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RETRO REPRINT: The Ruteaklaer Tradition in Norway

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Revisiting the Norwegian Textile Letter Volume 1, No. 2, January 1995

By Lila Nelson

Of the various types of coverlets produced and used on the farms in Norway during the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries, those with geometric forms woven in certain tapestry techniques have been surprisingly neglected.  Much more interest has been taken in the two major pile weaves, flossa and rya, and more is known of their history.  This parallels the situation in the Orient, to which the rya knot can be traced, where pile woven carpets have until recently eclipsed concern with flat woven types.  Marit Wang’s Ruteaklaer (Oslo: Univeritetsforlaget, 1983) is the first in-depth study of Norway’s geometric patterned tapestry coverlets.

[This rutevev coverlet is similar to the one in the original article. From the collection of Vesterheim Norwegian American Museum. Full record here.]

Like many folk textiles, the coverlets have been known by a variety of names, and recently scholars have tried to arrive at one generally accepted and understood term. Aklae1 has been in common usage to denote coverlets of which the geometric are only one example.  In Akleboka (Gauslaa and Ostby, Landbruksforlaget, 1977), aklae included twills, overshot, bound weaves and double weaves in addition to the tapestry types.  Smettaklae infers the technique; this refers to aklaer woven with small butterflies or bobbins with discontinuous wefts.  Ruteaklae identifies the design as being built up of square blocks (Janice Stewart in her FOLK ARTS OF NORWAY uses the term “square weave” in identifying geometric tapestry coverlets), while Vestlandsaklae indicates the area in Norway where most of the coverlets were produced. 

Recently the Swedish term rolaken has been used in an effort to standardize nomenclature on a broader level (Nordisk Tekstilteknisk Terminologi by Stromberg, Geijer, Hald, and Hoffman, Oslo, published, 1974, and Wang, Ruteaklaer).  However, since I believe that weavers in this area still generally identify rolakan with one specific type of tapestry coverlet from Sweden, I will use the term chosen by Wang for the title of her study, ruteaklae.

When interlock tapestry, of which ruteaklae is a type, came into Norway is not known.  Archaeological finds in Sweden from the eighth and ninth centuries have included fragments of rolakan considered by some scholars to be indigenous.  Anna-Maja Nylen states that it is generally believed rolakan existed in an unbroken tradition in Sweden from prehistoric times.2

Janice Stewart equates the development of ruteaklae with that of chip carving in Norway,3  both appearing in the Middle Ages, although no examples from that period have been documented in any of the Nordic countries.  Einar Lexow, in his 1914 study of the 280 rutaeklaer then in the Bergen Museum, speculated that the technique might have begun  at a time when a sharp demarcation between rural and urban did not exist; that the eighteenth century marked the period of development among the Norwegian peasants and the nineteenth and twentieth centuries a time of gradual decadence and decline.4 The date of production for most extant ruteaklaer can only be surmised. Lexow dates one Sogn coverlet in the Bergen collection as no older than 1700 on the basis of the dress and pipe styles of two smoking figures in the upper center.5 Unfortunately, such figures are rare in ruteaklaer and, equally unfortunately, dates were seldom woven into them.

Areas of western and southern Norway where ruteaklaer were woven. Numbers refer to the Bergen Museum collection as of 1975.

A little more is known about the locus of production.  Of the 346 coverlets now in the Bergen Museum (the largest individual collection in Norway), the provenance of 205 is known. Practically all come from the west coast fjord area as far north as Sunnmore and south to Mandal on the southern tip (see map, fig. 1).  The highest concentration within that area is midway, in Sogn (49 aklaer) and Nordhordland (45), and in their bordering regions, Sunnfjord (23) to the north and Hardanger (19) to the south.  Lexow’s additional examination of aklaer in the collections of the Kristiania Museum of Industrial Arts, the Norwegian Folk Museum and the Maihaugen collection confirmed these conclusions.  The few having inland provenances were believed to have been imports from west Norway. 

