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The Baldishol Tapestry in the White House

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Editor’s note:  There’s a Minnesota connection to the Baldishol tapestry, or more correctly, a connection to Norwegian-American women across the United States.  A copy of the revered Baldishol tapestry was given to Mrs. Calvin Coolidge in 1926.  Did it ever hang in the White House?  Hermund Kleppa researched this event in 2010. This article originally appeared in the Kulturhistorisk Leksikon (Cultural History Encyclopedia), published by Fylkesarkivet i Sogn og Fjordane (the County Archives of Sogn and Fjordane).

By Hermund Kleppa (translation by Robbie LaFleur)

 

On Tuesday, June 8, 1926, Mrs. Calvin Coolidge welcomed a delegation of women.  It was their honor to deliver a gift—a copy of the well-known Baldishol tapestry and a presentation book. 

In the magazine For By og Bygd, number 16, 7/8, 1926, there was a small piece with the title “Baldishol Tapestry to the Presidential Residence in Washington.” In that piece there were several threads to take hold of, several clues to follow to find out a bit more: the Baldishol Tapestry, those who gave the gift, and the people involved—Kristi Sekse, Mons Breidvik and Hans Dedekam.  What happened to the tapestry after Mrs. Coolidge accepted it for the White House? The author of this article takes hold of several threads and pulls them together. 

“The last copy that Kristi Sekse wove of the old Norwegian Baldishol tapestry, is now at home in “The White House” in Washington,  Five thousand Norwegian-American women who wished to have a commemoration of the Norwegian-American Centennial in the White House pooled their money and bought it. Later a delegation of women brought the gift that they gave to the First Lady, along with a book by Director Hans Dedekam on the tapestry, including a section of the contents in English, beautifully decorated [illustrated] and bound by Mons Breidvik.”

In a lecture by Mrs. Gisle Bothne, she noted, among other things: “Many thousand Norwegian-American women, from all areas of the country, came together to give a gift to the White House, and we were able to obtain a copy of the widely-known Baldishol Tapestry that was woven by a Norwegian woman in the 12th century.  This weaving is an exact copy of the Baldishol Tapestry and is woven with great care by a woman who has been counted among the greatest tapestry artists in modern Norway.”

Mrs. Coolidge gave thanks for the gift, and said, among other things, that when she came to the White House she thought there was too little of a personal aspect to the president’s residence.  She had tried in small ways to rectify that and hoped that future First Ladies would continue to do so.  To that end, the Baldishol tapestry was a welcome addition, for which she was very pleased.

The Baldishol Tapestry 

“The old Norwegian Baldishol tapestry” came to light one day in 1879 in Eastern Norway. An old church was torn down on the Baldishol farm at Nes in Hedmark, where they found a textile fragment between two layers of flooring.  It appeared to be a portion of an ancient woven tapestry. The tapestry came later to the Norsk Industrimuseum in Oslo and was later known as the Baldishol tapestry. The Norsk Industrimuseum is today (2009) a division of the National Museum for Art, Architecture, and Design.

The Baldishol Tapestry has been described in many sources, and there are many opinions on its age and origin. In Norsk Kulturhistorie (Aschehoug 1979) it reads:

The Baldishol tapestry is woven in gobelin technique, 2 meters long and 1.18 meters high.  The material is hand-dyed wool in clear red, yellow, green, dark blue and lighter blue in several nuances.  It is possible that the motif in the left-hand-section symbolizes the month of April (judging by the letters in the curve of the arched upper border) and that the knight to the right represents May.  Perhaps many pieces—that we don’t know about—were put together as a year’s calendar. Researchers think that the tapestry was woven in the first half of the 1200s, perhaps later, likely in Norway.

But on one point there is full agreement: the Baldishol tapestry is one of the oldest existing woven tapestries in Norway, and the best known.  It also stands out in a European context.  Hans Dedakam opens his book on the Baldishol tapestry (1918) with these words: “Without comparison one of the most important and interesting pieces in Nordic, and even European textile art.”

Norse Centennial Daughters Club

In 1925 Norwegian-Americans celebrated a Centennial; it was in 1825 that the sloop Restauration reached America with Cleng Peerson from Rogaland and his followers. They were called  “sloopers” in immigrant literature. President and Mrs. Coolidge visited the great event  in Minnesota in June 1925. The president gave a long and reportedly powerful speech.

But there were some women who were annoyed that it was men who organized most of the jubilee and there was little about Norwegian-American women in the publication, Norse-American Centennial 1825-1925. So they created their own organization, the Norse Centennial Daughters Club, and published their own book, Norse-American Women 1825-1925. Their overriding goal was to promote Norwegian-American literature, art, and music. 

In the list of the members of the Centennial Daughters we find many Sogn and Fjordane names: Mrs. H.H. Onstad, Hopland, Hillestad, Vee, Lee and Ylvisaker. 

..this famous tapestry.. 

At the annual meeting of the Centennial Daughters on February 1, 1926, Mrs. G. Bothne, Minneapolis, was invited to head a committee with the assignment to raise money for a copy of the “famous tapestry,” the Baldishol tapestry, and give it to the White House. The committee had many subcommittees, among others, one located in Minneapolis and one in St. Paul. 

The committee leadership must have worked fast and effectively.  A short time later the goal was reached, “As a gift from the Norse-American women, a tapestry is to be presented to the President and Mrs. Coolidge some time this spring.” The tapestry was woven by Kristi Sexe, known the world over for her weaving.  She spun the yarn herself and dyed it with plant dyes.  The price was 1500 dollars. 

Kristi Sekse Meland

Halldor Sandvin, former principal at Framnes Folk High School in Hardanger, now living in Telemark, wrote a pamphlet about the woman who wove the copy of the Baldishol tapestry. 

Kristi Meland (1886-1965) grew up in Tyssedal in Odda in Hardanger.  Her parents were Jakob Jorgensen from the Freim farm and Sigrid Johannesdotter from the Sandvin farm.  Both of these farms lie south of Tyssedal. Kristi was married for the first time in 1903 to Sjur Sekse and as the custom was, took Sekse as her last name.  They settled in Ålvik. In 1915 they separated and were divorced.  When Kristi was married in 1929 for the second time to Halldor Meland from Espe, she changed her last name to Meland. 

After some years in Ålvik Kristi moved back to Odda to a house she rented at Sandvin.  In 1922 or 1923 she settled in Kvam (further north and west in Hardanger).  There she bought the Eikhaug property, most often called Vadlandshovden. The place lies just east of Norheimsund. From Eikhaug she had a view right over Samlafjorden towards Vikøylandet to the south, Vikøy church and Fosslid where the artist Mons Breidvik lived.  Mons Breidvik and Kristi Sekse worked together often, Sandvin wrote. 

Sandvin figured that Kristi developed her skill in spinning and weaving from childhood on, during a time that spinning, knitting and weaving were commonly women’s work on the farm.  She studied at a young age, first at Henriette Schønberg Erken’s husmorskole (“housewife school”) in Hamar and later a three-year course at Den Kvinnelige Industriskole (The Women’s Industry School) in Kristiania (Oslo). In 1925/26 she participated in two courses at the Statens Håndverks- og Kunstindustriskole (State Handcraft and Industrial School). “Pattern Designer Kristi Sexe” was the designation on her diploma. Kristi was especially interested in natural dyeing.

Kristi Sekse Meland Kristi began teaching art weaving shortly thereafter, and ran a weaving school from 1927. In the brochure for Kristi Meland’s Weaving Studio she advertised a course that lasted four months.  Practical weaving, art weaving, spinning, natural dyeing with plants and color theory were on the curriculum. Kristi Meland died on December 4, 1965, and was buried in the graveyard at Vikøy Church, beside her husband. Both graves are still preserved and cared for by the Kvam parish. 

Kristi Meland’s Baldisholteppe

Sandvin doesn’t provide information on whose idea it was to weave a copy of the Baldishol Tapestry, who was involved in the project, when Kristi Sekse began the work, and when she was finished.  It seems that Sandvin did not have complete records to check.  He wrote the following: 

“Kristi was chosen to copy the Baldishol Tapestry.  She was finished with Industry School in 1920.  She must have received this honored commission early in the 1920s, surely after a recommendation from the school. It was said that drawing, spinning, dyeing and weaving took a half year.  The work attracted attention.  She had the most prominent of advisors, which could certainly have been confusing.  The work required a weaver who was a self-starter and independent.  We don’t know if she had help with the work, but the result was in any case hers.”

An inquiry of the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design (of which the Kunstindustrimuseum, the Arts and Crafts Museum, is now a part) revealed that the museum had very little on this.  The only thing that they had was a piece in the newspaper Tidens Tegn (Sign of the Times), December 9, 1925. It said that Kristi Sekse had “just” finished work on a copy of the Baldishol Tapestry, and the the tapestry was “now” on view in a gallery in the Arts and Crafts Museum where the original was hung. Her work garnered praise. Director Grosch commented “with much warmth on the skillful work.” The article ended with the note that the tapestry would be sent to America “in the near future.”

Note: Director Grosch (1848-1929) was connected to the Christiania Kunstindustrimuseum from its founding in 1876; he was a conservator in 1878 and director from 1894-1919. He was enthusiastic in his work with handcraft. He wrote a great deal on art and handcraft in newspapers and magazines, and wrote several publications about textile art. 

When Tidens Tegn wrote that the tapestry was “just” finished, It couldn’t mean within the last one or two weeks.  The tapestry was on exhibit in City Hall in Odda during the summer of 1925. But “recently” could be in relation to a project that had been underway for several years. In the magazine Nordmands-Forbundet (Oslo) it states in Number 1-1926, at the “The Baldishol Tapestry, or more correctly, the copy by Kristi Sekse in Norheimsund, Hardanger” had arrived in New York and would be sent on to the Norwegian minister (ambassador) Bryn in Washington.

