Bio: Jan Mostrom grew up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin. Before Jan started school, her grandmother taught her how to embroider. While she may have harassed her grandmother to teach her and preschool stitches are unique, this was the beginning of a lifelong love of textiles. While attending Luther College in Decorah Iowa, Jan took a January term class in weaving from Lila Nelson. After graduation, Jan used her savings to buy a used car and a loom. She has been weaving on that loom ever since. The car is long gone. Graduation was also followed by a wedding to her high school and college sweetheart Mike, and their two children and two grandchildren remain the center of her life and heart. Jan has taught Scandinavian weaving classes at Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum for over 20 years and also has taught at the Weavers Guild of Minnesota, Minnetonka Center for the Arts and others including the first Norwegian Textile Conference. She has contributed articles to the Norwegian Textile Letter and organized an international weaving study group. She received her gold medal in weaving from Vesterheim Folk Art School in 1999. She has traveled to Scandinavia many times with Vesterheim textile tours and independently and has studied with Scandinavian weaving instructors in the United States, Norway and Sweden. Jan, along with weaving friend Janis Aune, has taught a small group of impoverished women in Tanzania how to weave rag rugs allowing them to support themselves and their children to attend school.

Description: Indigo Nights was woven as part of an earlier exhibition of textiles inspired by the Baldishol tapestry, one of the oldest surviving tapestry from Norway, dating from about 1100. I have always been attracted to the graphic style of the Baldishol with its interesting background designs and vibrant colors. The Baldishol represents April and May of what must have been a much larger tapestry. Taking my inspiration from the spotted sky of the May section, I wove a bold wool rug with wide stripes in various shades of indigo and circles of red, gold and white. The black and white triangle borders are another element found in the Baldishol. I dyed the wool with natural dyes that may have been used in the original weaving; indigo for blue, madder root for red and birch leaves for gold. The white and black wools are natural sheep colors.

janmostrom@yahoo.com