The Weave Fair, Vaxjo, Sweden 2017

Weave Fair 2017

The Weave Fair was held in Vaxjo, Sweden in September.  The Weave fair is a fantastic occasion to meet other weavers from around the world and see an astonishing range of equipment and yarns.  There is a comprehensive lecture programme including some lectures in English.
The town of Vaxjo had displays of weaving and the longest rag rug every produced.

It led past a display by the local craft guild who had looms where they demonstrated their skills.

Another long rug led to a local shop where more woven goods were displayed as well as another loom.

The rug led to a shop.

Lots of woven goods on display

The local museums also had a colourful display of both contemporary and old examples of weaving.


To get to the Weave fair, I had to board a bus in the town centre with the destination Samarkand.  So I took 'The Golden Road to Samarkand.'  The Weave Fair seems like a caravanserai, although not a place to rest but to meet and buy.

The bus to Samarkand

I attended all three days as there is always something to do and see. All the major loom makers were there and the weaving equipment was very tempting. I like to arrive early so that I can take alook around  before it gets too busy.

Toika Finland

Yes the loom equipment did stretch this far!

Glimakra USA

All the yarn was very tempting.  A rainbow of colours in wool, linen and cotton.

There were plenty of weavers demonstrating their skills. Local guilds gave their time to bring their looms and show a variety of weaving techniques from tapestry to draw loom weaving.

 At the Weave Fair in Boras in 2011, I attended a inspirational lecture by Andreas Moeller.  He is an accomplished weaver/designer as you can see from his web site.  He spoke about the 8 shaft countermarche loom that he had designed for weavers in Africa.  It is an amazing loom and here he demonstrated its capabilities.   Here is his web site  http://www.moeller-hamburg.com/c/English
I have uploaded a video onto my Facebook page. 

I have posted a video of Andreas weaving on his loom on my Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/sue.foulkes.5   It is astonishing how quickly he can weave.

Here is a piece from his blog about this remarkable loom.
In 2009 he constructed the Personal-Flying-8 Workshop Unit, a loom and all the equipment that is needed for weaving. It can be built easily by one person, without the use of electricity, without the need of drilling holes and without metal parts like brackets or axles.
The building instructions for the Personal-Flying-8 loom and the book Flying-8 Das Weben can be ordered from Andreas.

The Selvedge magazine stand

Selvedge magazine was also represented. I have been interviewed for an upcoming edition of Selvedge along with a tapestry weaver, Matty and spinner, Amanda.  It was a wonderful opportunity for us all to talk about our passion for craft and the role the the Association of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers has for us and other like minded craft practitioners. http://www.wsd.org.uk/

I have a new article due to be published in the next edition of the Journal published by the Association with an accompanying YouTube video. (yes, it is about band weaving!). Amanda's work in Tibet is in the current Autumn edition of the Journal.

I was looking forward to seeing the stall for the Leksands Hemlöjd.  In Leksand it was the first outlet outside of Stockholm to sell local crafts and was founded in 1904. This was a must go to destination for me every time I visit Sweden.

At the Weave fair, I bought a pattern book of bands as well as a stunning band from Insjon near Leksand.

The busy Leksand stall.

This is the beautiful hand woven band that I bought. 

I had an amazing time at the Weave fair. I met weavers from around the world. The stand for the Swedish Weavers Association was of particular interest. http://www.riksvav.se/   I bought one of their practical large bags which was very useful for all my purchases. I will write more about this in a future blog.

An excellent bag for carrying lots of 'goodies'.

The Skane region is famous for its embroidery.  The stand gives an idea of how colourful they are.

The cushions are glorious.

These bags came as kits so that you could make your own.  The bands were all commercially woven.  

We also visited other places in Sweden.  We went back to Orebro and found other sights to explore including the iconic water tower.   There is a small open air collection of old houses in a lovely park.

Lovely old buildings to explore. This shows Siw's shop.

Here I met Siw Norup who had a small shop selling her handmade items.

 She was selling her collection of woven bands as she does not weave them any more. She wove simple warp faced bands and was selling her heddles and band locks.

The bands were very colourful and I bought one as a souvenir. It uses different weights of wool and has an interesting asymmetrical pattern.

woven band by Siw

I hope you have enjoyed this trip to Sweden and the Weave Fair.  The next Fair is in three years time.
One area of the exhibition hall was partitioned as a private area for the people running the various stands.  I spotted these two patient dogs - I felt the same after three days.

The free online workshop for patterned band weaving starts today.  See my blog for details.

I will be writing future blogs about the other places I visited in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland.