Mons Breidvik

A piece from Frå By og Bygd (From Town and Country) stated that a book was sent with the tapestry, a book on the Baldishol Tapestry written by “Director” Dedekam, with a portion of the contents in English. The book was beautifully illustrated and bound by Mons Breidvik. 

Mons Breidvik (1881-1950), known for drawing and graphic arts, was born and grew up in the Breivik community, at that time in the municipality of Brekke, Sogn og Fjordane, now (2009) the municipality of Gulen. Breivik lies 3-4 kilometers  east of the Rutledal ferry stop. Mons Breidvik studied with Harriet Backer, Erik Werenskiold and Johan Nordhagen, and studied and worked several places abroad. 

In the winter of 1897-98 Breivik went to Framnes Ungdomskule (folkehøgskule, a folk high school). There he met Anna Heradstveit from Kvam. They married in 1905 and had six children.  The artist-couple lived in Breidvik from 1905-07, at Heradstveit from 1907-10 and after 1910 at Fosslid, near Vikøy Church.  Anna died in childbirth in 1914.  Breidvik had three subsequent marriages. 

Mons Breidvik lived in America for nine years.  On April 5, 1925, he took a boat to America from Bergen, the Bergensfjord. He wanted to try his luck as an artist on the other side of the Atlantic. 

The hundred-year celebration of immigration from Norway was in his travel plans. On the boat he met many people who were en route to the hundred year jubilee.  Later he met many, many more. He was present at the celebration in Minnesota in June, where it was said 60,000 people were in attendance. He heard the speech by President Coolidge and made a portrait of the president.  Mons Breidvik had several exhibits in America, and he completed several large works. A monumental work can be found at Grace Episcopal Church, Long Island. 

He came back to his homeland and Kvam in 1936.  He died August 15, 1950 and was buried in the graveyard at Vikøy Church. 

The Idea

It was Mons Breidvik who came up with the idea to give Kristi Meland’s copy of the Baldishol Tapestry to The White House. There was a notice in the Chicago newspaper, Skandinaven, May 25, 1926, signed “H. Bryn” (the Norwegian ambassador in Washington). The ambassador wrote that a notice in the same newspaper on April 23, incorrectly stated that it was his idea, that he and his wife had come up with the idea after seeing the Baldishol Tapestry on a trip to Norway and thereafter took the initiative to raise money. That is wrong, Bryn wrote. “It was the Painter Mons Breidvik…who had the idea.”

Hans Dedekam’s Book on the Baldishol Tapestry

The author of the book Baldishol Tapestry, which was reported by Frå Bygd og By to have been sent with the tapestry, was Hans Dedekam (1872-1928), an artist and art historian. He was the director of the Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum [in Trondheim] (from 1908) and the Kristiania Kunstindustrimuseum (from 1919). The book came out in 1918 and was dedicated to Director Grosch on his 70th birthday. It has 60 pages, a French summary, and 38 illustrations.  Only 300 copies were printed. 

The Baldishol Tapestry in the White House—A History 

The first lady, Mrs. Calvin Coolidge (full name: Grace Anna Goodhue Coolidge), welcomed the women who came with the copy of the Baldishol Tapestry, and said in her speech thanking for the gift that it will be a part of her plans to do more decorating in the presidential residence. We get the distinct impression that both the recipient and those who gave the gift were quite satisfied. And it is reasonable to believe that “the copy of the old Norwegian Baldishol Tapestry” graced one of the walls.  But there is the question of what happened with the tapestry later, under other first ladies.  Were they equally enthusiastic? 

Melissa Naulin in The White House had the answer.  In a thorough investigation of the history of the tapestry up to today, it turns out they have the tapestry. It measures 83” x 45” (210.2 cm x 114.9 cm) and is in good condition.  On the other hand, it is a bit disappointing that she indicated the tapestry perhaps never hung in the White House at all. They have no proof of it.  She wrote: 

“I am afraid that the history of the tapestry here at the White House is not very exciting. We do not know if Mrs. Coolidge ever displayed the tapestry after receiving it. We have never seen it in room photographs from that period. We conduct an annual inventory of furnishing but for some reason the tapestry does not appear in the inventory until 1931, and by that time, it has already been moved to a cedar storage close to the Third Floor. The inventories indicate that it remained there until at least 1937, when it disappeared altogether from the inventory for 40 years. The tapestry was rediscovered in storage in 1977 and re-added to the inventory. It has not been displayed since.”

But what about the book?  While the Baldishol Tapestry seems to be in perfect condition and safe storage, Melissa Naulin was not able to find out what happened or didn’t happen to the book on the tapestry. The Frå By og Bygd article said the Dedekam book came with it. But did it?  Not all the records are in agreement.  A couple of places note that there was a book with a list of the names of the representatives  of the giver, the Norse-American Centennial Daughters, but no other book is named. Melissa Naulin was not able to say they have a book on the Baldishol Tapestry. But they do have the book that lists the names. The cover is decorated with the word Baldisholteppet as the title, and a viking ship with women on board  as decoration.  The message is easy to understand: Women with Norwegian roots coming to the White House with a gift (a copy of the Baldishol Tapestry). One can speculate that the book for some reason or other went astray, that the delegation did not have the Dedekam book with them, or that it disappeared for another reason. The decoration on the cover of the book with names is definitely the work of Mons Breidvik.

Is this interesting?

To conclude, we can ask: Is this event back in 1926—that a Norwegian tapestry was given to the White House—interesting? Is this nothing more than what we today would call a publicity stunt?

 Several things can be said.  I believe the event was without a doubt important for the many people who gave the gift, and for the recipients, the Coolidges. And it was a gift tied to an important element of the American saga, the Norwegian immigration through a hundred years. The gift symbolized the link between the two countries, like the words on postcards, “hands across the sea.” It was a high-quality gift, a skillful copy of a piece of important textile art from the Norwegian and European Middle Ages. And above all, the gift and the event were a womens initiative. That’s quite apparent from Breidvik’s drawing. When have we seen a Viking ship with a woman on the prow, and when have we seen women sailing the ship?

And finally we can add that the event in 1926 is relevant to Sogn and Fjordane in many ways.  One point of connection is that a national treasure such as the Baldishol Tapestry is tied to national ownership. Everyone owns a small share of it. Another connection is the one of the participants, Mons Breidvik, was born and grew up in Gulen, and is a Sogn and Fjordane artist. And, since the gift was an emigration/immigration initiative, it has a clear connection to Sogn and Fjordane, the area that in relation to its population, had the highest level of emigration to America. 

 

Baldisholteppet—A Treasure from the Middle Ages

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Editor’s note: We are grateful for permission to present this translation of Art Historian Randi Nygaard Lium’s description of the Baldisholteppe (the Baldishol Tapestry), which appeared in her book, Tekstilkunst i Norge (Textile Art in Norway). 

By Randi Nygaard Lium

The Baldishol tapestry, dated from 1040-1190 (with carbon dating), was found after a church auction in Baldishol Church in Nes in Hedmark in 1879.  Louise Kildal, a niece of neighbors to the church, found the Baldisholteppet. After the auction ended, there were several items remaining, and it was among these leftovers that Louise found the tapestry. But when she found it, it was merely a rolled-up, dirty rag. She took it home and washed out the dirt and clay. She discovered it had an image, fine colors, and a special technique. It was so beautiful that she framed and hung it up in her home in Kristiania (now Oslo). Director Grosch from the Kunstindustrimuseum (the Arts and Crafts Museum) saw the tapestry and was very interested; it ended up with the museum purchasing it. Both the owner and buyer understood they had come upon a unique weaving that would gain a central place in textile history, both nationally and internationally. It is possible that the tapestry was woven in a workshop tied to a Middle Age monastery at Nesøya in Lake Mjøsa, a monastery that was tied to the Hamar diocese. A portion of the inventory in the Baldishol Church came from Nesøya. 

This work is one of the very few tapestries in Gobelin technique that are preserved in Europe, and is the only preserved tapestry in this technique from the Middle Ages in Norway. It is a fragment of a longer weaving in the form of a frieze, which originally would have been 12 meters long. The fragment is 118 x 203 centimeters.  It is woven with wool in the warp and weft. 

The motif is divided into two architectural image sections with a man in each section. To the left we see a man with a bird in his hand and to the right a rider in armor on a reddish-brown horse.  It is a colorful tapestry with clear colors, including red, white, blue, gold, and violet. The design is typical Romanesque. The men represent two of the twelve months, April on the left and May on the right. It is possible these two men were only a small part of a large weaving representing all the months. The short side doesn’t have an edging, but is torn, indicating it is part of a larger work.  The fine colors, floral decorations and colored dots woven over the surfaces bind the two sections together. 

On the Technique of the Baldisholteppet

The Baldishol tapestry is woven in Gobelin technique, which sets them apart from both the decorative textiles found in the Oseberg Viking ship, and the Överhogdals weaving. The tapestry in the Oseberg find also appeared to be woven in Gobelin, but there they used a “free” technique; that is, they created patterns by picking up threads. 

Technically the Baldisholteppet is consistent with the weaving methods in the tapestry series from Halberstadt, Germany, and they anticipate the wave of European tapestries in Gobelin technique in the next centuries.  Fully from the Middle Ages to our time Gobelin technique has remained the same. It was woven on an upright loom with a beam at the top and bottom, woven from the bottom to the top. It has a two-shaft binding with two pedals and two shafts.  Pedals are not necessary, but then the shed must be plucked manually before the weft is laid in the warp. 

The weft is wound into butterflies or wound on small bobbins. The weft is laid in the warp with arcs, and then beaten down so that the warp is completely covered. In this way you can create images, and almost any image can be woven. 

