This summer, beautiful weavings were displayed in the galleries of the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum, interspersed with rosemaled items, hand-made knives and wood carvings.
The National Exhibition of Weaving carries on the tradition of Norwegian weaving by encouraging the preservation of traditional weaving techniques, and also spurring weavers to create contemporary pieces that depart from the historical in technique, colors or materials. This year the judges considered all entries together, rather than dividing ribbons by traditional and contemporary categories. The judges wrote comments individually on each piece. Then they met together to evaluate the 18 entries for ribbon competition and decide how many of each type of ribbon to award. Finally they considered these pieces and the eight pieces entered by Gold Medalists to identify the single best weaving.
Blue Ribbon: Donna Lacken, of Rockford, Illinois, for a table runner in krokbragd technique
Blue Ribbon: Judy Ness, Eugene, Oregon, for “Inner Lights,” a wall hanging in krokbragd.
Red Ribbon: Jane Connett, Roseville, Minnesota, for a card-woven Telemark belt.
White Ribbon: Mary Glock, Decorah, Iowa, for a wall hanging in krokbragd.
Keith Pierce, Lauderdale, Minnesota, for “Ouroboros,” a belt in tablet-weaving technique.
Honorable Mention: Melba Granlund, Minneapolis, Minnesota, for “Summer Sizzle,” a wall hanging in Vestfoldsmett technique.
Marilyn C. Moore, Cedar, Minnesota, for a tablecloth in Östgötadräll technique.
Best of Show Weaving: Jan Mostrom, Chanhassan, Minnesota for “Folk Dance,” a wall hanging in boundweave technique.
People’s Choice: This award had a tie between Jan Mostrom’s “Folk Dance” wall hanging in boundweave and Judy Ness’s “Inner Lights” wall hanging in krokbragd technique.
Many worthy woven items were submitted, but were not awarded ribbons. Several of them were submitted by weavers who have received gold medals from Vesterheim; their works are eligible for the “Best of Show” award. Here are images of all submitted items: GALLERY.