General characteristics of ruteaklaer include a rectangular shape around four feet in width and five feet in length.  The majority are made in one piece, indicating the use of a wide loom; but in the southern areas many are woven in two equal sections joined down the center.  The warp is generally of linen or hemp in the earliest pieces, but a tight twist cotton appears later.  A small number throughout the west coast area have wool warps.  The warp, generally single but sometimes double stranded, is spaced so that it is completely covered by the wool weft, which is packed down to produce a satisfactorily tight and warm coverlet.  The occasional appearance of heading cords suggests that some aklaer were woven on a vertical loom; Marta Hoffmann has written about a west coast loom with both upper and lower beams, as well as the warp-weighted loom, which was in common use throughout the country long after the introduction of the horizontal loom on the European continent.6 Fringed upper and lower borders probably indicate revival pieces made for decorative use only; the early aklaer were simply turned under and firmly stitched.  The designs making up the body of the pieces are built up in blocks of two, four or six warp widths, with four being the standard.  Upper and lower borders are generally present in widely varying designs and sizes; four-sided borders seem to occur only in pieces from the southern areas.  The ruteaklaer which, unlike the above, have an all-over banded composition, appear to be unique to the area of Nordhorland.

From the standpoint of tapestry techniques, the body of ruteaklaer were executed in four ways.  Of these, the single interlock method seems to have predominated.  In this method, meeting wefts are linked between warps when moving one direction only, fig.1.  Double interlock, a linkage of wefts in both directions as in rolakan, fig.2 was a close second, although it appears that single interlock has been more common in late nineteenth and twentieth century coverlets. 

A considerable smaller group has single dovetailed joins (meeting wefts share a common warp), fig.3, and a very few represent mixed techniques.  Of 345 aklaer in the Bergen Collection, grouping according to technique was follows:7 

 

Reasons for method choices are speculative.  One could presume that a practical-minded housewife would prefer aklaer woven in single interlock because these were reversible.  They were not however, as heavy as double interlock pieces, a factor to consider in cold climates.  Marit Monsen in the 1975 yearbook of Sunnmore Museum, points up the possibility of a relationship between design and method. She noted that of the twelve ruteaklaer from Sunnmore in the Bergen collection, the seven with eight-petaled flower motifs were done in single interlock; the four with diagonal line compositions were double interlock; and the one with both motifs included both techniques.  Wang found that the eight-petaled flower “appears proportionately more frequently in coverlets woven with single interlocking’.8

Professor Lexow from his 1914 study came to the conclusion that the wide variety of designs found in ruteaklaer developed from an originally uniform motif, the eight-petaled flower.  He describes it quite explicitly:

The motif repeated in all coverlets of this older type is the eight-petaled flower with two dark colors alternating in adjoining petals. The space between the petals is yellow at top, bottom, and on both sides, and white in other spaces. Around the flower is always found an octagonal frame of darker color. This figure is almost identical on these coverlets, with insignificant variations only in color. Four of the petals are always of a reddish-violet color (from a vegetable dye made from lecanora tartaria). The other four petals are usually green or brown but now often faded completely gray; occasionally they are also blue.The frame is woven in the same colors as those of the flower. Yellow and white are the unchanging ground colors. The same rule for color placement is adhered to here as in heraldry: ‘either color on metal, or metal on color’; that is, darker colors must never be placed close to each other but must always be separated by light colors (gold and silver in heraldry, yellow and white in square weave)’9

Traditional eight-petaled flower. Rutevev from Hordaland in the collection of the Norsk Folkemuseum. Full record here.

Variation in the arrangement of the flowers occurred early and developed in some cases as clearly localized character.  In Hardanger they became smaller than in Sogn and Sunnfjord and were repeated, often in white, up to 24 times, while broken-up diagonals with complex color and design arrangements dotted the divisions between the flowers. 

Hardanger coverlet in the collection of the Norsk Folkemuseum. Full record here.

The colors were usually the standard red, yellow, and natural white and black, but in brighter shades than found to the north in Sogn, with sometimes blue or green included.  Eventually the division blocks between petals as well as the alternating color arrangement disappeared, leaving a simplified form of an eight-pointed star.  Generally speaking, the coverlets of Sogn and the north have big bold flowers in larger blocks of color than are usual in Hardanger and the south.  In Nordhordland a distinctively horizontal orientation developed, with the eight-petaled flower only one of other motifs and techniques occurring in narrow bands across an entire piece.  Relatively dark shades of red and blue also distinguished many of these coverlets.

Banded coverlet from Hordaland. Norsk Folkemuseum. Full record here.

