The members of the Scandinavian Weavers Study Group are continuing their skillbragd samples, but many have been wound around before photos could be taken. The cutting-off ceremony for this warp will be significant.
Karen Weiberg snapped a photo during her turn at the loom. Good work!
Here is the draft and treadling, thanks to Lisa Torvik. Here it is in a nice pdf document.
Next up? Judy Larson chose green for her piece. More success! This warp is working.
Skillbragd weavings can look equally beguiling from either side. On our Scandinavian Weavers Study Group project, the deep red and green of skillbragd floats on the two pieces are wonderful, and I would definitely use the side I saw while weaving as the “front.”
I took a new look at a small piece I own that was woven by Lila Nelson. Interesting! She used the side that shows the most of the ground tabby as the right side, and that is very clear by looking at how she hemmed it. The other interesting thing is that she made fringe on either edge as wove the piece, hemmed it, and then added fringe to the other two sides. That looks nice.
Good ideas for future pieces!
I finished the last post on our group skillbragd project on the Glimakra loom at the Weavers Guild with “many tricky warping steps remain.” Man, was that accurate. Before all was said and done, we tested the tabby shafts on counterbalance, then countermarch. The pattern wefts hung from elastic to start, and then were switched to countermarch, and then back to the elastics (with final, wise advice from Shawn Cassiman). Lamm and treadle adjustments were made for hours. Lisa Torvik and Phyllis Waggoner were the real loom-wrangling brains; I struggled to keep up. BUT. Finally. By suppertime yesterday we managed to get a good shed for the background linen tabby and hopefully serviceable sheds for the pattern shafts. Today was the big test, and I offered to weave the first sample. Slowly I wound my weft, arranged my shuttles, and pulled out the pin holding the shafts in place, and began to weave. I’m not sure I was even breathing as I wove the first pattern shots. It worked!
Of course I made a pattern mistake after the first four squares, but not to worry, I did the same thing at the other end–design element. Once I got started the weaving went relatively quickly and was very fun to watch unfold. On this 18″ wide warp I wove 11″ of pattern and hems in four hours–and that was with several talking breaks. Since this was mostly a test to see if the loom and warp were in working order, I just wove the pattern in one color. There are so many ways to weave wonderful skillbragd pieces by elongating portions of the pattern, for example, or adding stripes. But just the plain piece was beautiful.
It will be fun to see the variations that will be woven by our group members in the next six weeks.
Our Scandinavian Weavers Study Group is working on Norwegian skilbragd; we began warping a loom at the Weavers Guild of Minnesota yesterday.
Lisa Torvik, our leader in this project, was inspired by a pattern for a group project undertaken by the Gol Husflidsslag in Norway. See the Skillbragdåkle fra Gol here.
She took elements of the wider piece and narrowed the pattern to runner-width. Lisa didn’t use weaving software to make her draft; she’s a whiz with spreadsheets and used Excel to make the draft and treading variants.
Lisa Torvik, Lisa Bauch, Phyllis Wagonner, and Robbie LaFleur met to warp the loom; Lisa Torvik had already wound the ten-yard warp of 16/2 linen. Using a variety of print resources, including Lillemor Johansson’s book Damask and Opphämta, we figured out how to sett up the tabby heddles for the ground weave and the pattern heddles. Beaming was a four person job! Lisa Torvik oversaw and “drove” the process from the front. As we worked, the linen had a wonderful hay-like scent.
Robbie turned the wheel, Lisa Bauch braced her legs against the back of the loom and held the warp tight as it was rolled on, and Phyllis inserted sticks to pad the warp on the back as it was beamed on.
Lisa had the tough job, as she had to keep hanging on to the the warp for dear life even as it was approaching the front beam, pulling her through the loom.
Many tricky warping steps remain.
Our Scandinavian Weavers group met on April , delayed one week because of the ridiculous weekend snowstorm of the previous week. Members have been busy weaving! I abandoned my fabulous weekend workshop with Catharine Ellis for a couple of hours to meet with our group, and showed some samples I had woven and dyed. “I have to take a photo of your beautiful blue hands,” Mary Skoy insisted.
She also brought a rug woven from the new Swedish book, I trasmattas värld från a-ö. I heard about this book and Judy’s daughter in Sweden found it and sent over copies for Judy and me. Judy is doing a great job of testing the patterns, even before I get to them!
Much of our time at the March meeting of the Scandinavian Weavers was taken up with discussion of our upcoming group project on a loom at the Weavers Guild: skilbragd. There was also satisfying show and tell time. Phyllis Waggoner brought a t-shirt rug with cool hems, a piece of her own design.
Melba Granlund made the sampler she wove in Sweden last summer into a wonderful pillow. The techniques in the Swedish art weaves sampler are from the book Heirlooms of Skåne: Weaving Techniques, available from Vavstuga, http://store.vavstuga.com/product/book-johaheirlo.html
Following Jan Mostrom’s class, Marilyn Moore wove a danskbrogd sampler (and is planning her next piece).
Kristin Lawson brought the piece that she made in Jan’s Danskbrogd class, and another that she made after the class.
The designs on the piece below were inspired by a wonderful Japanese weaver whose blog is here.
I hope you enjoyed this virtual viewing. Robbie
The weather gods were with us this month, as the 12 inches of snow held off until the day after our Scandinavian Weavers meeting.
Jan Mostrom brought two books on Swedish weaving. She purchased the beautiful and huge Swedish Textile Art: The Khalili Collection, by Viveka Hansen, online. What’s the best thing about the book, I asked. The pictures. When she took the Swedish art weaves class in Sweden last summer, that book was in the classroom, and the students used it to pick out design elements for their samplers. If you look for this book online, note that there are English and Swedish editions.
