The beauty of Estonian craft

Tartu,  Estonia

Gunnar Karro works wonders in wood.  He designs and carves the most lovely weaving implements. Friends of mine had bought some of his work and whilst I was in Estonia last summer, I arranged to meet him.

He sells his work on Etsy  https://www.etsy.com/uk/people/Ampstrike

We met Gunnar and his wife in Tartu, Estonia.   He showed me the range of items that he makes.

Lucet and curved shuttle

The temptation was too great and I came away with a lovely curved shuttle and a lucet.  I use a lucet frequently as I can make coloured narrow cords out of fine thread. It fits in the hand so well and is so smooth to the touch.



I know that some of his customers have asked for specific designs, so I commissioned him to make a heddle and shuttle with a delicate carved horse.









I gave him a picture of the Uffington White Horse and he translated this ancient design into a motif for my heddle and shuttle.

'Not what a horse looks like, but what a horse be'  

Heddle by Gunnar Karro

The horse motif on the band shuttle, beautifully carved by Gunnar Karro.

The two colours of the wood of the shuttle makes the horse look as though it is running along a hill top.

Gunnar also made a handy stand for the heddle and shuttle.  This makes them items for display as well as use.

I have posted a page about threading a standard heddle on my blog which shows me using the stand to thread the heddle.  It is easier to thread the heddle if it is upright and the stand works perfectly.


If you want to know more about the Uffington White Horse, see more information about the horse at this link.     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uffington_White_Horse

Uffington White Horse

This is the Uffington White Horse.  Recent archaeological evidence dates suggests that it is at least 2,500 years old and was initially constructed in the early Iron Age or perhaps even the late Bronze Age. The position and its distinctive shape has been maintained more or less intact since that time.[i]

The White Horse is easily visible form the valley and on a clear day can be seen from 15 - 20 miles away.  It is enormous.  The horse is 110 m (about 361 feet) long.



Terry Pratchet's book A Hat Full of Sky describes a carved chalk horse - 'Not what a horse looks like, but what a horse be ...It had been carved in the turf before history began, by people who had manged to convey in a few flowing lines everything a horse was: strength, grace, beauty and speed, straining to break free of the hill.' (page 78)

I have started weaving with the heddle.  It is a joy to use and will always remind me of meeting Gunnar and his wife in Tartu.  I am touched by the beauty of the carving and the wood.  Wood has such a warm smooth feel. One friend described his work as feeling like silk and I now know what she means.

Susan J Foulkes March 2015

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[i] Miles, D., Palmer, S., Loc, G., Gosden, S & Cromarty, A., (2003) Uffinton White Horse and its Landscape: investigations at White Horse Hill Uffington, 1989-95 and Tower Hill Ashbury 1993-4, Oxford Archaeology Thames Valley Landscapes Monograph 18, pages 77 - 78

Travels around the Baltic: Finland

Helsinki

We spent two weeks in Finland on our travels around the Baltic.  We took the ferry to Helsinki from Tallin, Estonia.

Part of the historic Fish Quay in Helsinki

The fish quay in Helsinki was wonderful.  There is an old fish market which sells a large variety of fish, fresh and smoked.  The cafe providing fish soup is well worth a visit.

Waiting for the fish soup

What a lovely country! I knew very little about Finland other than that Finnish design is highly regarded. We love visiting new places and seeing the local styles of architecture.  One famous Finnish architect is Alva Aarto. We saw his house and office in Helsinki and visited the museum in Jyväskylä . We also went to Noormarkku to see the Villa Mairea, which houses an astonishing modern art collection. If you get the opportunity it is worth the effort to  make a visit.  It is the first time I have seen an art collection in a homely setting.  Art museums and stately homes make art seemed detached - objects to view.  Seeing Kandinsky, Degas, Gris, Braque, Picasso and Leger in such an intimate atmosphere gives another dimension to the experience of paintings and sculpture.

Villa Mairea built in 1938

Staying for a while in Seinajoki, enabled us to see the town centre that Alva Aalto designed. 

To return to the topic of weaving, when we were in Helsinki, we visited the National Museum which is built in the National Romantic style. There is a lovely collection of costumes and woven bands.  I was particularly interested in the carved wooden heddles. These were made as gifts for an intended bride and have an immense amount of careful work lavished on them.  Some of them were circular, a feature of heddles from the coastal area of Finland, which was strongly influenced by Sweden. 

National Museum, Helsinki.

Guarding the National Museum entrance

When I started weaving I subscribed to Vav Magasinet, the Swedish Weaving Magazine, and bought several interesting back issues. One contained an article about Kitty Collan-Tham. (Vav Magasinet, Nr 4, 1993 pages 20 - 22).  I did not weave bands at the time but this article inspired me to find out more about this lovely craft.  When I was researching places to visit on our Baltic trip, I was thrilled to find that the museum in Jyväskylä has a collection of her woven bands.  A curator at the British Museum had given me details about the Jyväskylä collection.