The Celtic knot motif has been found often though not exclusively, in Sogn.  It is a motif to which magic properties were once ascribed, but it is not known that this or any other motif had symbolic significance as used in aklaer.  While in some media the knot has circular loops in each of the four corners, in geometric weaving these have become squares.  The knot has appeared within the center of an eight-pointed star, in a double form in horizontal rows, and in a highly complex structure of 20 interlocked knots rather than the standard four. 

A highly complex variant of the celtic knot from Sogn. Norsk Folkemuseum. Full record here.

In other variations the knots have been opened to form a motif called the nine crosses. 

A coverlet dominated by the nine-cross motif. From Slottsfjellmuseet. Full record here.

In still another, referred to as the nine-flowers motif, the crosses have each become closed triangles.  Finally, it has been combined with a variation of the lily cross in which the Celtic knot is practically obscured.

While crosses and diamonds fill the diagonals between flowers and knot motifs, they also comprise the only motifs in some aklaer.  Four diamonds clustered together to form a large diamond called a hodnrose (horned flower) sometimes alternated with a five-diamond arrangement known as kollerose or hornless flower.  These seem to appear in all of the west coast areas where ruteaklaer were found.

The ornamentation on upper and lower borders, which can be found in practically every rutaklaer, varies considerably in width, design, and technique.  By far the most widely prevalent – and often the only- border designs are narrow stripes and two-color alterations called kjerringtenner (hag’s teeth). All the colors of the piece are picked up and blended in what is usually a pleasing contrast to the bolder blocks of color and design in the body. Other borders, which occur in approximately decreasing frequency in the order of their listing, include:

This brief introduction points up how much is left to be studied about ruteaklear.  The extensive collections in Norwegian museums other than Bergen, as well as the many in private possession, need to be catalogued.  Microscopic examination of warps to determine the nature of what Wang describes only as non-wool could answer questions about the introduction and distribution of cotton in rural Norway.  The relationship of ruteaklaer to the pictorial tapestry tradition in Norway is a field of further exploration. Very little has been done to relate ruteaklaer to geometric flat weavings of Poland, Rumania, Bulgaria, and parts of western Europe.  And of particular interest here, the number of ruteaklaer in private and public collections brought to this country as a result of the Norwegian immigration should be located and researched.  They are a part of that complex and diverse entity which comprises the folk art tradition of America.  

1The spelling of aklae varies according to chronology and place.  Akled, for example, is an early form.

2Ann-Maja Nylen. Tr. Anne Charlotte Harvey.  Swedish Handcrafts, New York:  Van Nostrand Reinhold Co, 1977, p.151.

3Janice Stewart. The Folk Arts of Norway, New York:  Dover Publications, Inc., 1972, Second edition p.164.

4Einer Lexow. Tr. John Gundersen. Vestlanksk Vevkunst. Monograph reprinted from the Bergens Museums Aarbok, 1914. P.27.

5Lexow,p.7.

6Marta Hoffmann, En Gruppe Vevstoler pa Vestlandet, Oslo: pub, 1958; ibid, The Warp-Weighted Loom Studia Norwegica No 14, Oslo, 1964.

7Marit Wang, Ruteaklaer, Universitetetsforlaget, 1983, p. 147.

8Wang, p. 148 (English summary)

9Lexow, pp. 5-6.

Reprinted with permission form THE TEXTILE COUNCIL of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Spring 1994

Would you like to see more rutevev coverlets?  

Here are a few from the virtual galleries of Vesterheim Norwegian American Museum. 

The Norwegian Digital Library, digitaltmuseum.no, includes artifacts from many museums in Norway. If you enter “rutevev” in the search box, you can see almost 400 pieces. 

 

Migration of a Tradition: Tapestry Images

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Norwegian Folk Art: The Migration of a Tradition (Abbeville Press, 1995) features beautiful photos of Norwegian billedvev, or tapestry. The section is available in pdf format here: “Reflections of the Renaissance: The Tapestry Technique and Picture Weaving.”

Several historical tapestries were included in the book and the exhibit it celebrated. Also, two modern pieces reflected Norwegian billedvev tradition: a tapestry by Nancy Jackson and a quilt by Helen Kelly. 

