Scandinavian Textiles: Articles, Exhibits, News

Interview

The May 2020 issue of Norwegian Crafts Newsletter features an interview of one of the foremost textile artists in Norway: “Weaving the Wild: the work of Brit Fuglevaag.” Zoe Black, a New Zealand artist on a residency in Norway, wrote the article. It includes a quote that conjures a beautiful image. “Each summer when Brit is staying at her holiday home she walks along the shore of the nearby fjord and collects discarded fibres. Found rope, sisal, fishing line and any other fabric is systematically collected and strung together. These bundles are then hung outside her cottage and left for the winter. The elements naturally knead the fibre and give each piece an indistinguishable texture that comes from slow organic processing.”

Film

For fans of historical textiles, a wonderful film was made in 2016:  The Reconstruction of the Lendbreen Tunic. Archaeological research in Norway at the Lendbreen glacier in northern Gudbransdal has been in the news again recently; in April, 2020, the CNN website posted “Melting glaciers reveal lost mountain pass and artifacts used by Vikings.” This site and its artifacts have sparked research by many people, including Marta Kløve Juuhl, who worked with weavers from Iceland and the Shetland Islands to recreate the tunic fabric on a warp-weighted loom. She wrote about it for the Norwegian Textile Letter in 2014: Diamond Twill Woven on a Warp-weighted Loom.

Three inspirational videos about Norwegian tapestry artists have been posted on the Absolutetapestry.com website: Unn Sønnju, Brita Been, and Tonje Høydahl Sørli. Wonderful interviews. 

Webinar

Webinar Replay: Celebrating Norwegian Handcraft with Harley and Norma Refsal: A joint production of North House Folk School and Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum. This is a recording of the Celebrating Norwegian Handcraft from Sámi North to Wooded South webinar with Harley and Norma Refsal. There is not a lot of textile content in this webinar, but the speakers are great storytellers, and there is so much information about how the materials that were available to people affected the handcrafts they produced. 

Blog Posts 

Looms at Osterøy Museum

“Pile Weaving on the Warp Weighted Loom in Norway.” A woman posting as MARDOLL9 on the Northern Women Arts Collaborative website wrote about attending a class at Osterøy Museum last fall (2019). She wove an Icelandic pile coverlet on a warp-weighted loom. Listen for the magical sound of clinking rock weights as she weaves in the short embedded video.  Osterøy Museum has been featured several times in the Norwegian Textile Letter; here is Marta Kløve Juuhl’s article about making a pile coverlet: “Varafeldur: An Icelandic Rya Reconstruction,” from November 2013.