It is easy to weave diagonal lines, but there are challenges in weaving a vertical line between two areas of color. If the color shift occurs along a vertical warp thread, a slit will occur unless the weaver uses a technique to weave the edges together. 

Open slits can be sewn together after the weaving is finished and taken off the loom. Or, the weft threads of two colors along the slit can be interlocked while weaving. An alternative is dovetail technique, where you weave two, three or four threads from the two different colors around a common warp thread. The Norwegian name for this is hakke teknikk (dovetail technique). When the wefts are beaten in, the vertical line appears “hakkete,” or jagged. 

Dovetail joins were used in the Baldisholteppet and the Halberstadt tapestries where two areas of color met vertically. Dovetail technique went out of use in European tapestries generally, but have been used in Scandinavia up to modern times. 

Tapestry weaving in Gobelin technique had its first popularity in Europe in the 1300s. France, Belgium, and the Netherlands were the leading countries. Large and costly commissions came from influential cities like Arras, Paris, and Tournai to the upper classes all over Europe.  There were also weaving studios in monasteries. The weavers were men who stood in lines in front of tall, upright Gobelin tapestry looms (haute-lisse) and wove. A large tapestry could take several years to complete. It was a close collaboration between the weavers and the painters who created the artistic cartoons, based on mutual respect. Tapestries were also woven on horizontal tapestry looms (basse lisse). 

The Oldest Gobelin Find in Europe

This single find from the Baldishol church cannot in itself indicate that a living tradition for this type of weaving existed in Norway during the Romanesque period, but it is still fantastic that one of the Middle Age tapestries was preserved here. 

The two other oldest preserved tapestries in Gobelin technique in Europe belonged to Saint Gerion church in Cologne and the cathedral in Halberstadt in Germany. The tapestry from Cologne was probably woven in the Rhine region in the 1000s. The motif is a reproduction of a Byzantine silk textile from the 800s or 900s, with an image of a mythical animal in a large circle. The tapestry from Halberstadt dates from the beginning of the 1100s. The ten meter long tapestry describes  the history of Abraham and the Archangel Michael’s battle against the dragon. The style of image in the Halberstadt tapestry has ties to Romanesque period chalk paintings and painted icons. 

Randi Nygaard Lium is a textile artist, author, and curator. Educated in Denmark, she has a degree in Art History from Aarhus University and studied weaving at Det Jyske Kunstakademi (Jutland Art Academy). She is the Senior Researcher at the Museum for Decorative Arts (Kunstindustrimuseet) in Trondheim, Norway.  She was the Director of the Trondheim Art Museum (Kunstmuseum) from 1998-2011, and the Head Curator at the Museum of Decorative Arts, Trondheim, 1986-88.  She has written several books on textile art, including Tekstilkunst i Norge (2016) and Ny Norsk Billedvev – Et Gjennombrud (1992). Her work has been shown in many exhibits in Norway and other countries, including a solo exhibition at the Design Museum Denmark in Copenhagen (2006). Her work is represented in several museums and in commissioned work in public buildings.

Translated by Robbie LaFleur

Call for Art:The Baldishol Exhibit

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The Baldishol: A Medieval Norwegian Tapestry Inspires Contemporary Textiles

 The exhibit: June 26-August 30, 2020
Norway House, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Opening Party: Friday, June 26, 2020, 5-8 pm

Most people aware of weaving traditions in Norway (or Europe) have seen an image of the famous Baldishol Tapestry.  This tapestry textile fragment, depicting the months of April and May, was discovered in Norway in 1879 when a church was torn down. It is now recognized as one of the earliest European tapestries.

 

This Norwegian historical treasure has been replicated many times.  The Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum in Decorah, Iowa, alone has three full-sized copies. A group of Norwegian-American women presented one to Mrs. Calvin Coolidge in 1926, in honor of the Norse-American Centennial celebrated the year before. Many students in Scandinavian weaving schools in past decades wove copies of the head of “April man.”

The head of “April Man,” unknown weaver. Tapestry owned by Carol Johnson, Minneapolis

Now it is your turn, as a contemporary artist, to be inspired by the Baldishol Tapestry.

We are looking for original weavings and other art works in fiber that look to the Baldishol Tapestry for inspiration, not replication, for a textile art exhibit at Norway House in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the summer of 2020.  Sponsors include Norway House, the Weavers Guild of Minnesota, the Textile Center of Minnesota, and the Norwegian Textile Letter.  The purpose of the exhibit is to highlight the talent and creativity of textile artists, internationally, while educating Norway House audiences about the famous Norwegian tapestry.

Examine the rich images of the April and May panels. Elements of the images could be woven, perhaps in multiples—birds? The dots of the horses? The designs of the bands? Could you weave cloth and make the tunic of one of the figures? Or make the shoes, or the helmet? Could you imagine the characters in a different time period, sowing seeds or going to war? If the Baldishol tapestry was only two months of a longer frieze, what would have happened on other panels? How are you inspired?

Prizes! Works in The Baldishol: A Medieval Norwegian Tapestry Inspires Contemporary Textiles will be judged before the opening by Karen Searle, noted Minnesota artist, and Laurann Gilbertson, Curator of the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum.

First Prize: $250
Second Prize: $100
People’s Choice (To be given following the exhibit): $50

Details and dates

This show will be curated by a group from Norway House and the Weavers Guild of Minnesota.  To be included, you must submit an application. Art works, which must be original and executed by the artist, will be accepted into the show based on relevance to the theme as well as overall concept, design, and technique.

Applications will be taken from March 1-December 15, 2019, or until the exhibit space is filled. The piece does not need to be completed for approval of the concept. Applications will be processed within 6 weeks of receipt.  Approved pieces should be delivered to Norway House between June 8-June 20, 2020. 

The application form is here. 

Cost:  The application fee is $25, to help defray administrative costs (to be paid upon acceptance).

Sales: Items may be for sale, but transactions are the responsibility of the artist, not Norway House (due to is tax status). Details will be available in the acceptance letter. 

An Exhibit Catalog will be published and available for purchase.  

For inspiration, see these articles in the Norwegian Textile Letter:  “Baldisholteppe: A Treasure from the Middle Ages;” “The Baldishol Tapestry in the White House,” which originally appeared in the Kulturhistorisk Leksikon (Cultural History Encyclopedia), published by Fylkesarkivet i Sogn og Fjordane (the County Archives of Sogn and Fjordane); and “The Baldishol Tapestry–The White House Replica and Others.”

Questions? contact Robbie LaFleur at lafleur1801@me.com. The curatorial committee:  Max Stevenson and Rachael Barnes from Norway House; and Claire Most, Sara Okern, Lisa Ann Bauch, Lisa Torvik, and Robbie LaFleur from the Weavers Guild of Minnesota. 

Frida Hansen: Will We Ever See her Woven Swans and Maidens?

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By Robbie LaFleur

Update (2022): It is found. See A Missing Frida Hansen Tapestry Rediscovered.

Fans of Frida Hansen and fans of mysteries–here’s a quest for you.  Where is this missing Frida Hansen tapestry? We’re looking for your help.

Frida Hansen (1855–1931) was one of Norway’s most famous tapestry artists. She fit perfectly into the national romantic period at the end of the 19th century; she studied traditional weaving techniques and dyes. Her Art Nouveau style gained international acclaim; her most famous work, “Melkeveien,” (Milky Way), won a gold medal at the Paris Worlds Fair in 1900. As her style became more “European,” her popularity waned in Norway–in contrast, for example, to Gerhard Munthe’s popular tapestry images based on Norwegian folk tales.

Frida Hansen is overlooked no more.  Especially after the retrospective of her work at the Stavanger Art Museum in 2015, she regained her place as an important figure in Norwegian art, and her innovation and excellence in weaving is fully recognized. 

Most of Frida Hansen’s works were purchased outside Norway by museums and collectors.  That brings us to our story of the missing swans and maidens. A few years after “Melkeveien,” she wove “Sørover,” or “Southward,” with ten maidens riding on swans. The pieces have a similar diagonal composition. 

“Southward” was purchased off the loom in 1903 by Berthea Aske Bergh, who had studied with Frida Hansen. She brought it back to the United States, where it was  exhibited several times up to 1931, at venues including the Walforf Astoria Hotel in New York (1904), the Smithsonian (1924), the Hotel Astor in Boston (1928), the Toledo Museum of Art (1931), and the Brooklyn Museum (1926, 1931). No color photos remain, but according to the cartoon and a description in House Beautiful in 1929, the main colors were blue, white, and silver, with a border of green and violet (“An Old Art for the New World,” by Miriam Ott Munson, House Beautiful, July 1929, p. 42+). From that article, here is the flowery description of Berthea Aske Bergh’s purchase of “Southward,” and also “King Sigurd’s Entrance into the Holy Port”  (based on a cartoon by Gerhard Munthe, and woven by Frida Hansen):

Some years ago Mrs. Bergh made a statement to a group of American connoisseurs that her country not only possessed a highly developed art of weaving, but that it antedated by many centuries any similar European art. Her audience was skeptical and so, to prove her assertion, she sailed to Norway just one week from the date of the discussion to bring back to America convincing and beautiful proof of her statement.

Straight to Mrs. Hansen’s studio she went, where the magnificent tapestry “Southward” stood on the loom, nearing completion. To Mrs. Hansen she said, “I must have that tapestry to take back to America.”

Mrs. Hansen demurred, because practically all her tapestries are sold on the loom, and, true artist that she is, she does not duplicate work. But so insistent was Mrs. Bergh that Mrs. Hansen yielded to her entreaties, and ‘Southward’ was destined for America. So too was a duplicate of the tapestry “King Sigurd’s Entrance into the Holy Port,” since King Oskar II of Norway, who possessed the original, was unable to withstand Mrs. Bergh’s enthusiasm and entreaties.

