Scandinavian Textiles Zoom Lectures
Rug and Textile Appreciation Morning: Swedish Textiles From 1680 to 1850. Saturday, February 11, 1 p.m. Presented by the Textile Museum at George Washington University.
From the description: “Collector Gunnar Nilsson will explore Swedish textiles, starting with better-known types such as “röllakan,” embroideries and Flemish weaves. He will also introduce some of the lesser-known types that never come up in foreign auctions or major Swedish sales. While many in this group are of middling or low quality, there are a few outstanding examples that can easily compete with the best Flemish-weave and röllakan works. This program is a partnership with the New England Rug Society and The Textile Museum Associates of Southern California.” Register here.
From the George Washington University Museum website: Carriage cushion made with the “röllakan” technique (detail); Sweden, southwestern Skåne, Skytts härad; 1780.
Stories from the Textile Program at Sätergläntan with Johanna Runbäck and Susana Ayton. Friday, February 17, 2023, 12 pm-1pm CST. Presented by the American Swedish Institute and North House Folk School.
This webinar features lead instructors from Sätergläntan Institute for Craft, located in Dalarna, Sweden, a sister school to North House Folk School in Grand Marais, Minnesota. You will learn about the three year program of study at this venerable institution, celebrating 100 years of traditional craft education in 2023. Johanna Runbäck and Susana Ayton will be guest instructors at North House in June 2023. Register for the webinar at this link.
Photo from the North House page listing the courses from Sätergläntan visiting instructors, June 2023
Zoom Lecture and Sale of Scandinavian Weavings
Lecture: Warmth and Color: Traditional Scandinavian Coverlets. Sponsored by the Textile Center of Minnesota as part of “Fiber Art of All” week. Speaker: Laurann Gilbertson, Chief Curator of Vesterheim Norwegian American Museum. Friday, Feb. 21, 11 am CST.
In Scandinavia, woven textiles covered beds and cushions, brightened walls, and played roles during baptism, weddings, and funerals. The textiles came to America with the immigrants and have helped Americans build and maintain links to their ethnic roots. After a review of some of the different types of Norwegian woven coverlets and their uses, Gilbertson will share examples from the colorful textile collection of Carol Oversvee Johnson, which will be on display and for sale in Rooms 4 and 5 at the Textile Center of Minnesota during the week.
Laurann Gilbertson holds a BA in Anthropology and an MS in Textiles & Clothing, both from Iowa State University. She was Textile Curator at Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum in Decorah, Iowa, for 19 years and is now the Chief Curator there. Among her duties are overseeing the collection of more than 30,000 artifacts, creating exhibitions, and leading Textile Study Tours to Norway.
On a recent trip to north Norway, Katherine was shown a beautifully embroidered crazy quilt that had traveled far from the hands of its maker. It was made in the early 1900s, a gift sent to Norway by a woman who had emigrated over 25 years earlier. The seamstress, Petrine Almli, embroidered her name into the quilt, as well as the names of many family members on both sides of the Atlantic, a testimony in stitches to the ties that bind a family together. But time and distance eventually dimmed those memories, and while the quilt was carefully preserved through the years (and finally found its way into a museum collection), the family members in Norway no longer remembered its story.
Where did the quilt come from? Katherine accepted the challenge to find the woman who sewed this quilt. Piece by piece, the story of Petrine and her family emerged: a small chapter in the immigrant experience that began over a century ago with the efforts of a woman and her embroidery needle. Register here:
Katherine Larson is an affiliate faculty member at the University of Washington, Department of Scandinavian Studies. She became interested in textiles during an undergraduate year at a Norwegian folk high school, an experience that inspired her life long interest in textile history and the textile history of Norway. Katherine holds a Ph.D. from the University of Washington, and has curated several exhibitions documenting Scandinavian textile traditions. She is the author or “The Woven Coverlets of Norway” (2001). She and her husband live on a small farm in Bainbridge Island near Seattle.
(quilt block photo courtesy of the Vefsyn Museum in Norway)
A Viking Era Varafeldur — Miniature Edition
The spring 2023 issue of the magazine Little Looms features an article on making a small wall-piece varafeldur. You normally see much larger woven versions, but the small size is also appealing, as it focuses intently on the beauty of the long locks. Read their teaser article on the project: “Weaving History: The Varafeldur (Learn the history of the Icelandic varafeldur and its links to Vikings and royalty“).
If the tiny varafeldur piques your interest to see more, read “Varafeldur: An Icelandic Rya Reconstruction” by Marta Kløve Juuhl (Norwegian Textile Letter, November 2013) or this blog post about my experimentation, “Finally, the Varafeldur is off the Warp-Weighted Loom” (December 1, 2017).
Kari Steihaug Book
Evocative embroidery filled the galleries at the Galleri Dropsfabrikken in Trondheim from October 29-November 22, 2022, in Kari Steihaug – Potetbøtta og parfymen [Kari Steihaug: Potato Buckets and Perfume]. Missed the exhibit? You can purchase the lovely book here (with free shipping to the US).
In the Market for New Shoes?
Scandinavian fiber fans might appreciate boots made from Norwegian wool from Alfa Sko (Alfa Shoes). See: “Wool: Ancient yet Cutting Edge.”
The caption for this photo from the Alfa Sko website is “Norwegian Wool is World Class”
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2023 will be a great year for the newsletter; many new articles, translations, and book reviews are in the works. There is never a lack of inspiring material when covering historical and contemporary Scandinavian textiles.
Robbie LaFleur, Publisher