By Mary Reichert
Karin Flatøy Svarstad was born on Voksa, a small island on the west coast of Norway. Living on the sea they were naturally a fishing village and in those damp conditions it was essential to keep warm and dry. For generations the fisherman survived on the wool of the Old Norse Sheep of Norway who are the direct descendants of the Viking sheep. Karin’s grandmother would knit and felt socks for her father and grandfather, who were both fisherman, and this is where she first learned to make felt.
She is now a skilled felt-maker with 40+ years of experience who works building connections through arts and culture, with wool often serving as the common thread. In 1998 she started the Sommerakademiet in Kalvåg, Norway. The Academy offers classes spring to fall, and study trips to the North Atlantic. The aim of the Academy is to “create art and cultural activities in the district, build networks in Vesterled, and facilitate collaboration and exchange within art, culture, and crafts” (www.sommerakademiet.com). She also opened Galleri Frøya in Kalvåg as another way to help boost the local economy through arts and culture.
Karen Flatøy Svarstad’s felted birds
In 2011 the farmers on Orkney Island invited Karin to come talk about possibilities for their local wool. They have an incredibly unique seaweed eating sheep living on the coast of North Ronaldsday and they thought the wool too rough and dirty to use.
This became the start of the North Atlantic Native Sheep and Wool Conference which has blossomed into a gathering that is now held annually. The conference has been to the Isle of Man, Outer Hebrides, Orkney, Iceland, Faroe Islands, Norway, and the Shetland Islands. This coming year it will be in Setesdal, Norway, and in 2020 they will travel to Greenland.
Karin started the conference because she saw people were not being paid for their wool and instead throwing it away or burning it. She also thought people around the North Atlantic who share a love for the Northern European short-tailed breeds could learn from each other and share stories of how the sheep survive in the sometimes harsh landscapes of the North Atlantic.
Orkney now has a carding and spinning mill and they have begun to sell their wool. Isle of Man also began to market their wool of the Manx Loaghtan. The beautiful black wool of the Hebridean, once thought no good, is also gaining recognition. From this conference, Wool Weeks have also started in Shetland and Norway that help promote native breeds and support the farmers who raise them.
Karin was surprised by the great interest in the conference. People have come from as far as South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand to connect with the people and cultures of the North Atlantic.
North House Folk School, in Grand Marais, Minnesota, hosted Karin on her first trip to the US during their Northern Fibers Retreat in February 2019. She was busy during her three-week residency teaching community classes, working with high school students, offering public presentations, and teaching courses at North House.
Read about her North House course in the accompanying article, “New Birds on the North Shore: Felted Ones.”