Happy weaving

Susan J Foulkes

Travels around the Baltic: Sámi weaving

The Sámi people

The Sámi people are the indigenous people of northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. When I first became interested in band weaving, I decided to travel to Sweden to see the type of bands that were in museums.  I had only seen black and white diagrams of band patterns and a few colour photographs.

In 2009, travelling up to Sweden through Europe, we stopped in Schleswig and it was there that I saw my first collection of bands.  They were Sámi bands - and I knew nothing about the Sámi people  I was thrilled to see such lovely examples of band weaving and I wanted to find out more about the Sámi people, their crafts and culture.

Of course, in Sweden most museums have collections of woven materials and many small towns have small museums as well. I have researched the beautiful woven Sámi bands from Sweden.  Looking closely at the patterns is illuminating.  The colours have a particular significance; a rare example of there being a meaning in the woven bands.  Too often meaning is assigned to patterns and symbols and this meaning is assumed or ascribed but has no basis in fact.

Sweden

In Stockholm, the Nordiska museum has a Sámi gallery which was very interesting and introduced me to the place of Sámi people and culture in the history of Sweden.  Going back last summer, I was slightly disappointed to see that the gallery has hardly changed in the last six years.

In 2011, we travelled as far as Kiruna and Jokkmokk to attend the Sámi market in August in Jokkmokk. However, the real highlight was the Ájtte, Swedish Mountain and Sámi Museum which has a stunning collection of clothes and lots of examples of woven bands. Every year the most important Sámi market is held in Jokkmokk in the first week in February.  I would love to attend this event. 

Last summer, we went to the Weave Fair in Umea.  Umea was the European Capital of Culture in 2014 and the programme for the year included many events for and about the Sámi people.

 Sámi heddles and bands

At the Weave fair, Astrid Enoksson, who lives in Tarnaby, had a display of display of Sámi costume and weaving. Her rigid heddles are made out of reindeer antler.

This beautiful coat and band was on the display.

See the blog entry for October for more about the Weave Fair in Umea.

This band has nine pattern threads and is a very quick design to weave.

At the Weave Fair, Stoorstalka had an attractive stall at the entrance of the Market Hall. They had a  very dramatic backdrop for their stall. 

The Stoorstalka stand at the Weave Fair

Sámi rock art

In Umea in the Västerbottens Museum there was a display of  ancient Sámi rock art.  A fascinating glimpse into another world.

 a replica Sámi pot

I bought this lovely copy of an Iron age Sámi pot.  It is 3.5 inches tall and stands on my desk as a reminder of a wonderful holiday.

 Finland

On our travels around the Baltic, I found two other museums with a Sámi collection. Unfortunately the museum in Estonia had none of its collection on display when I visited.  In Finland however, there were many examples of Sámi weaving and craft. We spent two weeks in this lovely country.

I visited the craft museum in Jyväskylä in central Finland which I will mention next month in my blog about Finland. We traveled further north and stayed in Oulu.  Here, I stumbled across a lovely museum, the Northern Ostrobothnia Museum which had a collection of Sámi artifacts.  These had been collected by the museum director who spent his summers with the Sámi people in the north of Finland.  He counted them as his friends and the collection was displayed with much thought.

There were a number of bands displayed.  These lovely Sámi shoe bands have one of my favourite
patterns ( see Handwoven  2013, March /April Vol 164, no 2 for the weave pattern).










One of the shoe bands on display had three motifs.  I analysed the pattern and wove it.  It has eleven pattern threads and the graph is given on my blog.  The speckled edges are made by using a yellow weft thread so that it shows up against the red border threads. It is a very attractive shoe band. I have posted the pattern draft onto the blog for you to try.

This shoe band has eleven pattern threads.

If you want to know more about Sámi weaving, I am running an online workshop for the Braid Society on their Yahoo discussion group, Braids and Bands in March 2015. The workshop shows how to weave a particular type of band using a newly designed heddle from Stoorstalka - the Sigga heddle.  This heddle is used to make bands that have 'jumping' pattern threads. Details about the workshop and how you can join in are given on my blog.

I think that it is rather exciting that a new weaving tool has been developed.  It shows that the craft of band weaving is still meaningful and creative.

An excellent booklet The Sámi - People of the Sun and Wind, published by the
Ájtte Swedish Mountain and Sámi Museum is available in the Nordiska Museum 


Happy weaving

Susan J Foulkes
January 2015

Travels around the Baltic: Oslo to Mora, Sweden

This summer, I spent nine weeks travelling around the Baltic region to study patterned band weaving in different countries. I had booked visits to several museums in three countries to examine their collections behind the scenes and talk to curators.