Nancy Jackson, “The Battle of the Horse and Bull”

When Marion Nelson asked Nancy Jackson if her tapestry, “The Battle of the Horse and Bull,” could be included in the traveling exhibition, she felt very honored. He told her he thought her tapestry was an important link between the old Norwegian picture tapestries and the newer Norwegian tapestry images. It was also meaningful because Marion’s wife Lila was important to Nancy’s development as an artist. Nancy wrote, “I always respected Marion and Lila so much, and consider Lila to be the first person who opened my eyes to tapestry as a serious weaving expression. She understood me and directed me through the many letters we wrote back and forth after she taught my first tapestry weaving class in the late 1970s.”

Nancy Jackson, “Battle of the Horse & Bull.” 41-inches x 58-inches. Materials: Wool on cotton warp. Photo: Charlie Langton of Vesterheim Museum.

Nancy Jackson, “Saint Olav (Olaf) King of Norway.” 59.5″ x 27″, handwoven tapestry, wool weft & cotton warp. All rights reserved.

While Nancy never saw the show in person, it led to a marvelous new tapestry. Nancy’s Norwegian friends saw the show in Oslo, completely by chance, and were excited when they found “The Battle of the Horse and the Bull” by their friend back in the U.S. Later Nancy wove a commissioned tapestry for the couple, a five-foot-high “King Olav,” inspired by Norwegian billedvev tradition. 

Nancy Jackson continued to have a distinguished career as a tapestry artist and icon painter. In 2003-2004 Vesterheim Norwegian American Museum held an exhibit of Nancy’s work: Incarnations: A Nancy Jackson Retrospective 1980-2003. “The Battle of the Horse and Bull” was featured prominently, along with the working documents, including the life-sized cartoon and woven color samples.

See more of Nancy Jackson’s work at Timshel Tapestry and Iconography Studio. 

 

 

 

Helen Kelley, “Renaissance”

Photo: Jason Onerheim, Minnesota Historical Society

Helen Kelly (1927-2008), a noted quilter from Minneapolis, Minnesota, paid homage to an old Norwegian billedvev design in “Renaissance.” Helen and her quilt were featured in the Norwegian Textile Letter in August, 2019.  See: ““Under the Skin of Those Old Weavers”: Helen Kelley’s ‘Renaissance’ Quilt” By Lisa Anne Bauch. 

The quilt is now in the collection of the Minnesota Historical Society.

See also these articles: Norwegian Folk Art: The Migration of a Tradition (Introduction) and Migration of a Tradition: Norwegian Folk Dress in America

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amy Axen: The Baldishol Bandana

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By Robbie LaFleur  

Amy Axen, from Stony Creek, New York, was inspired by the images and designs in the Baldishol Tapestry to create her 21st-century “Baldishol Bandana,” both a decorative and functional piece. She studied the flora and fauna, and the geometric and organic shapes, in the original tapestry. She parsed the design elements and the story told in the images to create her own layered interpretation and homage. She began with careful study of the symbols in the Baldishol Tapestry.

She came up with came up with a complex, layered design and prepared both hand-carved wood blocks and hand-cut pochoir stencils for her textile printing.

Amy wrote in her application, “Each iconic image…will be inspired by those utilized in this treasured, historic, Norwegian antecedent.”

She mimicked the colors of the original tapestry with several botanical inks and dyes, including ochres harvested on a recent drive from San Diego, California, to the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York.

With color and symbols she added layers of meaning. 

The finished piece: 

 

Amy has a broad art education and work background. She majored in Fine Art for both her undergraduate and graduate degrees, worked in the art departments of two magazine publishing companies and an advertising agency, and finished her formal career with over two decades as an art educator in public and private schools. She is skilled in several media, and especially enjoys drawing, painting, print and book making, ceramics, jewelry, puppetry, and animation. And fiber! Amy remembers two special textile mentors. She remains grateful to her junior high school Home Economics teacher who taught her to pin, cut, sew and iron a garment made from a paper pattern. Later, she felt blessed to be introduced to both dyeing and and the beauty of tapestry weaving by her professor, Margaret Kilbuck Johansen (1921-2004). 

Amy Axen pulled together her Baldishol design into layers of meaning, a joyful re-assemblage of symbols from the Medieval tapestry, using skills from her rich and varied career.  And despite the current challenges and constraints of the pandemic, she wrote, “Now, in “retirement,” each day I awaken to continue to create and I love every moment of it, just as I always have.”

During the summer of 2020, follow along with stories of the artists and several virtual experiences during the Norway House exhibit, The Baldishol: A Medieval Tapestry Inspires Contemporary Textiles.

