Driesum Flag Porcelain Thimble

The flag of Driesum

Driesum, in Frisian Driezum, is the easternmost village of the Dokkumer Wâlden in the municipality of Dantumadeel. The village flag was adopted in 1999, shortly after the coat of arms had been drawn. The design came from the Fryske Rie foar Heraldyk, the body that guides the design of village arms and flags in Friesland.

The colours and shapes were taken from the coat of arms and describe the landscape and the history of the village. The green stands for the meadows and the alder hedges around the village. Black and yellow show the transition from sandy soil to clay. The orange cross is a heavily simplified version of the four roots once grown here, and the number four refers to the four roads that meet in Driesum. The white rose with yellow centre and points is taken from the arms of the Van Sytzama family, who lived at Rinsma State among other places.

How the thimble is made

We apply the design to the porcelain ourselves. The thimble then goes into the ceramic kiln, where it is fired at 800 degrees. Because both the image and the firing are our own work, every flag produces a piece in its own right rather than a product from a single mould.

The village behind the flag

Driesum has just over nine hundred inhabitants and lies south-east of Dokkum. The village is best known for Rinsma State, an aristocratic estate whose park is now called the Driezumer Bos. On a small mound north of the village stood Canter State, first recorded in 1511.

The surroundings still show the landscape the flag describes: meadows, hedgerows and the transition from sand to clay.

A shape from an old tradition

The thimble is one of the oldest sewing tools there are. It had to catch a needle travelling through thick thread, so it was made of metal, bone, ivory or porcelain. Here that tradition lives in the shape alone: the object has no task, but it does have the recognisability, the gloss and the weight of a genuinely made piece.

Collecting and gifting

Many Dutch villages have a flag of their own, so a collection is never quite complete. The thimble takes up very little room and fits into a row alongside other village flags, in a glass jar or on a display shelf.

As a gift it works straight away. Anyone who lives in Driesum or comes from there recognises the flag without explanation, and the object is small enough to fit in an envelope.