Friday, February 26, 2010

Wooden Footwear


One of the most original items to take back home from Amsterdam are clogs, Holland's traditional wooden shoes. Clogs date as far back as 1367, probably even older, and have been worn as daily footwear ever since. In Holland's wet and cold climate, only clogs will keep your feet dry and warm at all times. And they're more comfortable than you would think! Dutch clogs are available in many tourist shops. Wearing clogs is considered to be healthy for the feet. Though there are some Dutch who don't use clogs anymore for everyday use, but clogs are still used by people working in their gardens, and by planters.


Clogs are made of balsa-white poplar wood. The trees are especially grown for this purpose. For a perfect pair of clogs you need fresh, wet wood, cut in square blocks. The wood is then chopped and smoothed in the right shape. To last a long time, finished clogs are painted. Traditional clogs are painted yellow with a red pattern. Each village used to have its own pattern. Clogs for daily wear are still yellow and red and souvenir clogs are painted in a large variety of patterns and colors, varying from flowers to entire street scenes.

3 comments:

Gunn said...

Beautiful clogs AND interesting to read the text you have added.
My favorite photo is the one just above the comments.

BlossomFlowerGirl said...

A great display of clogs. They remind me of a childhood song we learnt in school, "Little Dutch Mina". (Not sure if I've spelt the name correctly)
Cheers.
Melbourne Daily Photo

mia said...

I can't imagine how comfortable they are but they look beautiful. Cute cows! And it's been around since the 14th century? Wow I'm always amazed at how art and culture survive that long.

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