Our first textile stop was Oslo. I wanted to visit the Norsk Folkemuseum of cultural history. It is part of a large open air museum which has an impressive range of medieval buildings.  Unfortunately, the costume gallery had problems with the lighting so I was unable to see any traditional Norwegian folk costumes.  The Sámi  gallery was open and had a lovely collection of artifacts.  I will be recreating one of the woven bands that I saw there for the online workshop I will be running early next year.

Here is  a lovely Norwegian costume with a lovely woven waist band.

The Historisk Museum in the centre of town was well worth a visit.  It shows Norwegian history over 9000 years. There were a few recreated Viking costumes.  One cloak was particularly splendid. because around the edges was a tablet woven border.  Tablet weaving and the warp weighted loom are related technologies.  The patterns woven with tablets may well have influenced subsequent patterns on woven belts.  This S motif is a variation of designs seen on later woven patterned bands.

motif from table woven border

There is a saying: If you are tired of Oslo you have been there for three days.
It is not true. There was not enough time for us to do everything that we wanted, so a return trip is planned.  The Opera House is particularly impressive so our next trip will have to be built around the opera programme. And, of course, a return visit to the Norsk Folkmuseum.


We then drove to Mora in central Sweden on the northern shore of Lake Siljan. This area has been a holiday destination since the 19th century.  It became a place where many artists had their summer homes.  One such artist was Anders Zorn.

After he died, his wife ensured that his work could be appreciated by displaying it in a purpose built art gallery, the Zornmuseet.  A nearby open air museum contains examples of local buildings and an impressive display of costumes collected by Anders Zorn, including many woven bands.

I had arranged to meet Barbro Wallin.  She is the author of a beautifully illustrated book about traditional band weaving from the Mora area, Moraband. (See Books from Sweden and Estonia on the blog).
She demonstrated how she weaves the bands on her loom using different heddles to lift and lower the pattern threads.  The heddles are in different colours. When the loom is warped, she attaches the heddles to the warp in the correct order for the lifts. Once this is done, weaving becomes easier as the correct pattern threads can be selected for each pick.   She was very quick.  She kindly allowed me to have a go.   My attempt was slow and I made quite a few mistakes. My mind knew the theory but my fingers seemed to be all thumbs! Barbro  was very patient!

Barbro's band loom

Here is a close up of the band on the loom.

Close up of the band on the loom

Bands from this area are usually woven with three background threads in between each pattern thread.

Barbro was very generous with her time and we visited the Zorn Textile museum together.  I wish that I had allowed longer for our stay in Mora. There is so much to see and do and Barbro was excellent company.

In the textile museum, there are many examples of beautiful local bands displayed in a way that showed off the length of the bands and the variety of the motifs. I found it fascinating that some of the older bands were in the 'Baltic threading' that is two background threads in between each pattern thread, where the background weave structure is half basket weave.
The band weave structure changed when women started to use the type of band loom used by Barbro because it made weaving patterned bands easier and quicker for them.

The beater that Barbro uses is a heavy weight!  I bought one at the local craft centre. I have used it and it beats very firmly indeed.

Band knife from Mora.

Museums in Sweden have an abundance of beautiful woven bands.  They range from narrow simple bands to wide complex patterned bands.  The bands that I find most intriguing are ones that have no pattern repeats. This is not easy as the weaver would have to remember which patterns had been used as the woven part of the band is rolled up onto the cloth beam of the band loom. It did make the weaving more challenging and interesting! For the weaver, it was a way of showing off her skill, but also, this band was her possession for life. They were not made to be sold.  One band in the Zorn Textile collection appeared to have the date 1848 on one end. .

I have examined many bands over the years and a few years ago, I decided to weave my own example.  I analysed 100 different patterns as I am not skilled enough to be able to weave them without being written down. I could assemble the patterns into the order that I wanted before I started to weave.

The white background threads are in fine linen.  The 13 pattern threads are in thick red and green wool. The pattern threads are more than twice as thick as the background and weft threads. This makes the pattern stand out. The centre pattern thread is green. In Sweden, this is known as the heart of the band. This is a useful guide when weaving.

My 100 motif band.

As you can see, at one end I wove my initials and the date.  This is very common in early bands.


Here is a close up of one of the motifs. Go to Band weaving with 13 pattern threads on my blog for the pattern draft.

One motif from the woven band.

Here is the reverse side of the motif.

Reverse side of motif.

In the museum in Leksand, which is further around Lake Siljan, they have a portion of a marriage band in their collection.  There are two sets of initials and the date of 1850. I wove my own copy. Here it is. I love the way the intials are bounded by a heart pattern.

Portion of a marriage band with two sets of initials and a date of 1850.

Next month I will post about Falun and the Dalarnas Museum.

Happy weaving

Susan J Foulkes

November 2014

Durham Weaver