King Sigurd tapestry

My interest in finding the missing ‘Southward” tapestry was sparked by two curators, Monica Obniski and Bobbye Tigerman, who are working on an upcoming exhibit, Scandinavian Design and the United States, 1890-1980, which will open at the Milwaukee Museum in May 2020 and at the Los Angeles Museum of Art in October 2020. They are exploring the influence of Scandinavian design in America and the exchange of design ideas between the US and the Nordic countries throughout the 20th century. Monica Obniski wrote, “The textiles of Frida Hansen were shown in the United States (which is why we are interested in her work); her textiles also spurred interest in Norwegian weaving. We have tried to track down “Sørover,” which was owned by Berthea Aske Bergh; it was shown at an important 1931 show at the Brooklyn Museum, and it was prominently displayed at the Norse-American Centennial in Minneapolis in 1925.”

Southward was woven with wool and silver threads on a cotton warp and at approximately 114″ x 142″, it was impressively large. When it was shown at the Brooklyn Museum as part of an exhibition of Scandinavian Industrial Arts in 1926, Katrine Hvidt Bie wrote in Brooklyn Life and Activities of Long Island Society  (Saturday, May 1, 1926):

“Southward” is of great beauty; as lovely as “The Milky Way” and “Salome’s Dance” or “The Finding of Moses.” It is a thing one will always remember, and love to dream about; the lithe and clean-limbed goddesses are speeding swiftly southward through the sea on the backs of young swans. They are carrying back the sun, and flowers which they loaned the North to make the long summer.

The second time it appeared at the Brooklyn Museum, as part of the “Modern Tapestries” exhibit (February 7-February 28, 1931), the press notice stated: 

One of the most famous contemporary tapestry makers, Mme. Frieda Hansen of Christiana, Norway, is well represented by “Southward” and “Pond Lilies”, both of which were designed and woven by her. She became known as early as 1900 and now her works in this field hang in royal palaces in Norway, England, Italy, Germany, Sweden and Denmark and in three large museums. “Southward” is lent by Mrs. Berthe D. Aske Bergh of The Weavers, New York. This tapestry illustrates a Norse myth of golden-haired daughters of the sun who go sailing southward in diagonals across a geometric sea after having brought flowers and light to the north. It is woven in wool and silver.

On June 7, 1931, the New York Times carried an article about a new exhibit at the Homemaking Center at Grand Central Palace (“Arts and Crafts from Foreign Lands,” by Walter Storey Rendell, New York Times, June 7, 1931: SM9). The “Norwegian Exhibit” was shown courtesy of Berthea Aske Bergh, and featured tapestries by Frida Hansen from her collection. “One of her wall hangings on exhibition depicts the entry of King Sigurd into Byzantium, Istanbul of today, and another has a motif of pond lilies.”  “Southward” is not mentioned, which is interesting, but not definitive. Could she have sold it during or after the Brooklyn Museum exhibit earlier that year?

What happened to “Southward” and the other pieces by Frida Hansen owned by Berthea Aske Bergh? Did she own them until the end of her life? Did her son inherit them? He died only five years after her. These are the details of their life spans, from Ancestry.com pages gleaned from a Google search.

Berthea Antonia Aske was born in Stavanger, Rogaland, Norway on October 18th, 1867.  She married Oskar William Bergh, who died in 1937. She died on June 15, 1954, in Brooklyn, New York.

Bethea and Oskar had three children. One died the same year he was born, in 1893. Their son Norman Meriam Bergh was born in Duluth, Minnesota, on August 6, 1890.  Norman  married Elizabeth Lamson Griffin. He passed away on November 21, 1959, in Keene, New Hampshire, and his wife died in the same town in 1961.

Another son, John Nito Bergh, was born in 1895, but the Ancestry database does not have information on his death date, nor that of his wife, Ann Loretto Kinchsular.

I can picture the beautiful hand-dyed blue tones of the waves on “Southward,” set off by glistening silver threads. Odds are they will only remain in my imagination.  I’ll continue my research, and try to find more information on Berthea Aske Bergh and her studio, The Weavers, Inc.,  when I visit New York City in February, 2019. Perhaps before then an alert Norwegian Textile Letter reader, or someone you know, will locate Frida Hansen’s missing masterpiece?  Let’s crowdsource this conundrum.

Do you have information about Frida Hansen’s works in the U.S., or information about Berthe Aske Bergh and her weaving school in Brooklyn?  Do you have ideas for further research?  Please let me know at lafleur1801@me.com.

Looking for more information on Frida Hansen? Anniken Thue is the premier Hansen biographer.  Her book, Frida Hansen: En Europeer i Norsk Tekstilkunst (A European in Norwegian Textile Art), published in 1986, is only in Norwegian. A more recent title, Frida Hansen: Art Nouveau i Full Blomst, published by the Stavanger Art Museum in 2015, includes several essays on Hansen’s art, with English translations.  (Neither are easily available in the U.S.)

There are many references with images online.  You could start with the website of the Stavanger Art Museum, here, with this overview on the the Norwegian Absolute Tapestry site (the overview of Norwegian tapestry puts Frida Hansen in context), and with two recent interesting blog posts: “Fabricadabra: Frida Hansen, 1855–1931” by Travis Boyer and “Frida Hansen and the Making of Art Nouveau.” I wrote about Hansen in “Now I Like Frida Hansen Even More,” and recently in “When Frida Hansen Sought a Weaving Teacher.” I will continue to write about Frida Hansen as I embark on a study of her work in Norway, with the support of the American Scandinavian Foundation.  Robbie LaFleur

 

 

 

Playing at the Loom Together: The Scandinavian Weavers Study Group Tackles Skillbragd

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By Lisa Torvik

Karin Maahs made a pillow from her piece, and it won a blue ribbon at the Minnesota State Fair.

After enjoying our project in 2017 which focused on the Swedish art weave, “dukagång”, there was consensus to embark on a new group project in 2018 studying an overshot technique known as “skillbragd” [pron. “shill’ brahgd”] in Norway and as “Smålandsväv” [pron. “smoh’ lahnds vave”] in Sweden.  Regional variations in Norway go by other names, too.  Essentially, all forms secure long pattern weft floats with a single or double shot of tabby.

There are a few different ways to set up a loom for this technique, but most assume a loom with sufficient depth front to back to accommodate several harnesses separated in two groups, and the ability to adjust harnesses up and down independently of each other.  Historically, this technique would have been set up with counterbalance.  After review of a lot of different sources, and some experimentation, we found that setting up the ground on countermarch and the pattern harnesses using elastic bands worked the best.  Even so, most found it necessary to use a pick up stick to create a good pattern shed, though the plain weave sheds were pretty good.  Most of us used stick shuttles for the pattern yarn and some for the ground weft also.  Keeping the warp damp aided in getting a better shed and strengthening the warp under high tension.

The ground is threaded on two or four shafts, and the pattern is usually on 4 or 6 shafts, but a larger number of pattern harnesses is possible if the loom can accommodate them.  The warp is first threaded in regular heddles on the ground harnesses for plain weave.  Then contiguous groups of warp threads, often four at a time, are threaded through pattern harnesses in front, using long-eyed heddles or by threading the group of warp threads under the eye of regular heddles.  A single square in the drafts we used corresponds to one group of four threads in a pattern heddle.

The two groups of harnesses should be separated by a few inches.  The sinking-shed pattern is created by treadling the pattern harnesses, one or more at a time, and following each pattern shot with a plain weave shot.  A side fringe of loops can be created by catching the pattern weft around a finger.  The ground weft is usually threaded so 2 or 4 warp threads create a selvedge that is not threaded through a pattern heddle.  This selvedge locks in the loops or hides the pattern weft turns on the backside of the weaving if no loops are desired.

Loops at the edges. The two outer pieces are showing the “right” side, with the narrow selvedges.

We set up two warps in succession, both with Bockens 16/2 unbleached linen yarn.  Weft was the choice of the weaver.  The second was narrower than the first, but on the second warp, a smaller number of weavers wanted to weave longer pieces.  In all, fourteen weavers completed nearly 30 pieces of varying lengths between the two projects.  Most used wool weft, but some pieces were finished with all linen weft or perle cotton. (Draft for the first warp in pdf; 

Lisa Torvik wove a a spring flower garden runner with bundles of linen threads

After the group settled on skillbragd as the technique, we had to come up with ideas for patterns and drafts to set up the loom.  We had a number of printed materials to review, and among them was a photo and, conveniently enough, complete draft for a large traditional skillbragd tapestry from Gol in Buskerud, Norway that I found on the Husflid.no website.  After discussion, I chose a few elements from the piece and created a draft for the narrower width we wanted.  We decided that having the main pattern side up would make it easier to weave, though some traditional sources indicate that skillbragd was often woven backside up.(Draft for the first warp in pdf)

Pattern experiments abounded–Sara Okern stretched out one pattern element in the center of her runner.

When the second warp was proposed and a number of weavers wanted to join the project, Lisa Anne Bauch and I looked through several books and patterns and chose sections we liked to create a slightly narrower warp that featured more ground showing in the design.  Several weavers on the first warp had commented that would be desirable.  Interestingly enough, some of us found the more prominent weft pattern on the backside just as nice, so many pieces will be finished to be reversible. (draft for the second warp in pdf)

Sometimes it was difficult to decide whether the front or the back was more attractive.

I would like to acknowledge the weavers and, of them, the many that helped set up the two projects:  Phyllis Waggoner, Robbie LaFleur and Lisa Anne Bauch worked with me to set up – and set up again when THAT didn’t work – the first warp. 

Robbie LaFleur turning the crank, Lisa Torvik supervising and rolling on the warp, and Lisa Anne Bauch braced with the taut warp.

