Needle Work
During my studies I always crocheted and knitted during lectures. Not much of those efforts have survived the time either. When people asked me at that time what the hell I should do with my combination of mathematics and biology studies, I would always jokingly say: "start a craft shop!"
Needlework
When I was five years old I was once bored to death in one of the school holidays. That was the start of my addiction to needlework. I first embroidered a little elephant in cross-stitch, which I wanted to redo after half a year had passed, because only then did I understand that all the crosses had to face the same direction. My mother did not let me do that and that is why I can now show you my first needlework framed. From the age of six I started to learn more. Because we still had handicraft lessons at primary school, I learned to knit and crochet there.
From the period up to high school I know that I was member of a craft club in the Staalwijk building (on the corner of the 3 Oktoberstraat and the Herenstraat in Leiden). We also regularly made things out of felt there. These earlier works have not been preserved (and there are also no photos).
Finished handicrafts by Lia Hemerik
The story of this Israeli wedding dress (1981)
Once upon a time (in January 1981) I went on a skiing trip to Switzerland. After arrival we hired skis and shoes and one of my friends said that she could teach us some basics. We went to the areas where little children were taught the basics and one of my first moves resulted in a fall. I was able to stand up and stumble to the lift and the apartment. However, the next day may knee seems twice the original size and we decided to go to the hospital in Sion. I managed to get there by bus and walked/stumbles into the hospital. After inspection of the knee the orthopaedic surgeon asked whether I walked into the hospital. I replied: “yes”, and he remarked that I would not walk out of the hospital soon. After having got three choices, (1) get a cast and go back to the apartment and have no guarantee to have a proper use of the knee in the future, (2) get a cast and make my way home to get an operation in my home country as soon as possible, and (3) directly got an operation in the Sion hospital, I decided upon choice (3) because that had the best prospective. After a week in hospital I made it back to the Netherlands and I had to move around with crutches for 7 weeks with no way of returning to my study. I really had to have something that I could work on with my hands, because my mood was really bad. I decided to start an embroidery project, so I made this Israeli wedding dress, embroidered in four shades of red. When the cast was removed, the dress was ready.