 

Jonna Gjevre: Baldishol Birds to Sheep

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By Robbie LaFleur

The artists in the upcoming exhibition, “The Baldishol: A Medieval Tapestry Inspires Contemporary Textiles,” have remarkably varied responses to the inspirational tapestry. They have taken elements of design, color, materials, and story into their own fiber art practices.

Jonna Gjevre pulled in diverse Scandinavian references when planning her Baldishol piece, “An Eye on the Past.” Four birds appear in the original tapestry: three facing forward, and one back. In Jonna’s cushion cover, she uses Norwegian stranded knitting technique to depict four sheep; again, three facing forward, and one turned away. The horned sheep designs are adapted from traditional Icelandic lopapeysa designs. The groups of colored dots around the sheep reference the background in the tapestry. She used natural dyes made from madder, indigo, chamisa, and cota (Navajo tea), echoing the historic dyes used in the tapestry.

Studying the Norwegian tapestry led Jonna to more Norwegian research. Tapestry designs in Gerhard Munthe: Norwegian Pioneer of Modernism sparked background ideas.  She was looking at a collection of mitten patterns from Selbu—selbuvotter—and found a design that echos the wave-like border of the Baldishol. 

Though she grew up in Minnesota, her current home in New Mexico has a strong influence on her work in fiber. The Baldishol and tapestries woven in Medieval Norway used lustrous yarn spun from indigenous spelsau sheep. The breed became nearly extinct, but was revived through conservation efforts. The yarn Jonna used in “Eye on the Past,” 100% Navajo-Churro wool from northern New Mexico, came from an old sheep variety, too. She wrote,  

Having grown up on a sheep farm in northern Minnesota, I’ve long had an interest in the societal significance of wool production and textile arts. In this piece, I’m using naturally dyed wool from Navajo-Churro sheep. Due to culturally imperialistic government interference between 1860 and 1930, this rare, desert-hardy breed was slaughtered in great numbers and nearly rendered extinct. Through the efforts of a few dedicated Diné (Navajo) shepherds and other conservationists, these sheep—deeply significant to Native American communities in the southwest—were saved. The Navajo-Churro Sheep Association was formed in 1986, its aim to protect this rare breed from becoming a memory. 

During her research, Jonna turned up a reference to the Baldishol in another medium, Norwegian postage stamps.

Jonna’s lifelong passion for fiber arts started on a sheep farm in Minnesota, and grew to include a passion for words. With a PhD from the University of Wisconsin, she has taught creative writing in Scotland and film studies in the United States. She wrote a textile-themed novel, Arcanos Unraveled. Perhaps Jonna could take up another homage to the Baldishol Tapestry? A Medieval knight on a dappled horse–there could be a novel there! 

Website: jonnagjevre.com 

Kelsey Skodje: Women at the Helm

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By Robbie LaFleur

Kelsey Skodje, from Rochester, Minnesota, wrote about her first impressions of the Baldishol Tapestry in her application to the exhibit. “The first thing that impressed me was how fun and surprisingly modern it looks (I especially love how freely it’s arranged, like how the man’s feet extend into the border).”

Kelsey was also struck by the story of the reproduction of the Baldishol Tapestry that was commissioned by a group of 5000 Norwegian-American women and presented to President and Mrs. Calvin Coolidge. They felt that women and their accomplishments were underrepresented during the Norse-American Centennial in 1925. (Read the full story: “The Baldishol Tapestry in the White House.”) On the cover of the presentation book prepared by the Norse Centennial Daughter’s Club, women steer the Viking ship. 

Kelsey played with this feminist theme for her embroidered piece for the upcoming exhibit at Norway House, “The Baldishol: A Medieval Tapestry Inspires Contemporary Textiles.” She wrote:

The fact that there were female warriors and political/spiritual leaders in ancient Scandinavia, not to mention female spinners, weavers, farmers, healers, accountants, shopkeepers, etc., lines up nicely with their modern gender equality. Unfortunately, this has lagged slightly in America, and I think my Norwegian ancestors would agree that we could use more women, viking or not, “sailing” to the White House. Therefore, the basis for my concept is to embroider a version of the tapestry fragment that replaces the man on the horse with the women in the boat from the book cover.

The modern Viking image is embroidered with silk floss on a linen background. Parts of the piece include handspun floss, made with a medieval drop spindle and then dyed with woad, as a tribute to some of the techniques available in 11th – 12th century Norway. 

