Travels around the Baltic: Lithuania and Estonia

Lithuania 

I had been advised to visit the Open Air museum near Kaunas situated on the lakeside in Rumšiškės. It was established in 1966. Do check out the web site for information in English.  It has an extensive collection of traditional houses. http://www.llbm.lt/en/about-us/

The Open Air Museum near Kaunas

booklet about costume for children

The only booklet on sale was a small one for children but it had lovely colour illustrations of different costumes.

Sample page from booklet

Postcard of costumed doll

In the centre of the site is the town with a collection of beautiful buildings.

The village square

The bookshop

Surprisingly there was a second hand bookshop in the village square. This was a real find and the stock was extensive.  I found one old book about band weaving.  It does not have many colour illustrations but lots of black and white pictures of bands.

An old book about band weaving

Sample of inside page

We stayed in Kaunas for a few days. Kaunas became the temporary captital of Lithuania when Vilnius was taken over by Poland. This is a delightful small town with an old center with historical buildings. To my delight there were a few shops which had some bands for sale. You will recognise one of these bands from the Braid Society workshop notes for week three.

two bands in a local tourist shop

The capital Vilnius was a fascinating city to visit.  We used the local bus to travel to town and entered by a beautiful old gateway. On one day on our way home we found that there was a special service for a group of pilgrims at the church above the gateway.

The National Museum was a must-see and I was thrilled that there was a special exhibition of costumes from a theatre production of 1971.  They were beautiful and many had lovely woven belts.

close up of a belt from one costume

The small booklet about the exhibition had photographs and the original costume designers drawings.

The theatre was set up to celebrate Lithuanian history and culture from the 18th to the 20th century. the costumes were stunning.  This is the web site for the ethnic collection in the museum. http://www.lnm.lt/en/ethnic-culture/

I found a couple of craft shops but the only bands I saw for sale were tablet woven.  One shop had a beautiful patterned band in red and white but the pattern did not look like a traditional Lithuanian one. It was advertised as a Baltic region belt.

Tallin, Estonia.

We left Lithuania and travelled through Latvia on our way to Tallin.

Peter the Great's house museum in Tallin

We could walk to the centre from the camp site and this time visited house of Peter the Great which is now a sumptuous museum. http://linnamuuseum.ee/en/peetrimaja-eng/  This has been restored with great care and the exhibitions were fascinating.

In the grounds of the park there is the wonderful Kumo Museum of Modern Art.    https://kumu.ekm.ee/en/

Museum of Modern Art

This is an iconic building near the song festival grounds.I was most interested in an photographic exhibition which featured Tõnis Vint who helped make the film about the Lielvārde belt from Latvia. My Youtube video on how to weave complex motifs from this belt can be seen on https://youtu.be/t9Dekjt8uog

In Tallin I was disappointed to find that some of the tourist shops I visited on my previous trip no longer sold woven bands.  However, the Estonian Folk Art and Craft Union shop was still there and flourishing. The shop now two additional branches so there was a lot to see. If you visit Tallin, make sure you visit these outlets.

Check out their web site.   http://folkart.ee/en/ 

Deciding which bands to buy

One of the new outlets had an excellent collection of books including a lovely book of Lithuanian bands.

Twisting stairs to the basement 

To get to the shop involved clambering up and down steps to the basement.  It was worth the visit.

Wonderful books and textiles

Discussing which books to buy

Beautiful textiles and woven bookmarks for sale. 

In Helsinki on our next stop I saw this poster - unfortunately the performance was later in the year. the band is lovely.

It was a superb trip.

Handwoven belts in the Baltic and Scandinavian countries are an engrossing area to study. There are also other countries which have a handwoven tradition of narrow bands. Belarus and Ukraine also have a weaving tradition.  Here is a beautiful Ukrainian belt I have just bought from Elena who wove it.  it arrived a few days ago and I am still admiring the work that went into producing this lovely belt.

https://www.etsy.com/ru/shop/WovenSlavicBelts

It is a striking design and almost identical to the one I saw in Vilnius but this belt has a beautiful set of tassels to finish.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing some of the beautiful sites and textiles from these Baltic countries.  It was my first visit to Lithuania and will not be my last. The workshop gives examples of some of the wonderful woven bands from the area.