Robbie helped me monitor and aid those unfamiliar with the technique.  Melba Granlund, Lisa Anne and I set up the second warp, though we agreed four is best!   Help came from afar, too, with an “emergency” phone call while warping to Robbie’s colleague Shawn Cassiman in Michigan and a detailed letter from Ruth Ida Tvenge of the Øystre Slidre Husflidslag in Norway. Ruth Ida’s advice included, 

“I have set up several warps for Kristnateppe [1], both here at home, and for weaving classes.  And they have been good to weave on.  Use Solberg yarn no. 24/2 for warp yarn [2].  And I have a Glimåkra loom also.  They are good looms!  I weave tapestries that are 1.20 meters [47.25 inches] wide and approx. 1.45 meters [57 inches] long.  Use four harnesses for the plain weave and those I hang up with countermarch.  I hang up the four pattern harnesses in elastic bands (of car tire innertubes).  You must be sure to hang the pattern harnesses a little higher than the ground harnesses. When you beam on the warp be sure to hold tightly and firmly on it so that it is “hard” to turn for whoever is turning the warp beam.  Really tighten up the warp when you start to weave. Use narrow (thin) and long shuttles for the pattern sheds.”

[1] Kristnateppe is a traditional Valdres tapestry, a “christening tapestry”, woven in skillbragd technique on a linen or cotton warp with wool weft, featuring natural black, green, red, gold and sometimes blue bands.  

[2] Solbergspinderi of Norway manufactures exclusively 100% cotton yarns, 24/2 being one of their warp yarns.

Following this project, we displayed many of the pieces at the Weavers Guild of Minnesota. Some had been finished, others were in “right off the loom” state. See the article, “Celebrating TWO Group Skillbragd Warps,” on our Scandinavian Weavers Study Group blog. You can sign up to follow our future activities, too. Based on the success of this project, and the fun of seeing so much creativity within our group, we are planning a new warp, in monk’s belt, early in 2019. 

At a monthly meeting of the Scandinavian Weavers Study Group we had a ceremonial unrolling of the skillbragd pieces, toasted with sparkling juice.

Lisa Torvik credits early influences of her mother, grandmothers, aunts and friends in Norway for her knitting, sewing, embroidery and weaving interests.  She spent a year in her youth studying weaving at Valdres Husflidsskule in Fagernes, Norway and now focuses on projects in traditional Norwegian techniques and more contemporary applications.

Women Weaving Women

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By Hilde Opedal Nordby
August 2018

Women Weaving Women (WWW) is a collection of home textiles that were handwoven on a TC2 digital loom in the spring of 2016. The collection is a contribution to the exhibit Future Traditions, a collaborative project between MOME (Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design) in Budapest and the University of Southeast Norway (Universitatet i Sørøst-Norge) at Rauland.  The collection focuses on representations of women in folk art and abstraction as a tool historically and today. 

Future traditions, 2015-2019

From the exhibit Future Traditions at Skien Kunstbank, Norway. Photo: Marianna Brilliantova

From 2014-2017 I studied for my bachelors degree and masters degree in traditional art and textiles at the University of Southeast Norway campus at Rauland.  During this period I participated in the collaborative project Future Traditions. The goal was to interpret traditional expressions of folk art from the two countries, Hungary and Norway, and to investigate how folk art and traditional patterns can find new life today, with a special focus on traditional handcrafts as a part of the work process. The exhibit consisted of the work of 21 students, with representation from several countries. The exhibit was shown in Budapest, Hungary; in Skien and Rauland in Norway; and in Bucharest, Romania. It will travel to Istanbul in Turkey in 2019. The exhibit includes works in textile, wood, metal, and mixed materials. 

Women Who Weave Women

The collection WWW took its starting point with a popular motif in Norwegian billedvev (tapestry) from 1500-1900, the so-called “virgin tapestries.” The pattern is taken from an image of the five wise and five foolish virgins, one of the several biblical themes that were woven from images spread through church art and illustrated pamphlets. In a rural society where people usually could not read or write, these pamphlets and coverlets had a strong narrative and instructive function. The coverlets were often woven for a woman’s marriage and represented the important shift from youth to adulthood, from virgin to mother. 

An older tapestry from Gudbrandsdal, before 1700, illustrating the story of the five wise and five foolish virgins. Photo: https://digitaltmuseum.no/021067335049/billedteppe

Illustration 3. A newer tapestry from Gudbrandsdal, around 1800, shows a more abstract and independent composition. https://digitaltmuseum.no/011023161804/teppe

My work with the motif sprang from my interest in weaving and for how the female figure has been represented in folk art, with a special interest in how women represent themselves in the woven coverlets and thinking about how we represent ourselves today. During the 1900s weaving was an obvious way for a woman to express herself, and it has gradually become recognized as a form of artistic expression. Coverlets woven before 1900 were primarily woven as functional items for the household, but they can also be seen as an expression of a woman’s life. Even though craft has been seen as the basis for mens’ worklife for hundreds of years, textile handwork in the home has always been the women’s arena. WWW is my representation of women today, who are independent and strong, but at the same time in need of community and something that is larger than ourselves.

Abstraction in Folk Art

A book that has been inspirational is Professor Mikkel Tin’s De Første Formene (The First Forms),  which describes how geometric, abstract forms like the circle, cross, zig-zag, and rhombus are universal forms that form the basis of folk art around the world. This phenomenological approach that implies that people have an inherent expression that springs from folk arts’ self-taught, spontaneous practitioners, which again can be seen as an expression of their environment and world views.  

An interesting feature with the virgin tapestries is how the oldest preserved weavings from around 1600 have a richness of detail that tells the whole story of the wise and foolish virgins.  The earliest tapestries, which technically resembled German or Dutch tapestries, were likely woven by men who had established studios. Through the 1700s and 1800s  when it became common to weave figurative coverlets also in the countryside, the motifs changed and interesting compositions developed, in which the story of the virgins disappeared and the women in the tapestries stood as staunch women ringed by geometric decoration and natural forms. The religious story disappeared and was replaced by what I interpret as a collective world understanding—women as a part of something larger, with strength and knowledge from one another.  The tapestries show a strong understanding and knowledge of form, color and composition.  The representation is lively and individual, with strong roots to common patterns. 

Working with the TC2–Weaving and Drafting

The TC2 digital loom. Photo: Hilde Opedal Nordby

WWW also involved research into working with a digital loom of the TC2 type, developed by Tronderud Engineering and a part of Digital Weaving Norway. The loom can raise each warp thread individually, opening new design possibilities. The loom works on the same principles as a Jacquard loom and is a link between handweaving and industrial processes. The advantages of a digital loom are the possibilities of expressions and integrating many weave structures. The drawback is that working a great deal on the computer distances the weaver from the weaving itself, and with digital weaving it becomes easy to think like a machine–to become consumed with perfection and a result that looks just like the one on the computer. Digital weaving takes away the spontaneity of handwork.  It takes longer to weave than on a floor loom because the machine requires time to pull up each of the threads, which gives a different rhythm and flow than working on a floor loom. 

Abstract women underway. Photo: Hilde Opedal Nordby

The collection WWW consists of five long (.7 x 4 meters) wall pieces woven in eight-shaft satin weave where the warp and weft intersections are used to create light and dark sections.  The pieces were woven in red, green, blue, gold and white, all on black warp. The colors were inspired by those in the virgin tapestries. The motif was created in Illustrator and later combined using the same program. The weave structure was drawn in Photoshop and laid over the various areas of color in the composition. For each weft shot, the digital loom reads the pixels in the row to decide which threads should be raised. It is a challenge to combine different weave structures; it is necessary to weave many samples or have deep experience with combining weave structures to get a good result. Irregular shapes can give fuzzy lines between changes in the weave structures, which I experienced in my work. 

 

Setting up the exhibit in Bucharest, Romania. Photo: Bodil Akselvoll

Sampling of the weave structure, materials and colors. Photo: Hilde Opedal Nordby

Sampling. Photo: Hilde Opedal Nordby

Why I’m a Weaver

Work with the collection and with the virgin tapestries has given me insight into the enormous amount of work that went into weaving the tapestries, the knowledge and skills of the weavers, and the communities in which they lived and wove. The conditions of our society and creative lives are completely different than when the original tapestries were woven, but that doesn’t stop us from being inspired by them. They spark our interest in their motifs, colors, and techniques–reasons they become only more intriguing. They give us riches today that we can build on.  I think that as long as we continue to weave and work with handcrafts, our knowledge and possibilities to understand the tapestries from within will live on.   

Hilde Opedal Nordby is a Norwegian textile artist, working with traditonal weaving techniques, as well as contemporary and digital weaving. She is based in a small village called Stokke, where she does custom made projects and teaches weaving around the country. She is educated in traditonal arts and crafts from the University of South-East Norway.

 

National Norwegian-American Folk Art Exhibit 2018

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If you were not able to make it to Decorah, Iowa, for the year’s National Norwegian-American Folk Art Exhibit, here is a digital next-best alternative. Krokbragd is very popular these days; seven of the thirteen entries featured the technique. This is the first year that the entry forms requested information about the pieces and the weavers–a marvelous addition for our annual article celebrating the exhibition. 
 
Nancy Ellison, Zumbrota, MN
Krokbragd and Rya Stole
My favorite weaves of krokbragd and rya are combined in this piece. Stitching uncut rya lengthwise on the weft floats on the back of the Krokbragd is my creative idea. It has the effect of sheepskin backed weaving without a sheep having to give up its hide. I enjoy spinning the natural undyed colors of sheep in my flock. Each sheep is a much loved pet as well as my cats and dogs.
 
The first weaving class I took was at Monica Skolen in Oslo in 1968. I’ve enjoyed half a century of weaving since then, taking classes at Vesterheim and elsewhere. 
 
