked for decades to create some of the finest tablewear and linen in the region. For a long time traditional linen was out of fashion, but in recent years it has regained popularity. Weberei Schatz in Karrösten uses mechanical looms to produce hard-wearing linen with traditional patterns.
Delicate but durable
As well as linen, Weberei Schatz is also a specialist in the traditional but today rarely practised craft of bobbin lace-making. It is thought that this fiddly and time-consuming technique was developed in 16th century Italy. The lace patterns themselves are highly valuable since they are so hard to draw. Like linen, lace-making has also experienced a rennaissance in recent years, with many universities and colleges in Germany and Austria offering evening classes these days. Bobbin lace-making involves twisting, overlapping and tying together hundreds of fine flax threads to create wonderfully intricate yet surprisingly hard-wearing objects such as tablecloths, fine placemats, etc, which are often used in households for many decades.
The Schatz family are happy to show visitors around their workshop, where two generations of expert weavers and lacemakers have worked for decades to…