Do check out my Pinterest site as there are many examples of patterned bands from around the Baltic on the boards. https://www.pinterest.co.uk/DurhamWeaver/


Happy weaving

Susan J Foulkes November 2017

Pinterest: Cataloguing the World: the bow loom and the inkle loom

Bow Looms.

Here are some images of bow looms in action.

I love this picture of a class in Taiwan all using bow looms with heddles. They all seem to be enjoying the experience.

A simple bow loom made from a rough branch.

Here is another picture of a bow loom with  heddles

This useful diagram shows how the bow loom works. A long warp can be used, as the extra warp is wound around the forked end of the stick.  The other end has an attached tape which could be used to tie the end around the waist of the weaver.

It is not the only image however. Here is a copy of a photograph of the artist Karin Larsson with one of her daughters.  She is weaving on a large bow loom which appears to be tucked under her left arm.

Carl and Karin Larsson with one of their daughters.  

The photograph is not clear as it is from an illustration in a book.


Bow looms do not have to be used with string heddles.  Here is a very simple bow loom for a tapestry woven friendship band. I bought a lovely little bow loom at Tacoma to use on a weaving open day for the Durham Guild.(see my blog for November 1st 2016 Durham Guild Open Day).

Small bow loom in action

My little bow loom was very popular.  I have warped it with more beads for my next demonstration!.

The complete loom

Close up of weaving with beads.

The beads are threaded onto the warp thread before warping the bow loom.  Half the beads are on one side and half on the other.  The beads are brought down to the fell of the band when needed.

It is very quick and easy to weave and a very good introduction to weaving for beginners.

Here is a link to an introduction to bow loom weaving. Bow Loom weaving preview:

Other simple looms.

Of course, these simple looms do not have to be bow shaped.  The loom can be a variety of shapes. Both these pictures come from Lithuania

a circular branch loom with a circular warp.

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A forked branch used as a loom 

Weaver tensioned weaving.

It is fascinating to see how resourceful weavers can be.

Look at this picture of an Estonian weaver.  She is weaving a patterned band using a circular warp. The warp is tensioned by fixing one part to a hook on the wall and the other part goes around her left leg.  This means that she can alter the tension on the warp very easily and both hands are free to manipulate the heddle rod and shuttle.

An Estonian weaver in 1912

Here are two weavers in Cusco, Peru weaving in the Centre for Traditional Textiles. I took this picture in 2007. Here the loom is weaver tensioned.  The warp is attached to the fixed post and the other end of the warp is fastened around the waist of the weaver.  It is a backstrap loom.

Even with this simple equipment, patterns of astonishing complexity can be woven.  It was a joy to watch and a pleasure to support the weavers by buying textiles in the shop. I particularly liked the way that every textile for sale had a card with the weavers name on it. So often weavers are anonymous and yet their work should be celebrated.

Centre for Traditional Textiles, Cusco, Peru.

Here is a close up of the weaving.

Close up of the intricate weaving

An Early Inkle Loom?

Now for an update on my post about Pinterest. Click here to read my previous post about Pinterest: cataloging the World.  (July 1st 2016)
Here is the picture that I was trying to identify.  Is it an early illustration or a modern artists impression?

I asked members of the Braid Society and one member, Janis contacted Nancy Spies. Nancy kindly supplied the relevant links to the original illustration.

Here it is.  It is from Le Livre de bonnes moeurs de Jacques Legrand which dates to the 15th century. The probable date is 1490.  I have added the link address if you want to look at the other illustrations from this book.

"Le Livre de Bonnes Moeurs" 15th century, French, Chantilly (Musee Conde) OR Paris (BNF).  The web site is not clear, but apparently 77 pages of the MS are at Chantilly and 4 are in Paris.

It would be wonderful if someone could make a replica.  However, I think that a better quality picture would be required to see the detail. The original artist has depicted the threads and the wooden uprights so I would imagine that in the original picture the relationship between them would be more easily seen.

