Textile collections hide a rich and varied inventory of patterns from bygone eras. For design analysis, they are mostly difficult to access. The Swiss Textile Collection made part of their collection – printing blocks from the Glarus region – available for this work. This was used as a model to test the potential of historical collections for contemporary design processes. The focus lies in an experimental approach to analogue printing techniques and their further digital processing. This crossover between analogue and digital forms the basis for a collection of ideas.