Perhaps Kelsey’s passion for art and handcraft is genetic? Certainly it was fed by many role models.  Her mother sews professionally and is an accomplished weaver. Her father is an artist who brings in the Norwegian angle. Kelsey wrote, 

My interest in Norway and its art comes from my dad. Right now, I’m drinking coffee out of a Sons of Norway centennial mug he designed in 1995. He also sculpted models for Leif Erikson and Rollo statuettes, so I suppose I was destined to commemorate medieval Norwegian art.

The Baldishol exhibit is all about ties to the past–and Norwegians. This is an appropriate accompaniment to Kelsey’s embroidery.

As April ended, Kelsey was still embroidering the “April Man” from the Baldishol. He is sowing seeds of renewal and hope, an antidote to our own anxious April. But the women Vikings are done! 

 

Laura Demuth: April in Iowa

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By Robbie LaFleur

In the Baldishol Tapestry, the April man sows seeds; we think of renewal. Laura Demuth chose that theme for her weaving for the upcoming exhibit at Norway House, The Baldishol: A Medieval Tapestry Inspires Contemporary Textiles.

Laura wrote, “On our farm, April is very much about lambing, so I wished the coming of new lambs and the hope it always brings for a new growing season to be the focus of my piece.” She sketched and graphed a self-portrait to weave in doubleweave pick-up technique, or Finnweave.

The barn shape echos the arch in the original tapestry. Baldishol birds become Iowa swallows. Lilies of the Valley are April flowers.  

She wove her piece using Norwegian Rauma Prydvev yarn. 

30″ wide x 37″ long

Laura Demuth has been a weaver for over 30 years and enjoys all aspects of textile production, from raising the sheep to taking a finished piece off the loom. Because she lives on a small acreage just seven miles northeast of Decorah, Iowa, the Vesterheim National Norwegian-American Museum has been a continual source of education and inspiration throughout her weaving career. She is a sought-after teacher at Vesterheim Folk Art School. 

Pandemic or not, there was renewal at the Demuth farm in Iowa–and a wonderful weaving completed. Laura wrote, 

I believe that some of us have the good fortune to find joy in a particular material. For me this material is wool. Raising sheep has been a part of my life for over forty years. April is the time for lambing, the most exciting and demanding time of year. I doubt that a day goes by in which wool does not pass through my hands in some form, either as raw fleece, combed top on its way to a whirling bobbin or on a shuttle.

Bonus! Handwoven magazine just offered one of Laura Demuth’s projects as a free pattern. See her handwoven bread bag here. 

 

 

Lindsey Marshall: A Baldishol Banner

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By Robbie LaFleur

Lindsey Marshall, based in Shropshire, England, is sending a marvelous banner to the upcoming exhibit at Norway House in Minneapolis, Minnesota: The Baldishol: A Medieval Norwegian Tapestry Inspires Contemporary Textiles. Her banner format emerged from thinking of the original tapestry fragment, and how it might have been part of a longer frieze depicting many months of the year. The Baldishol horse, birds, and medieval heads are highlighted. 

Cotton, wool, linen. Tapestry weaving at 14 ends per inch with knotted ends 19″ x 4″

Lindsey Marshall’s new work reflects ongoing interests in her tapestry practice–look at the abstracted letter forms in the background. 

I am interested in conveying meaning by the use of abstracted letterform shapes, colour and surface texture. My work merges two disciplines, visual communication and textiles – the influence of my background in typography being evident in the work where words are embedded in the design. Although lettering is an underpinning, fundamental element in most of the work, it is not necessarily intended to be legible or obvious.

Lindsey sometimes combines woven tapestry with other textile techniques such as knotting, wrapping and binding. What a wonderful braided beard, and bird wings capping each side.

The original Baldishol Tapestry, from around 1180, would have been woven on a variant of an upright loom; here is Lindsey’s tapestry loom. 

As she wove, her sketch, or cartoon was placed behind the warp threads. 

This is not a banner year, as it turns out, but the “Baldishol Banner” is a splendid tapestry, and will be part of a great exhibit. 

Lindsey Marshall studied at Liverpool College of Art, followed by a PhD at Lancaster University. Her work has been exhibited in the UK and abroad. See more of her work on her website, lindseymarshalldesign.com, and on the British Tapestry Group site. 
Read about several other contributors to the Baldishol exhibit on the exhibit main page. 