 
 
Melissa Brown, Decorah, IA
“Darlene said, ‘Trondheim!’” Danskbrogd and Krokbragd Table Runner
Last winter was dark and cold, inspiring me to weave with black and gray wool. Rear taillights brought the use of red, thinking of cars driving down a snow packed Water Street at night in Decorah. The yellow represents Christmas lights along the street.
     
I have been weaving for 44 years. Weaving in the Norwegian tradition is my respite from production weaving of scarves and table linens.
 
 
 
Rosemary Roehl, Gold Medalist, St. Cloud, MN
“Winter” Figurative Bound Weave  
“Winter” is a wall hanging in a figurative bound weave using a rose path tie-up. The design is my own and I have included the more colorful aspects of winter. The blue represents the awesome Minnesota blue sky which makes up for the dirty grey snow and cars. “Winter” is the third season that I have represented in a weaving. I have found figurative bound weaves fun to work with.
 
I am a self-taught weaver in the Norwegian tradition. I fell in love with Norwegian weavings during my first trip to Norway in 1979. Soon after I took a community education course in St. Cloud, MN to learn about looms. I started competing in the Vesterheim National-American Folk Art Exhibition in 1992. I enjoy exploring different ways to use the traditional techniques and color. My mother’s ancestral relatives lived on farms on the Nordfjord. The bunad for this area has more weaving in its national costume than most. It was very satisfying for me to weave my own apron and the numerous decorative bands for the dress and apron.
 
 
 
Carol Culbertson, Evansville, WI
“Brita Remembered” Krokbragd Wall Hanging
Honorable Mention Winner
This piece was inspired by a large wool wall hanging given to me by a family member in Norway. The colors and design are those used in the original. I have woven in the Navajo tradition for about ten years. After receiving the wall hanging, I wanted to learn how to do weaving in the Norwegian tradition. I have been weaving this style after teaching myself three years ago.
 
 
Kathryn Evans, Lena, IL
Card Woven Poncho
Blue Ribbon Winner
This piece is inspired by the wide, card-woven bands used with women’s Telemark folk costumes, especially the beltestakk. I’ve used cotton cordonnet instead of wool for the card weaving due to availability and sturdiness in withstanding the twisting that is inherent in the card weaving process. I wanted something wearable so I added the crocheted sides to create a poncho-like garment. The weaving pattern is original and is based on belts that use close combinations of reds and pinks. Note that the single turning line marks the shoulder seam. 
 
 
Peg Kroll, Suttons Bay, MI
“Stash” Krokbragd Rug
I was inspired to make this krokbragd rug, woven with assorted wool available in the closet, by rugs seen at the Stalheim Hotel in Stalheim, Norway, featuring kyrve and bordgang pattern motifs. I had fun trying to identify the patterns in the pictures from the Stalheim Hotel and chose two, kyrve and bordgang to try to replicate.
   
I started weaving about 18 months ago, so I’m quite a novice. I am enthralled by the textiles I encountered in Norway, which has inspired the leap from knitting and spinning to weaving and hopefully tapestry. I resurrected my mother’s old leClerc four harness loom from the garage where it sat for 40 years and cleaned it up.
 
 
Meredith Bennett, Free Union, VA
“Break on Through” Rya and Wedge Weaving
I wanted to combine two very different techniques- rya and wedge weave- to get a pointillistic effect in the overall design. Both techniques lend themselves to this effect using the variegated yarn but the textures are opposite. I’ve been weaving since the early 70s. I’m attracted to ethnic art but I like to make my own designs based on these techniques and designs.
 
 
Ann Vonnegut-Frieling, Dyke, VA
Telemarksteppe-Style Wall Hanging 
White Ribbon Winner
This wall hanging is woven in a Telemarksteppe style with the loops on the selvages. It is a style from the Telemark area of Norway. The design was inspired by Laura Demuth, a teacher that taught at John C. Campbell Folk School in March of 2017. I wove this during the summer of 2017
     
My inspiration came to me when I saw the blues and greens together it reminded me of water, and the oranges, browns, and deep red reminded me of autumn and the circles reminded me of round leaves from the redbud tree falling into the water. 
     
I have been weaving for 10 years, but only recently started weaving with the Norwegian techniques of Telemarksteppe and danskbrogd. I took a class with Jan Mostrom at Vesterheim last fall. I am enjoying weaving and learning about the different Norwegian styles and techniques.
 
 
Robbie La Fleur, Gold Medalist, Minneapolis, MN
Danskbrogd Wall Hanging
This weaving was inspired by the graphic X patterns found in coverlets from the Vest-Agder region of Norway in danskbrogd technique.
     
I am a handweaver of contemporary textiles inspired by Scandinavian folk textiles. The language of my looms is based on centuries-old techniques, learned in weaving school in Norway. The core graphic impact of old folk textiles drives each new weaving, in a search for balance, color and boldness. Even when the planning process is computer-assisted, or a technique is done at a new scale or in unusual materials, I honor the fine craftsmanship of the past.
 
 
Judy Ann Ness, Gold Medalist, Eugene, OR
“Playa: Impossible Sky” Krokbragd and Tapestry
“Best in Show” Award
Playa: Impossible Sky” is a fusion of krokbragd and tapestry techniques. It was woven after an artist’s residency at Playa Summer Lake in the eastern desert of Oregon. Linen warp wool, mostly hand-dyed, rayon, silk weft.
     
I was inspired by the stark beauty of an alkali lake only present in the winter and spring. The dry season comes with the heat and the lake disappears until the next season of hard rain and wind. It looks empty but is full of wildlife. It’s free space, still wild, and an inspiration for the art and the heart.
     
My heritage is Norwegian-all four grandparents immigrated from southwest Norway in the 1850s. In exploring Norwegian weaving techniques I began to try and blend krokbragd and tapestry techniques around 1998. Still working on it.
 
 
Laura Demuth, Gold Medalist, Decorah, IA
Doubleweave Pick-Up and Rya Blanket
I wove this blanket as a gift for my son, Gabriel Oak, when he completed his Ph.D. It is a delight to weave for Gabriel because he appreciates the skill and practice of handwork. This one is for him.
 
I have been weaving for over 35 years, and enjoy all aspects of textile production, from raising sheep to taking a finished piece off the loom. I especially enjoy traditional weaving and have found Vesterheim’s textile collection to be a continuous source of inspiration.
 
 
Helen Scherer, Shawnee, KS
Sæterjentens Søndag Wall Hanging 
Red Ribbon Winner
This is an åkle wall-hanging primarily in krokbragd technique. The design was inspired by Jørgen Moe’s lyrics to Ole Bull’s classic violin piece, Sæterjengen’s Søndag (The Herdgirl’s Sunday). The herdgirl wished she could be walking to church and singing, but must tend the cattle at the mountain dairy. From the top we have:
1. Ole Bull’s 400+ bottles of French wine
2. Snippet of Sæterjentens søndag music
3. Sun peeking over the mountain at dawn; trees
4. Herdgirls in work dress carrying milk buckets
5. Mountain pasture full of cows; more trees
6. Churches in the valley
7. Women in Gudbrandsdalen festbunads walking to church 
8. River at the bottom of the valley
My mother, Marit Nordheim, had been a weaver in Øyer, Oppland, Norway before immigrating to the USA in 1953. So I grew up with a floor loom in the house and shared her love for textiles.
 
 
Veronna Capone, Gold Medalist, Brookings, SD
“Connecting Cultures” Krokbragd weaving
The inspiration for this piece was a woman’s buffalo robe in an exhibit called “Lakota Emergence” at the South Dakota Art Museum, Brookings, South Dakota. I’ve been weaving for over 40 years and enjoy working in wool from Scandinavia and learning techniques from Norwegian textiles and studying their use of color.
 

Warped (or Wrapped?) in Time

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By Melba Granlund
August 2018

For those of us fortunate enough to have traveled on some of the Vesterheim Textile Tours, we have been blessed by seeing and learning about the rich textile heritage of all the Nordic countries.  We have marveled at, and been enriched by, the beauty of both historic and contemporary pieces seen in museums and artists’ studios — works of art created by old masters and new artists alike. We have also seen the tools and learned about the processes and techniques used to create some of these beautiful pieces.

Personally, I can’t get enough of the older pieces — those that were crafted using rudimentary tools like the warp-weighted loom, made before the invention of machines or mass production which eliminate the human component.  I marvel at the skill of the weavers, some of whom wove with little or no light, using yarn the weaver first handspun with a drop spindle and then colored with natural dyes. Despite the fact that it would take several hundreds of hours to 1) grow the flax, process the flax, spin the flax into linen thread for weaving and then weave it,  or 2) raise the sheep, clip the wool, wash the wool, card the wool, spin the wool, dye the wool and then weave cloth, these textiles were not only created for function, but were also beautiful. Threads and yarns dyed with woad blue or madder red in various weave structures (typically different types of twill) were common. Despite their simplicity, these looms allowed weavers to explore a variety of weave structures.