We had a round of introductions, because we have so many interested members of the group that can come only occasionally. Every month there is bound to be a few people who have not met one another. We asked each person to mention the weaving technique they like the most, or if that’s too hard, maybe mention the one they like the least.
The last weekend of the Weavers Guild of Minnesota and Norway House exhibition, “Traditional Norwegian Textiles: American Reboot,” includes special programming. Afternoon with an Expert, on Saturday, September 9, from 1-3:30 pm, features Laurann Gilbertson, Curator at the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum. Her lecture, “Warmth and Color: Traditional Norwegian Coverlets,” will begin at 1 pm. Following the lecture, Gilbertson will conduct an Antique ID clinic. Members of the public are encouraged to bring Nordic textiles to learn more about their age, origin, and function (but no appraisals). Perhaps you have inherited a coverlet or hanging, but know little about it? Maybe you bought a beautiful textile at an antique store or thrift shop and you wonder about its origins?
All those attending the lecture and visiting the exhibit are welcome to stay for the Antique ID portion, a special opportunity to see even more Scandinavian textiles.
Afternoon with an Expert: Laurann Gilbertson at Norway House
Saturday, September 9, 2017
12-3 pm: Visit the exhibition, “Traditional Norwegian Textiles: American Reboot”
1 pm: “Warmth and Color: Traditional Norwegian Coverlets
2 pm: Antique ID clinic
Location: Norway House, 913 E. Franklin Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55404
Cost: $5; Free for members of Norway House and the Weavers Guild of Minnesota
Each Wednesday and Sunday until September 10 (12-3 pm), volunteers from the Weavers Guild of Minnesota Scandinavian Weavers Study Group are demonstrating weaving in the Galleri at Norway House, part of the exhibit “Traditional Norwegian Weaving: American Reboot.” Slowly, the narrow runner in rutevev (square weave) is taking shape. It’s hard to know how long it takes to weave the runner, however, because part of the weaving time is devoted to talking to visitors. We explain the weaving being done or discuss other pieces in the show. That’s the purpose of being there–so please come and distract the weaver!
This Sunday, August 13, Judy Larson will demonstrate weaving and Robbie LaFleur will give a gallery talk at 2 pm. Please join us.
The runner is a variant of a large rutevev in the exhibit, one that was also woven by people demonstrating weaving. In that case, it was the Oneota Weavers Guild in Iowa who wove on a large loom at the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum. In the past couple of decades, the guild members have woven four large rutevev coverlets.
Again, it would be hard to calculate how long it took to weave the piece.
Jan Mostrom wove a large rutevev. It’s not in the exhibit; this photo is from her home. The size is roughly 36″ by 55″. Big.
Jan said that it took her about one hour to complete one row of squares. But, keep in mind that she is experienced and fast. We counted the rows and estimated time for weaving the top and bottom bands and came up with an estimate of 120 hours for the whole piece. Of course that doesn’t include the time to warp the loom, get the materials, graph out the pattern, or finish the edges after it came off the loom. It couldn’t have been less that 150 hours.
The weaving time for many of the complex weavings in the American Reboot exhibit was considerable. Come and enjoy the beautiful results.
Four of Robbie’s pieces at Norway House have similarities; they all include bands of color and design and are woven in fairly large scale in Scandinavian wool.
Traditional Norwegian symbols often appear in Robbie’s weaving, sometimes in an unexpected scale or materials. “Scandinavian Star” highlights a single Norwegian star, dense in shade of red rya pile. Read more about the piece in “An Eight-Pointed Star in Rya.” ($900)
Bright bands of red, orange, and pink compose a wall hanging (or rug) made in Flesberg technique. “Flesberg” is a three-shaft bound weave technique found in that area of Norway. Read more in “A Red Rug for the Vesterheim Exhibit.” ($800)
Recently, Robbie has been experimenting with Danskbrogd, a boundweave technique found in the area of Vest Agder, near Kristiansand in Norway. Here is a detail from a piece seen in Norway earlier this summer.
Below is an experiment in gray, with a pop of red. Read more in “How Long Did that Take to Weave?” and “Danskbrogd Instruction.” ($800)
Robbie was steeped in gray during a gray winter month, so the next step was to move to color. The X design became bigger and bolder, on stripes of purple. Read more in “A New Weaving, and Red Bits for the Birds.” ($900)
Biography:
Robbie LaFleur, from Minneapolis, Minnesota, has been following a thread of Scandinavian textiles since she studied weaving at Valdres Husflidsskole in Fagernes, Norway in 1977. She has continued her study with Scandinavian instructors at workshops in Norway and the U.S. Recent projects include interpreting Edvard Munch’s “Scream” painting into a variety of textile techniques and weaving tapestry portraits of her relatives. She was awarded the Gold Medal in Weaving from the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum in 2006. Robbie coordinates the Weavers Guild of Minnesota Scandinavian Weavers Study Group and publishes the quarterly online newsletter, The Norwegian Textile Letter.
Artist Statement:
I am a handweaver of contemporary textiles inspired by Scandinavian folk textiles. The language of my looms is based on centuries-old techniques, learned in weaving school in Norway. The core graphic impact of old folk textiles drives each new weaving, in a search for balance, color and boldness. Even when the planning process is computer-assisted, or a technique is done at a new scale or in unusual materials, I honor the fine craftsmanship of the past.
The exhibit will be up at Norway House in Minneapolis through September 10.
Scandinavian Weavers Study Group 