Jyväskylä

In the Craft Museum in Jyväskylä there is a beautiful display of textiles, including woven bands. There are also information sheets in Finnish which can be downloaded.  The pictures of woven bands are detailed and to my delight the information sheets mentioned that they had a Kitty Collan-Tham collection.

I contacted the museum and arranged to visit whilst we were in Finland.  I was made very welcome and thoroughly enjoyed my visit.  I saw about 200 woven bands in detail.  The work to analyse the patterns and weave examples is going to take a long time.  I was intrigued to see the influences from Sweden, Estonia, Russia and the Sami in the band patterns.

 I was particularly impressed that the collection also included narrow bands where the pattern is simply formed by the order of the warp threads.  These are the easiest bands to weave yet can be very decorative.  Too often museums only collect the most impressive or colourful so the collection is skewed in favour of the most decorative examples.  These humble examples of design are also important as they show the full range of the type of bands that were woven.

Here is an example.

There are 27 warp ends for this band

The woven band

I wove this band on my Swedish band loom.  It is another Finnish pattern which I saw in the National Museum.  There are 27 woollen warp ends.

















I have analysed and woven one of the bands with 25 pattern threads because it was so intriguing. I am still examining my photographs of the collection.

I was particularly thrilled that the final box of bands that I examined were the bands woven by Kitty. In fact they were the bands featured in the Vav Magasinet article. I carefully lined them up in the same formation as the picture in Vav.  Her weaving is lovely and the colours were quite varied.  I am looking forward to weaving some of them myself.
I am very grateful for the staff who gave up their time to answer my questions and make my visit to the conservation centre so rewarding.  I was even treated to cinnamon buns with my coffee!

We drove further north and stayed in Oulu.  This town on the coast was very attractive with its islands and bridges.  It was ideal for cycling.

Oulu

We found the delightful Northern Ostrobothnia Museum, which has an informative exhibition of Sami artefacts. Look at my previous blog about Sami weaving for more details.

Cinnamon Buns

And now a coffee break! One of the delights of Sweden and Finland is the cinnamon bun.  We had to have at least one a day. The smell of freshly baked buns is truly marvellous and entices you into coffee shops. When we got home, my husband decided to bake his own to feed our addiction.

Here is the link to the cinnamon bun recipe that he found. It evokes for us the holiday in Sweden and Finland.  It is from the Guardian newspaper.

Fresh from the oven

The wonderful cinnamon and cardamon aroma when they are baking perfumes the house. It is so hard just to eat one.

Bageriet in London

 Last week I was in London and went to my favourite coffee shop - a tiny Swedish bakery which does the most wonderful cinnamon buns.

They are tucked away in Rose Street, next to Standford's bookshop near Covent Garden.

Their  mouthwatering cinnamon buns.

Susan J Foulkes 2015

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

Slow Cloth

permission to publish this chart given by Elaine Lipson

Just before Christmas I read an interesting article by Elaine Lipson about the concept of Slow Cloth. Her influential paper :The Slow Cloth Manifesto: an alternative to the politics of production is about treasuring quality and creativity in a world that seems to value mass production rather than craft.

Elaine explains how Slow Cloth has four aspects:

• exploring how we work,
• what we work with, 
• why we do it
• and where we do it in relation to other and ourselves.  

Slow cloth involves the concept of time - the time it takes to master skills, to practice and learn new skills and to work towards excellence. She makes the valid point that too many craft workshops are more concerned with selling new pieces of equipment rather than being geared for learners to develop a new skill in depth.  There is too often an emphasis on quick skills rather than making something of quality.

It is also about the continuation of cultural skills.  Skills such as weaving, are not familiar to many people and the connection to history and the meaning of these skills is sometimes not appreciated.
Our relationship to textiles has been altered by mass production and the availability of cheap clothes.

In a newspaper last year a reporter described the scene on a high street during the sales.  A woman dropped a bag of newly bought clothes but could not be bothered to pick it up as she was carrying so many other full shopping bags. The reporter found that it was full of t-shirts from a well known cut price department store.  Clothes are now considered disposable in ways that would have been unthinkable to our parents and grandparents.

The Personal Meaning of Textiles

The idea of Slow Cloth takes us back to the personal meaning of textiles.  The joy of creating something unique however small and however long it takes to make.

There is a wonderful quote in a book about Early Anglo-Saxon clothing, it is from an American re-enactor who had spent over 200 hours recreating her Anglo-Saxon cyrtel through spinning, dyeing, weaving and hand stitching,

- ' in the end it is a product of my hands, my heart and my mind and that is what really connects me to the spinners and weavers from a long time ago' (Walton Rogers, 2007, p 250).