Warp-weighted loom history

While I have dabbled in many types of weaving, spinning and dyeing, my attention has been focused more recently on the warp-weighted loom and its use before, during and since the Viking era.  This is perhaps due in part to my increased interest in history but probably also because I have recently begun playing a Viking age weaver in reenactment group settings and needed to construct hand-sewn garments of linen and woolen twill.  This got me thinking more about how people would have actually done that, back in the day.  A great example was that seen last summer at Sanglandet, the Iron Age, Stone Age, Viking Age and 19th century living history museum in Lejre, Denmark. In their Textile building we saw replications of period clothing made from cloth woven on the vertical and the warp weighted looms similar to those used during the Stone and Iron Ages. Outside the textile building, the dyer tended plants she was growing for extracting natural pigments to dye woolen yarn for weaving. Hanks of hand dyed yarn hung outside the front door of the building to show all the possibilities.   She went into great detail about how she had developed different colors of red from the madder plant roots or blues from the leaves of the woad plant simply by adjusting the pH level either by the type of water she used or adding an acid like vinegar or an alkali like wood ashes. Inside the building we had seen the naturally dyed wool on both the warp weighted and the vertical loom. (See also: “Sagnlandet Lejre: Land of Legends (and Textiles”)

In the Viking era, warp-weighted looms were used to not only weave linen cloth for clothing, but woolen cloth for Viking sails and woolen vadmal (woolen twill) fabric used as trade goods or as currency to pay taxes or tithes to the church.  Some think that the reason the Vikings took so many slaves as they conquered new territories was so there were enough people to care for all the sheep needed to produce enough wool and then to spin and weave all the wool needed to make sails for the large Viking ships (some estimate it took the fleece of 700 sheep to make one sail).   Besides that, there were a lot of people to clothe, so woven cloth was required. The loom was also used to weave rya and the varafeldur (translated: “fur product”), which was for about 200 years the most traded commodity between the Vikings in Iceland and those in Norway. At the same time, the loom was also used to create pictorial weavings like that of the Överhogdal tapestries woven between 800-1100 AD.  

Innovative modern loom weights

Coming to understand the importance of how much this loom played a part of everyday life for thousands of years, and for tens and hundreds of thousands of people, has really struck home.  Weavers played an extremely vital role in keeping people clothed and fed and out of pauper’s prison. That’s why so many loom weights are found at archeological dig sites. Earliest evidence of the loom dates back to 7,000 B.C. in Jericho, Palestine, where loom weights were discovered lying in two distinct rows alongside of what had been the wall of a dwelling.  Although the wooden parts of the loom had long since disappeared, the loom weights had not. As people of the Stone Age migrated north they brought the sheep and the warp-weighted loom with them. It reached Scandinavia around 300 A.D.

Designing a warp-weighted loom class

When I first learned how to weave on the loom, I knew I wanted to do more with this type of loom, and now I have.  The prospect of teaching warp-weighted loom weaving came along with an idea I had about developing a curriculum for the Weavers Guild which would delve more deeply into historic textiles and how they were made.  By using old looms and other handcraft tools, students would have an opportunity to experience a kinship to ancient weavers, spinners and dyers by carrying forward these older, traditional techniques.  I shared the idea with two friends at the guild — fellow spinners and dyers — and it was settled.  We would develop a program of classes and activities surrounding historical textile production, using only the tools and materials available prior to the Industrial Age.  We dubbed ourselves “the ditch weeds and sticks committee” after a story one of them told a spinning student when the student complained she could not afford to buy a new spinning wheel. My friend’s reply was that she could teach her to spin using only ditch weeds (nettles) and sticks.   Hence, the name. The idea was launched.

We met several times to discuss all the different avenues of exploration we could investigate. As the weaver in the group, I focused on weaving.  The warp-weighted loom was an obvious choice. The only looms I knew of were at the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum. We needed our own, so my next hurdle was to have some looms made.  Many hours of research on line and countless emails and conversations later, structural plans were developed, and a very kind and skillful woodworker was identified. He agreed to make the looms, and even volunteered his time. He did so in honor of his wife, whom he said loved to spend time at the guild and who wanted to learn how to weave on this type of loom. All we needed to do was to pay for the materials.   Deal. Done.

A few short months later, the looms were finished and we were ready — classes could begin.  I’m happy to say the first class has just finished. The first group of brave souls (four women and two men) included a first-time weaver and some who had taken a small number of weaving classes —  a perfect blend of skill levels and interests to try out the “new” looms. Some used purchased commercial yarn and others their handspun.

The first class was an exploration of the weaving tradition of the Sami peoples.  Students were challenged to learn how to set up the loom and weave a small Sami blanket or rug.  Here are some students with work in progress.

While they were weaving, we talked about the history and provenance of the loom and I read them Njal’s Saga. While very graphic, it gives you insight as to the mystery of how the loom and weaving on it was perceived in ancient times.

“See! warp is stretched
For warriors’ fall,
Lo! weft in loom
‘Tis wet with blood;
Now fight foreboding,
‘Neath friends’ swift fingers,
Our grey woof waxeth
With war’s alarms,
Our warp bloodred,
Our weft corseblue.*
“This woof is y-woven
With entrails of men,
This warp is hardweighted
With heads of the slain,
Spears blood-besprinkled
For spindles we use,
Our loom ironbound,
And arrows our reels;
With swords for our shuttles
This war-woof we work;
So weave we, weird sisters,
Our warwinning woof.

*The term “corseblue” does not refer to the texture of the wool yarn being “coarse” but instead refers to the fact that “of course” the yarn was blue.   

Source: Darraðarljoð – The Battle Song of the Valkyries

One student’s perspective on the class

Beth McLaughlin wrote:

Beth McLaughlin’s stone weights. An ancient tradition set against mid-century modern linoleum.

Reason(s) to take the Warp Weighted Loom class:

  • Historic technique/technology
  • Explore the magic of transforming thread into fabric
  • Comradery
  • Palatable immersion into weaving
  • Fabulous instructor
  • Welcoming/comfortable classroom environment

My initial reason for enrolling in the Warp Weighted Loom class was to explore an ancient and universal weaving method.  Okay, and the rocks.  Who could you not be intrigued by a fiber processing method that involves rocks?!  The second, and equally compelling reason for enrolling is the opportunity to take a class from Melba Granlund.  Her knowledge, enthusiasm, quickness to smile, laugh, and answer your questions, and her inexhaustible patience (second only to my own dear mother) encapsulates all the desirable traits of a great instructor.  There was no way to lose with this combination./opportunity/class.

Our initial one hour meeting sparked the desire to either step up my spinning game or go shopping for the yarn required for the Sami Grene.  With a brief introduction to the history of this type of “primitive” loom and a plethora of references to consult, the six of us were sent on our way.  A few weeks later, with around four pounds of yarn in tow, the first class was on a rainy Friday – a great kind of day to spend indoors in a studio filled with light, windows, and inspiration all around (looms, yarn, books, more books, and fiber art on display.)  We began the day with a step by step outline and hands on guidance with each step of the process.  Loom set-up came first, which required partnering up to handle the wood components of six foot wide loom frames.  Next we were given cut lengths of yarn and a small rigid heddle to weave the header which also served to measure the six foot warps.  We had two color options for the warp.  

Next we lashed our header with warps to the heavy beam.  The beam was installed on the loom and we were almost ready to weave.  Next came the rocks (or stones, if you prefer).  There were buckets full of beautiful, smooth stones from which we selected twenty-two.  We carefully tied the warps around the stones.  The looms were then ready!

Melba had a wide variety of pattern options to share via hands-on samples and in multiple books.  We spent the rest of the day formulating patterns that would work with our individual color choices for wefts and wrestling with selvedges that liked to creep in.  For three wonderful days straight in a row we worked away, concentrating, conversing and only occasionally cursing (maybe that was just me) when we had to unweave, noticed the selvedge creep, or had to retie fallen stones.  It was like a weaving bender weekend.  The time in class flew by.

We, fortunately, were able to leave the looms set up in the room and had access to them throughout the week during the Guild’s hours of operation.  It was a delight to arrive late in the afternoon on three different occasions and find fellow classmates weaving away and to marvel at the progress on all the looms.  The house elves were clearly busy in this place.  

Our last class was the following Saturday.  We continued with our pattern explorations and an hour before the end of class we released the stones, unfurled the weaving, and cut the fabric off the looms.  The variations in the (almost) finished products were wonderful to witness.  While slightly exhausted, I was completely inspired to weave more using this type of loom and this style of weft-faced weaving.  Next step, to search for stones!

Wonderful results of the class

The next Sami rug class is scheduled for Nov/Dec 2018.  (Check for classes at the website of the Weavers Guild of Minnesota.)  More classes are being developed for 2019 including a Sampler of Norwegian Coverlet Patterns and a Varafeldur course.  If you have a flock of sheep, or know someone who does, weaving a varafeldur is a special treat.

Weaving on the warp-weighted loom is a meditative process.  It’s only you and the loom. You learn about the loom’s idiosyncrasies – what works and what doesn’t.  It allows a new weaver to get a real grasp of what weaving is all about. As a teacher, my goal is to not only teach the technique, but to do what I can to educate others to appreciate the beauty and uniqueness of our Nordic handcraft traditions so these skills and crafts are not lost or forgotten.  Along with learning the techniques, students learn about the historical and cultural contexts in which the item was originally made. By using the old looms and other handcraft tools, students have an opportunity to experience a kinship to ancient weavers and handcraft artists by being able to carry forward these traditions.  If students choose to continue practicing the old, traditional techniques, then I’ve done my job.

Melba Granlund is a Swedish handcraft artist and teacher who focuses on the historical Scandinavian folk arts of weaving, felting, nålbinding, wire jewelry making, spinning, knitting, sewing and embroidery.  As a life-long learner, she has received instruction from masters of these handcrafts in the U.S. as well as in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland.  Melba strives to keep Scandinavian folk art traditions alive by teaching and sharing what she has learned with others. She is an instructor for the Weavers Guild of Minnesota, the Textile Center, and for other organizations and groups on request. She currently serves on the WGM Board of Directors and is a member of the Scandinavian Weavers Study Group.

 

 

 

Krokbragd Tapestry

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“Playa: Impossible Sky,” 2016

By Judy Ness
August 2018

Editor’s note:  This year’s Best of Show weaving in the 2018 National Norwegian-American Folk Art Exhibition was Judy Ann Ness’s “Playa: Impossible Sky,” an intriguing combination of krokbragd and tapestry techniques.  She won Best of Show for “Playa: Summer Lake, 2014” in 2015. (Read more here.) Now seemed a good time to ask her more about she combines techniques in her signature style.  

