To Spin a Yarn: Distaffs, Folk Art and Material Culture

This exhibition consists of about 40 decorated wooden distaffs, or spinning implements, from Russia, Lithuania, Finland, Sweden, France, Germany, Albania, Greece, Serbia and Bosnia and dating from the 19th and 20th centuries. 

Originally simple sticks, they evolved into highly decorated objects with intense cultural significance, more important for their meanings than for their function.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website