The book finishes with the comment that we establish a direct connection between the past and the present by the pursuit of lost craft knowledge and the recreation of these forgotten skills.' (p. 251)

Slow cloth is not about a particular textile technique or a project - it is about taking time and finding the joy in learning and making.

What a good New Years resolution for 2015 - to use my heart, hands and mind to create something unique.


Happy New Year 

Susan J Foulkes 

[1] Walton Rogers, Penelope (2007) Cloth and Clothing in Early Anglo-Saxon England, AD 450 – 700, York: Council for British Archaeology.

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What is on my loom: hand towels

Weaving waffle weave hand towels.

I have just finished a set of hand towels in waffle weave.  I love this weave structure.

Here is the draw down. I have used green, red, blue and white to show the structure clearly. It is woven using seven shafts.

Drawdown for 7 shaft waffle weave hand towels.

Warp: 8/2 cotton in three colours, natural, light green and dark green.
Weft: 8/2 cotton in three colours, natural, light green and dark green.
Sett: 24 epi

Total number of warp ends: 589 ends.

The pattern repeat is 12 picks and 12 warp ends.  I used three colours: natural, light green and dark green.

The colour order is as follows:

24 natural, 12 light green, 12 natural, 12 dark green, 12 natural.  I varied the order in the centre but to balance the weave the final group of natural warp ends should be 25.  In all there are 45 groups of 12 ends and two larger groups of 24 at one edge and 25 at the other edge.  Look at the towel on the loom for the exact colour order.

There is no need for a floating selvedge as the waffle weave shrinks and fulls up beautifully.
To start, I used a fine 16/2 cotton for the first 12 picks ( one pattern repeat).  This is for the hem so that it will not be too bulky.

Here is the weaving on the loom.

I wove one towel with just the natural as the weft.  A further two towels I wove with five pattern repeats in natural, light green, natural, dark green etc.  The length of the towels on the loom was approximately 95cm (37 inches)

A close up of the weave structure whilst on the loom

Once off the loom I ironed the ends of the towels to make the hem. I turned up one pattern repeat -  (the first 12 picks in fine cotton)  and ironed it flat. Then turn a further pattern repeat in the 8/2 cotton.  This makes the hem which can now be tacked. Don't worry if your hem is slightly larger.

Close up of the hems before washing. 

I used a wide zigzag stitch on the sewing machine to hem the towels. Once hemmed the tacking stitches can be removed.

To wash the towel, I put it into the washing machine with  my normal wash and then into the drier.

This weave structure makes very textured towels.

 The shrinkage is as follows and is measured with the towel already hemmed.

Before washing ( and after hemming):   Length: 85 cm  (33.5 inches)     Width: 57 cm (22.5 inches)

After washing and drying.:                     Length: 62 cm (24.5 inches)       Width: 45 cm  (17.75 inches)

There is a lot of shrinkage for this weave structure.  The final towels are beautifully textured and make ideal hand towels.

Hanging tag.

I also wove a narrow warp faced band to use as a hanging tab on the towels.  I used the 8/2 cotton in the same colours.  Here is the drawdown.

Drawdown for warp faced narrow band.

The narrow band has 42 warp ends.  If you look along the top of the drawdown, you can see the colour order for the warp. Some of the dark and light green warp threads are doubled so that they stand out in the pattern. This is indicated by a thicker square on the drawdown.




I wove the band on my Swedish band loom.

These type of bands can be woven easily on an inkle loom or with a rigid heddle. (See my book The Art of Simple Band Weaving and the Youtube video Five ways of weaving narrow bands).

I cut the band into 4 inch lengths for the towel hanging tags. Turn under the ends of each tag and iron flat.

Pin to the edge of the towel and oversew.








The band tags were sewn onto the towels - just in time to be wrapped for Christmas presents.

The three tags: one is sewn onto the edge of the towel.

More narrow patterned bands.

Bell key ring holders by Tamaki

My friend Tamaki posted a lovely photograph of some of her key bell holders.  She has been making them to raise money for the orphans of the tsunami.

She loves band weaving and has made some lovely bands in beautiful colour combinations to go with the key holders.

She allowed me to publish her photograph. As you can see, she has been very busy making these lovely bands and knitting the key holders. All of the keyholders sold.

The colours are just right for Christmas.

And finally - a Happy Christmas to everyone.

Susan J Foulkes  December 2014

Travels around the Baltic: Mora to Falun, Sweden

When I first visited Sweden, the wealth of handmade textiles in museums came as a very pleasant surprise. There are examples of woven bands everywhere; in museums large and small as well as displays in shops.  There is a reason for this abundance of textiles.

At the end of the 19th century, there was a realisation that society was changing and that old crafts and traditions were dying out.  Artur Hazelius had set up the Nordiska Museum in Stockholom in 1873 and in 1882, George Karlin founded the Kulturen, the Museum of Cultural History, in Lund in southern Sweden. The museums started to collect examples of peasant craft but it was felt important the skills should not be lost. 