 

Why, oh why, would one want to do this technique? I do not know.  It began to develop in 1996 during graduate school in textile arts/weaving at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon. The interest in Norwegian textiles began much earlier, probably 1968 or so, when I saw a pair of a Norske immigrant’s giant white mittens knitted and felted displayed at Vesterheim during Nordic Fest. I was a local kid from Lake Mills, Iowa, just northwest of Decorah. You never know when something will spark, take hold and stay, lurking for years until it surfaces with meaning and intent. 

Let’s look at the details using krokbragd and tapestry techniques. 

KROKBRAGD

Krokbragd lozenges

Traditional krokbragd is mostly woven as small interlocking patterns of almost infinite possibility. It has some constraints being a bound rosepath: 3 lifts repeated over and over again: 1-2, 2-3, 1-3. Using the same color on the same lift repeatedly produces a pattern of three vertical, solid color bars. The magic comes when the colors are changed. The treadling goes forth without variation, and the pattern is varied simply by the choice of color change. I’m particularly fond of making lozenges with a lacey black outline. Be assured, at some point in exploring the basic krokbragd, a weaver will start to see and understand what color changes will create a specific pattern.

TAPESTRY

Tapestry is two-shed plain weave warp: 1 and 2 on a vertical loom. If using a horizontal loom in a straight draft, the lift would be as for tabby: 1-3, 2-4. It’s plain weave with two lifts. The business of how the weft is woven is the substance of the tapestry technique. We won’t go into this here except to say the weft weaving controls the imagery. 

A COMPARISION & A SOLUTION

Krokbragd pattern is loom controlled and tapestry is outrageously free of control.  To combine them is interesting and time consuming. After years of trying to find an elegant solution to the interlock portion of tapestry on two lifts marrying with the loom controlled three-lift action of krokbragd, I failed. Absolutely.  The more complex method was replaced by reverting to a simple clasped weft technique. (Reference: Peter Collingwood’s excellent The Techniques of Rug Weaving.) The solution was to use the krokbragd treadling with the clasped weft technique. It offered a choice of tapestry or allowing the krokbragd patterning to emerge.

Melding these techniques created a chimera, a beast of two different parentages that combine making something new. As you will see, the early work expressed krokbragd more distinctly with later efforts merging both the krokbragd and tapestry personalities. Curves, depth, and imagery become more possible to achieve.

“Midnight Sun,” 1998

“To the Ghosts Who Sleep in the Land Childhood Lost,” 1998 (in the collection of the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum)

“Resolution,” 2000. (In the collection of the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum)

“Playa Summer Lake,” 2014

“Playa: Impossible Sky,” 2016

Judy Ness is a tapestry weaver from Oregon with special interests in Norwegian and Navajo weaving. She has shared her knowledge and love of textiles as an instructor in weaving, spinning, and dyeing since 1995.

 

Dipping Into Carol Johnson’s Tapestry Collection

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Carol Johnson has over 60 tapestries in her collection–some Swedish, some Norwegian, and a handful of Scandinavian-inspired American ones. Most are modest in size. Many of them were woven by novices, probably by women learning tapestry techniques during a resurgence of textile interest in the 1950s-1970s.  One piece is undisputedly a learner piece…

…Because here’s the Swedish book with the pattern!  Flamskvävnad: Flemish Weaving, by Ernst Fischer and Gertrud Ingers (Västeros: ICA Förlaget, 1961).

Pieces in the collection represent many popular traditional images. She has two small tapestries of a man and woman surrounded by a floral border.  It’s a segment of a well-known Swedish tapestry cushion pattern, “The Engagement.”

The pattern for this weaving is found in Flemish Weaving: A Guide to Tapestry Technique, by Gertrude Ingers (NY: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., 1971, originally published in Swedish, 1967). It is a portion of a image that was popular during the height of Swedish flamsk weaving in southern Sweden, from around 1750-1850.  

Flamsk means Flemish, meaning a type of tapestry based on continental styles.  In Sweden the weaving techniques and the images were simplified and, similar to Norwegian billedvev (tapestry), used dovetail techniques to avoid slits.

Woven in southern Sweden, owned by the Kulturen Museum in Lund.

Vivecke Hansen, a Swedish author and expert on flamskväv and other Scanian weaving techniques, posted a photo of a cushion with a more elaborate background, woven in the 1800s. (“Historical Reproductions–18th and 19th Century Dove-Tail Tapestry.” Textilis, No. XXXIX, May 22, 2015) 

Sometimes scanning images in the Swedish DigitaltMuseum turns up patterns similar to those in Carol’s collection. This relatively modern flamsk weaving was dated 1960-1980. It is a common floral pattern with a bouquet of flowers flanked by two parrots, surrounded by a wreath, on a background of flowers. 

In Carol’s tapestry, which may be older, guessing from the condition, the red urn switches to one festively adorned with zigzags. So many of the individual pattern elements are the same shapes in both tapestries, but vary in execution. For example, look at how the parrots were woven in the two pieces. 

Another popular Swedish flamsk pattern is the red lion surrounded by a laurel wreath and on a background of flowers. Over 70 tapestries with the lion image still exist from the historical 1750-1850 time period. Here is the example owned by Carol, woven in the 20th century. 

Carol’s collection of weaving in tapestry techniques includes several pieces in square weave, with designs built geometrically.  Swedish pieces, called rölakan, use a double-interlock technique. This photo shows the back of a rölakan with the characteristic rows of raised edges where the colors join and interlock.  This photo also show how older pieces can be quite faded on the front, with the richest colors–sadly–evident only on the back. 

Carol’s collection includes two rölakan versions of the Swedish Bäckahäst, the river or sea horse, another popular Swedish tapestry image. This mythological creature was thought to lure people to ride on their backs and then plunge into the river. Although I thought this was a dragon-like creature spouting fire, I have seen a few references to a lily in the mouth of the horse.

Another find from the Swedish Digitalt Museum was this hand-colored photograph of a historical textile with similarities to one in Carol’s collection. It is part of a collection of 120,000 photographs by Lilli Zickerman, posted by the Svenska Hemslöjdsförening  (The Swedish Handcraft Association). Lilli Zickerman undertook a massive inventory of Swedish folk textiles between 1910-1932.  

This piece in Carol’s collection reproduces many of the abstracted flowers of the larger historical piece. In the center of both pieces, note the modern-looking abstracted lilies of the valley.

This Swedish rölakan, woven at a fine sett with thin yarn, features birds and stars. 

 

Here is a Norwegian piece at a larger scale. In Norway the geometric tapestry technique is called rutevev.

Although double-interlock square-weave pieces are found in Norway, single interlock is more usual. With that technique, once the loose threads are woven in, the back is as beautiful as the front, and the weaving is reversible. We would guess this is a Norwegian rutevev because the back is as lovely as the front, but there is also a label.

Traditionally, larger Norwegian square-weave pieces were woven with thicker yarn at a wider sett than Swedish square-weave tapestries, probably because they were woven as utilitarian coverlets.  In Sweden the square-weave technique was more commonly used for decorative textiles, with more complex patterns in finer threads. 

The next two single interlock rutevev hangings are likely from patterns by noted Norwegian designer Else Poulsson, who worked in a variety of textile techniques. Poulsson was the head of Den Norske Husflidsforening (the National Handcraft Association) for 25 years, beginning in 1929. While her abstracted patterns were sometimes compared to spare patterns of German Bauhaus designs, her images focused on Norwegian culture; rural people in traditional costumes were frequent subjects. 

A similar horse and rider design is found in an entry about Else Poulsson in the Store Norske Leksikon (Large Norwegian Encyclopedia). 

Carol Johnson’s collection includes the head of a figure in the famous Norwegian Baldishol Tapestry, the most spectacular historical Norwegian tapestry, dated from the mid-1100s. It is woven in billedvev (literally, picture-weaving), the Norwegian tapestry technique that employs decorative joins and avoids long slits. Norwegian billedvev is also characterized by areas of solid color with little hatching. 

It’s one of the few pieces in the collection with initials and the date of completion on the back, “S.H. 14/7 1966.” 

A cartoon for this weaving is included on the Swedish Digital Museum site, from the collection of Vänersborgs museum. (Full record here. The record says it is from Johanna Brunssons Vävskola (a weaving school). 

Clearly this cartoon has been woven many times.  Ulrikka Mokdad from Copenhagen wrote, “Baldisholmanden – I remember 26 years ago when I was taking classes at The Weavers’ Guild, we would choose between several details from the Baldishol tapestries at the end of course one. I chose the face of the April man .” Another Danish Facebook reader wrote that she had inherited the same piece from her great-aunt, and assumed it had been a weaving school assignment. 

If you were hunting for the most iconic image of medieval Norwegian billedvev, you would have to find an image of the wise and foolish virgins.  As expected, Carol has one–this weaver only wove the five wise ones.  

In the early 1900s the Handcraft Associations in Norway (Husfliden) and Sweden (Hemslöjden), in an attempt to revive traditional handcrafts, sold weaving patterns based on historical pieces.  This billedvev piece in Carol’s collection was likely from a pattern from Husfliden in Norway.

This image is from a medieval cushion cover is in a set of books by Henrik Grosch.

Carol Johnson’s tapestries are tantalizing puzzles.  They came with little background–perhaps they were sold off from a relative’s stash or were flea market finds for the sellers. They are woven with care in a time-consuming process.  Who made them? Where did they get the patterns? When did they fade from fashion or lose meaning for the weaver or her family?  As the title states, this article only dips into Carol Johnson’t tapestry treasures. 

Fans of Scandinavian tapestry can look forward to an exhibit of Carol Johnson’s collection at the Weavers Guild of Minnesota in early 2019.  Here is a GALLERY of many of the pieces.  If you have knowledge of the designers or other background about them, let me know.  

Robbie LaFleur
lafleur1801@me.com