Her Royal Highness Mette-Marit, the Crown Princess of Norway, is an avid weaver. On April 12, 2024, in honor of her 50th birthday, she held a weaving symposium, “Unifying Threads.” These are her opening remarks.

Welcome to Queen Sonja KunstStall  [Art Stable] and to the weaving symposium.

Today we are gathered in what is Queen Maud’s old riding stable. Imagine that a hundred years ago, Queen Maud sat up on that balcony and looked down on her beautiful horses. They were her great passion. And today, in the same place, we get to highlight and hold on to some of what is most important to us. I think there is something very beautiful about that.

And had it not been for our beloved Queen Sonja’s ability to take care of culture and history, this beautiful room would not appear as it does today.

So I would like to thank the Queen for allowing us to gather here, but most of all for the fact that throughout your work you have held fast to the fact that culture and traditions are a vital part of being human and an important part of the task of the royal house.

Last year I turned 50, and I really only had one wish: To be able to invite people from all over the country to a national weaving event. And so, dear all, I am very, very happy to be here with you today.

I am so lucky to have been surrounded by handicraft throughout my upbringing. My mother and my three aunts sat bent over their handwork early and late. And if someone knitted, that was what all four were doing, and if someone embroidered, all four were doing it…  I discovered quite early on that I was never very good myself. I don’t think I ever finished knitting a sweater. I just didn’t get it. Maybe I’m too imprecise. Maybe too impatient.

But that was until I discovered weaving.

I started weaving just before the pandemic, and for me it has been a revelation. I want to say something about what it has meant to me. The first thing I learned was that warp and weft are only part of what creates a weaving. Perhaps the most important ingredient is patience. Patience is not something I was born with. And the times we live in and the technology we surround ourselves with have done something to our patience – the amount of information and the expectation of an immediate response has meant that our attention and our patience are divided into ever smaller pieces. But as with anything else, you get better with practice. Sitting at the loom trains patience. You can’t rush when you have to weave, and you gain patience with yourself and others. Have I become a more patient person from weaving? I don’t know what the Crown Prince would answer, but at least no less patient!

I have also realized that “handcraft” and “handwork” are perhaps slightly misleading terms. That they are a bit mundane. Because the work may be done with the hands, but weaving is a complicated interaction, both in the loom and in the weaver. A direct connection is opened between the head, the heart – and the hands.

It also means that the loom becomes a mirror in many ways. The weaving is affected by how you feel about yourself. And if I am ever in doubt as to what kind of mood I am in, it becomes very clear when I sit down at the loom.

I think everyone needs to have a space that is just for ourselves. And for many of us, our loom is that space.

***

Elisabeth Haarr once said that stepping into the world of weaving is stepping into a world that is wide, beautiful and full of love. I have really felt that.

For one thing, the work is there at the loom – you and the loom. It is something else when you are lucky enough to have a place in a weaving community. This generous, wonderful community, where people ask and help and support each other, has really been a revelation for me. When I sit at the loom and can’t get things to work, all these lovely ladies come – with experience, smiles and often a good story. I learn something new, gain some new self-confidence – and the result is always better.

I have realized that starting to weave is really the same as learning to ask for help. And it’s quite beautiful, because every time a human asks another human for help, when we help each other, the bonds between us are strengthened. In this sense, a weaving studio not only produces weavings, but also community. And really, we should all get better at asking each other for help when we need it – both within the weaving studio and without.

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These are exciting times for weaving. Most people sitting here today know that weaving and textile art have not always received the recognition they deserve. Therefore, it is incredibly gratifying to note that textile art is really on the rise. Interest and recognition in the textile field has increased considerably in recent years. All over the world, prestigious galleries and art institutions now showcase new and old textile artists on an equal footing with other art forms.

In Norway, we have been weaving since time immemorial, and fortunately there are quite a few men in the Norwegian weaving community. But weaving in Norway has traditionally been a women’s arena. And when you feel this strong community that arises around weaving, you sense a timelessness. You can hear the echo of weaving women who have sat shoulder to shoulder and helped each other.

The threads you work with stretch back, so to speak, hundreds of years, to the looms of the past. And these long lines emphasize how important it is that we take care of this history and its traditions. Therefore, we must make sure that there is a future for weaving.

When I sit in the weaving room, I am often among the youngest – the hair colors in a weaving room tend to be – without offending anyone – 50 shades of grey. That is why it is so heartening to see that there are many young people now who want to study the old traditions, that more people choose weaving when they want to express themselves artistically, and that the Norwegian weaving community is growing. But for it to continue to flourish, we have to ensure good soil and good growing conditions. We have to make sure that the craft is not taken out of curricula and does not disappear from schools, and we have to make sure that it is possible to obtain a practical education in weaving.

That is part of the reason why we are gathered here today. Because the more densely woven something is, the more durable it becomes. Therefore, today we will try to gather some of the threads that make up the Norwegian weaving community. Because we really are diverse! There are 260 people here – weavers and weaving enthusiasts from art and handcraft, from organizations, educational institutions, galleries and museums. From small spinneries and large producers of wool products. Many of you already know each other, but we still hope that you will make some new connections during the day.

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Now I’m really looking forward to the program. We have tried to bring out the great diversity in the craft and art to which we all belong. Everything from great artists with names we all know, to the many anonymous women and men who make everyday life more beautiful. I would like to thank each and every one of you sitting here today for your contribution to holding on to our culture and our traditions.

And with that, I think we can welcome the woman who will lead the day with a somewhat strict but very friendly hand, Kari Slaatsveen. Welcome!

This text was posted on Facebook by Solveig Orstad Teigen on April 17, 2024.

Translated in July 2024 by Robbie LaFleur and Katherine Larson.

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