The Nordiska Museum, Stockholm

In 1899,  Lilli Zickerman founded the Home Craft Committee She was a formidable writer and speaker and she brought together an executive board chaired by Prince Eugen.   Zickerman understood the importance of keeping records. From 1914 to the 1930s she compiled many inventories of the traditional textiles of Sweden. She took over 24,000 photographs, hand colouring many of them. She had intended publishing a series of books, but only one was published in her lifetime. These records are now in the Nordiska museum in Stockholm. 

One book about the Nordiska collection was published in 1925. Swedish Textiles is an overview of the weaver's craft with descriptions and black and white pictures, of items in the museum. I found a second hand copy some years ago.  It is written by Emelie von Walterstorff, a member of the Home Craft Committee. It has a forward by Luther Hooper.

In Sweden, each district population was encouraged to set up a handicraft association, so many set about making inventories of the textiles in their area.  One astonishing discovery was made by Paul Jonze in 1910.  He was appointed to make a list of items of rural culture for the Association of Jämtland’s Handicrafts. Next to Överhogdal church, the sexton had found an interesting textile that was lining a box used for storing firewood to heat the church.  When examined properly, this textile was identified as a woven tapestry dating between 800 and 1100 AD (the Viking Period). It had been woven on an upright warp-weighted loom. It is now on display at the Jamtli Museum in Östersund.

Schools were encouraged to teach crafts as a fundamental part of the curriculum so that these traditional skills would be passed on. In Stockholm, the Svensk Hemslöjd store selling Swedish handicrafts from different parts of the country was opened and is still there today. Permanent stores were established around the country to provide a focus for buyers and sellers, the shop in Leksand being the first. Buyers from the large towns could visit these regional stores to order the textiles they wanted.  This provided a source of income for rural women.  These stores were to be centres for exhibitions and craft courses as well as selling venues. Records were kept of local patterns and materials which form the basis of many museum collections today. With all this interest in craft, it is not surprising that Sweden has preserved such a profusion of textiles.

In Leksand, the shop/centre that Lilli Zickerman and the architect Gustaf Ankarcrona established in 1904 is still there. Upstairs there is a small museum of costumes and bands.  They had a stall at the Weave Fair in Umea where the assistants dressed in the local costume.

The Leksand shop stall at the Weave Fair in Umea. 

Most of the local records are now in the nearby Leksand museum which was founded in 1899.  When I visited the museum in 2011 to study the band collection, many of the woven bands I examined still had the original labels detailing when they were collected. 

The county town in Dalarna is Falun and the Dalarnas Museum in the centre of town is another textile heaven. It was here that I spent happy hours examining samples of woven bands. The museum was founded in 1883 and the present building is on an attractive site next to the river.  

Dalarnas Museum, Falun

The costumes and textiles are beautifully displayed.  Although light levels have to be kept low in order to preserve old textiles displayed in glass cases, there is a wall of modern reproductions for the visitor to touch and handle. All these reproductions are represented in the permanent display of historical costumes. I was surprised by the heavy weight of material for the skirts and could appreciate the lovely rosepath patterns in the cloth. The patterns of woven bands can be examined closely. This hands-on display and the accompanying documentary film is an innovative and very welcoming introduction to the textile gallery.  Maria Björkroth from the museum explained that the display is used on guided tours to bring the viewing of costumes to life.  Through the experience of touching and examining, visitors see items in the showcases that they had not noticed and have a greater understanding of how they were made. 

This was my second visit to this wonderful collection.  After my first visit in 2011, I published a book of band patterns from Gagnef-  Woven Bands from Sweden.  This time I examined the rest of the collection of bands from this village.  I love the way the weavers used many colours.  There were a few examples of early bands which were in red and white.  After chemical dyes became available, dyed wool was imported and was very popular.  The bands became multicoloured.  For me it was particularly interesting that the coloured wool came from the UK.

The revival of Folk costume in the early 20^th century ensured that the museum has some stunning examples. The Dala-Floda costume is one of the most colourful. The appliqued bags for each costume are so attractive and the museum has many examples. 

Some bands are easy to analyse and weave, but the more complex wider bands can take many hours to chart. 

Many bands are now woven commercially, particularly the waist bands which have to support a sturdy skirt.  I wove an example of one waistband in fine cotton and wool..  The photograph shows my band on the left and a commercially woven band on the right.  (The patterns are not the same).

If you look closely at the bands, you can see that the pattern thread in the centre is green.  This thread is known as the heart of the band.  It is a useful guide when weaving.


I hope that you enjoy the descriptions of my visit to Scandinavia.  In January, I will describe the Sámi weaving that I saw. 

Happy weaving and Seasons Greetings to everyone.

Susan J Foulkes  December 2014

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