Sally Reckert: Marching Toward the Unknown

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The Norwegian Baldishol Tapestry, woven approximately 1180.

By Robbie LaFleur

When Sally Reckert, a British tapestry weaver, first wrote with her concept of a new tapestry based on the Baldishol Tapestry, she found several inspirational links for a modern piece. She would use wool for the warp and weft from Scandinavian breeds of sheep, including güte, hefted Swaledale, and Norwegian spelsau, and dye it with natural dyes in colors from the Medieval tapestry. Motifs from the old tapestry appear in the new—a horse, birds, and a standing character–perfect for the upcoming exhibit: The Baldishol: A Medieval Norwegian Tapestry Inspires Contemporary Textiles.

One of Sally Reckert’s early sketches for her Baldishol tapestry

Tapestry is a slow technique, giving time for contemplation and change, and in this case, for the world to change. When she began the tapestry, thinking of future generations, Sally pictured her grandchildren marching with the horse for action on climate change. She revised, planned, and wove through the Northern England winter. But then, as our whole world turned to pandemic and isolation, the figures in the tapestry who step out of the frame now represent something larger. Sally wrote, 

“I have personalised motifs from the Baldishol tapestry by depicting my grandchildren and their generation marching towards a future that is unknown to all of us.”

Artists in the Baldishol exhibit have been sending in-process photos. Sally said this one photo represented the “dog’s dinner” stage.

 

Sally’s “Children March into an Unknown Future” will also be part of an exhibit by the British Tapestry Group, Fabric of the North. The Catalogue for the exhibit is available online already, and in it Sally describes her piece. She lives in Richmond in Yorkshire, England, and notes interesting Nordic connections to her region. 

My weaving is inspired by the Norwegian 12th century Baldishol tapestry. The Norsemen were a force for good here in the Northern Dales; bringing their sheep with them in their longboats the men came to find land to farm. The small fragment showing two spring months is all that’s left of the Baldishol tapestry, whereas the influence of the Norsemen in upland farming still remains in place-names, ways of sheep management, land tenancy arrangements and inheritance. Non-conformism developed out of their resilience and support for everyone in the community.

“Children March into an Unknown Future,” (H” x W”): 75cm x 100cm; 29.5″ x 39″

Ties between children and tapestry run deep for Sally; she came to tapestry weaving through volunteering and devising projects for Young Carers, children aged 5-10 who are responsible for the care of parents and siblings with illnesses and addictions. The latest project was a tapestry, “Living Local,” woven by Young Carers alongside Syrian and Iraqi children and members of the Darlington Weaving Rooms, under the guidance of Weaver Jane Riley. See a clip of cutting it off the loom here. 

As the Vikings crossed seas to reach England, Sally’s tapestry will cross the ocean to Minnesota in time for the exhibit opening at Norway House on June 26, 2020. 

Read about the exhibit and other participating artists here. 

Mary Logue: The Baldishol Birds of April

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The birds of the Baldishol Tapestry return, perched in a tree, in a vibrant hooked rug for the upcoming exhibit at Norway House in Minneapolis, The Baldishol: A Medieval Norwegian Tapestry Inspires Contemporary Textiles.

48″ x 24″

Minneapolis-based artist and writer Mary Logue wrote about her inspiration:

I took a segment of the tapestry to focus on. I have done a number of tree of life images and feel a real affinity to them. Also, April is the month of my birth, so it seemed natural to focus on this section. The dots falling down will be egg shaped and I also changed the words somewhat.

The dots mimic the spots on the Baldishol horse’s back and the pattern in the background of the tapestry. In today’s world, there is a more modern link–the “tufty-ness” of the hooked-rug circles bring to mind all of the recent illustrations of the coronavirus. 

Original sketch and colored cartoon

Mary dyed all the wool for her rug with natural dyes—madder for the red, indigo for the blue, false indigo for the green, and goldenrod for the yellow.

In April, in process… Mary says, “Making a rug both feeds me and calms me. I love watching the picture slowly come to life.”

