By Nancy Ebner
This past summer my husband and I traveled to Iceland for a 12-day self-guided tour around the famous Ring Road. We were drawn to Iceland by its amazing waterfalls, geo-thermal areas, mountains, surrounding seas, crater lakes, glaciers, and glacial lagoons. Its natural beauty did not disappoint! We also took in some of its cultural sites by visiting the Skógar Folk Museum, Skógasafn, along the southern coast, the Herring Era Museum in Siglufjörõur, the Iceland Textile Museum in Blönduós, northwestern Iceland and the Snorrastofa Cultural Center in Reykholt.
The Skógar Folk Museum was a treasure of artifacts, some of which included lovely examples of pieces from the 1800s woven in monk’s belt and glit techniques . (See this previous article on the Icelandic glit technique.)
Saddle blanket made by Sigridur Jónsdóttir in Svartinúpur in the year 1859.
The Iceland Textile Museum (next to the Icelandic Textile Center) houses several permanent exhibits: Icelandic national costume; embroidery (primarily white on white); the role of wool in Iceland from early settlers to the present day; and a section based on the life and work of Halldóra Bjarnadóttir (1873-1981). Halldóra Bjarnadóttir was a teacher and was active in writing and speaking about women’s rights. She promoted women’s unions based on the work women did in their homes to produce wool into clothing. In 1946 she founded a wool and textile college and ran the school for nine years.
White on white embroidery display.
Each year the museum hosts special exhibitions by Icelandic textile artists and designers. I was able to view the work of Philippe Ricart, (1952-2021) who specialized in tablet weaving. He became a teacher at The Icelandic Handicraft School where he taught tablet weaving, tapestry, leather stitching and Haddock bone carving.
At the Icelandic Textile Museum, I purchased the Second Edition of Halldóra Bjarnadóttir’s book, Vefnadur [Textile], her 1966 fundamental book about weaving in Iceland. The preface and forward are in English, but the rest of the book is in Icelandic.
To finish, here are some of the beautiful works donning the walls of the museum. You should visit!
Detail of an Icelandic glit weaving.
October 2023
Nancy Ebner is a newly retired pharmacist from St. Louis Park, Minnesota, who learned to weave in earnest in 2017. She likes the process, the finished product and the math needed to operate the computer precursor: the loom. She has her next six projects planned, two of which include a skillbragd and a rutevev. There is a rich tradition of Scandinavian weaving in Minnesota, and she is drawn to its traditional designs and art weaves.
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