Pinterest

As I wrote in my previous blog on this subject, it is fascinating to see how ancient looms were depicted.  These images deserve to be examined more closely and compared to modern counterparts. Some surprising similarities and differences may emerge.  I do not yet have an answer to the mysterious depiction of the bow loom used for tablet weaving  illustrated in my previous blog about Pinterest. Here is the illustration again.

bow loom used for tablet weaving.  Where is this image?

If you want to see more images, do check out my Pinterest site.  One image can lead to another one on someone else's pin board. I am sure that you will love the search. Enjoy your own wander through 'a garden of bright images'.

Happy New Year.

Susan J Foulkes  January 2017

Durham Guild Open Weaving Day

The Durham Guild of Spinning Weaving and Dyeing had their Open Weaving Day on Saturday 15th October 2016 at St Oswald's Institute on Church Road in Durham City.

Here is a link to the Guild diary for 2016  http://www.durhamguild.com/Diary2015.htm_24.htm

Guild members were weaving using a variety of techniques and visitors encouraged to have a go at any skill they wish to try. Braiding, inkle loom weaving, table loom weaving, Kumihimo - there are so many techniques.

Everything was set up before we opened and there was a lovely display of work: finished work, work in progress and a variety of methods of weaving.

One side of the hall looking very colourful.

I took some ready warped rigid heddles so that visitors could try band weaving using a backstrap.

My Swedish band loom was warped so that visitors could weave a friendship bracelet. I used 16/2 cotton used double so that the band is 1.6 cm in width. The weft is black cottolin. I put on a very long warp so that anyone who  wove could cut off their piece to take home.  This proved very popular and all the warp was used.

My Swedish band loom set up with a long warp

I was pleased that we did have so many visitors who were interested and the warp was nearly finished by the end of the day.  One surprising visitor was the photographer from the local newspaper the Northern Echo. We had all just stopped for lunch but I was posed for a photograph with my loom.

I bought a lovely little bow loom at Tacoma to use on this weaving open day for the Durham Guild. Someone immediately wanted to try and became very proficient in weaving with the little beads as embellishment.  I am going to warp it up and take it along to the next Guild meeting as it is such a draw, easy to make and so easy to use.

The weaving is finished. 

A friendship bracelet.

Many Guild members had brought work to do and looms for visitors to try.

Sue is weaving an interesting tapestry.

The lettering is lovely.

She is using a Roman inscription.

There is a  subtle use of natural colours.


Douglas brought his trusty table loom and is in the process of warping it with lovely colours to make another tartan.

A tartan warp.

The wonderful Ashford Knitters loom was also being used and showing how very versatile this simple loom can be. It is such a comfortable weaving position.

lacy weaving on the Knitters Loom.

The Louet table loom was there with some experimental weaving by Norma.

Eight shaft table loom 

There was a small display of bookmarks from the National Exhibition.  Every Guild could submit bookmarks and it is a great opportunity for a variety of crafts to display their skills in miniature.

Inkle looms were ready warped for hands on experience of weaving.  Ann brought along two inkle looms and some portable kumihimo equipment. All fueled by mugs of tea!

Inkle looms ready to try and simple portable kumihimo equipment brought by Ann.

There were lots of examples of finished pieces of weaving for visitors to handle.

Note the Navajo spindle and expertly made inkle loom.

And of course, for those members who do not weave, there was the spinners corner.

Busy bee corner.

My display of Woven Bands from around the Baltic.

I brought along my display which shows the different woven bands from around the Baltic.  The stunning wooden heddle which I am using at the moment was made by Gunnar Karro from Estonia. I asked him to make a motif from the White Horse in Uffington. He sells his wares on Etsy and I can recommend the quality of his products.

The curved shuttle has a matching motif to the heddle and there is an elegant stand for them both. I wove a patterned band in cotton and made it into a guitar strap which is shown next to the heddle. It has nine pattern threads.

It was a very busy day and we did have some people who have joined the Guild as a result.

Susan J Foulkes November 2017