Mary grew up sewing and embroidering, but found her true textile passion in rug hooking, more than 25 years ago. Most of her rugs are influenced by nature—the patterns and landscapes, the flora and fauna. Her rugs have been exhibited in the Minnesota State Fair Fine Arts show, in addition to many other galleries and museums. She has had three one-woman shows and her rugs have been featured in several books. In 2017 she did a month-long residency at the Textilsetur (Icelandic Textile Center), resulting in a show of her work. Mary currently teaches rug hooking at the Textile Center of Minnesota and North House Folk School. (See more of her rugs here.)

Today, April 21, is the publication date for Mary’s sixth book of poetry, Heart Wood: Poems.  

Mary Logue is also an accomplished author of mysteries, children’s books, nonfiction, and core to her writing–poetry. She has taught writing at the University of Minnesota, the Loft, and Hamline University. “For both teaching writing and hooking,” she wrote, “I am simply trying to help my students find their own best voice.”

In this rug for the Baldishol exhibit, Mary used her wonderful rug-hooking voice to give modern expression to the medieval images. In April come birds! And spring! 

 

 

Shawn Cassiman: Even Heroes Need Warm Coverlets

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By Robbie LaFleur

Shawn Cassiman, from Ironwood, Michigan, is completing an overshot coverlet in the traditional Norwegian skillbragd technique for the upcoming exhibit, The Baldishol: A Medieval Norwegian Tapestry Inspires Contemporary Textiles.

Each artist was asked to create a piece in fiber inspired by the medieval Norwegian tapestry. Shawn wrote, 

After much research, and also in the spirit of fun, I decided to make a skillbragd coverlet that would represent December. The coverlet is a reminder that even heroes (as the man is described in some texts) enjoy the comforts of a warm blanket and vibrant colors during the winter months. It also highlights the skills of women who are often missing/invisible in tales of glory.

Both billedvev—tapestry, or literally, “picture-weaving”—and skillbragd are traditional Norwegian techniques requiring time and patient weavers to execute. Just as most Norwegians would recognize the iconic image of the Baldishol Tapestry, they would also recognize a skillbragd coverlet, even if they didn’t know its name. 

Skillbragd is a form of overshot, a technique known in many countries, in which supplemental threads in colorful geometric patterns are woven on a plain base of linen or cotton. 

Skillbragd coverlets were often used in connection with important life events. Throughout Norway, they were used to wrap babies at christenings. A popular skillbragd pattern in Valdres is called kristenteppe, literally, christening blanket. Coverlets used over the coffin during a funeral often included a central square or rectangle woven in a different color, where a candle or Bible might be placed. In this photo from Valdres, Norway, three children pose on a skillbragd, likely a prized family textile.

The colors in Shawn’s skillbragd are inspired by the Baldishol. 

The color palette chosen incorporates the lovely blue of May as its primary color, but the red of April is also well represented. For added interest it includes some of the other colors of the Baldishol, such as yellow, orange and green, and a bit of purple for whimsy and a contemporary feel. The bleached cotton ground is a reminder of the deep snow of winter. The strong graphic nature of skillbragd in combination with the colors used, should hopefully, draw the eye to the similarities between the original Baldishol and my vision of December.

Weaving in skillbragd is complex, with its varied overshot pattern bands. Shawn used a pattern from a book on historical coverlets by Anne Grete Sandstad, Aklaer: a kle ei seng a veve et akle (Coverlets: To Dress a Bed, to Weave a Coverlet). She wove two panels, 42” wide and 85” long, using eight pattern shafts. The ground weave is unbleached cotton and the pattern is woven with Faro wool. 

Shawn wove a separate narrow band for finishing work on the panels.

You can look forward to seeing Shawn Cassiman’s “Baldishol Coverlet” in full glory when the exhibit opens at Norway House on June 26. For everyone whose travel plans are curtailed during the coronavirus pandemic, a wonderful virtual version of the show will be up on the Web  as well. 

Until then, here is one more glimpse of glorious pattern, an “under the loom” shot that is popular with weavers. When weaving on a floor loom, you often see just a small portion of the piece as you work, before the warp is rolled forward. Looking under the loom to gauge your progress gives a tantalizing glimpse of the work that is unfolding. 

Shawn Cassiman: “In my mind, there is not much more glorious than a beautiful piece of weaving.”

 

As with so many Norwegian skillbragds, this “Baldishol Skillbragd” is destined to become a family heirloom, as it was intended as a wedding gift for Shawn’s daughter, who planned to marry this summer. The wedding is postponed, so this gift will have even more stories, along with love, woven into its threads.