Time to Leave

It’s time for me to leave Norway, where spring is well under way, and head back to Michigan. Here’s the pond outside of Digital Weaving Norway, now in a much different mode than in January – turns out that a good-sized fish wintered over in it.

It has been so rewarding to learn about the wool yarns and jacquard woven fabrics currently being produced in Norway, and to interact with Norwegian colleagues and students. As a result of the research weaving, I’m convinced that turned tapestry constructions are even more versatile than I’d hoped when I started, and I look forward to additional explorations.

Below is Tyrifjorden Season, the handwoven turned tapestry yardage fabric that is the culmination of this project, drying in the sunshine after wet finishing. This has been an extraordinary experience, and I am grateful to the Fulbright Foundation for providing me with the opportunity.

Final Weaving, in-process

Here’s the yardage fabric that is the culmination of this Fulbright project, still in-process on the loom. After more weaving, I’ll remove it from the loom, along with the tests that preceded it on this warp. Then I’ll do some wet-finishing experiments on the test fabrics and, when I find the best approach, process the yardage accordingly. At that point it will be ready for display at the Digital Weaving Norway booth this June at Convergence.

Many More Thank-You's

Very special thank you’s go to Annemor Sundbø of Setesdal, and to Jon Pettersen of Bergen. Both were extremely helpful to me as I pursued different stages of this Fulbright research project. Testing the turned tapestry weaves on industrial equipment at Innvik Sellgren was especially valuable, and without Jon that would not have been possible.

In addition, I am grateful to the other faculty and staff at the Kunsthøgskole i Bergen, all of whom were unfailingly generous with their time, energy and expertise. Special thanks also to Berit Leine and Torill Havan of Digital Weaving Norway, and to Han Mei of KHiB, for their helpfulness and good cheer.

I also want to thank the individuals at the Norwegian companies I visited who took the time to show me their production processes and answer my questions, as well as the textile artists who opened their studios to me.

Here are links to web sites for most of the companies, schools and museums I’ve visited in Norway as part of this Fulbright project research, in chronological order:

Digital Weaving Norway in Eggemoen
Hoelfeldt Lund near Grimstad, with some additional images here
Sjollingstad Uldvarefabrik in Mandal
Rauma Ullvarefabrikk in Andalsnes
Kunsthøgskole i Bergen, and the Future Textiles project at KHiB
West Norway Museum of Decorative Art in Bergen
Innvik Sellgren in Tingvoll
Krivi Vev in Tingvoll
Oslo Museum of Decorative Arts
Røros Tweed in Røros
Myklebust Kunst & Handverk near Jølster
Norwegian Museum of Cultural History in Bygdøy, Oslo
Grinakervev in Brandbu

A Special Thank You to Vibeke Vestby

This is Vibeke Vestby in her office at Digital Weaving Norway on a sunny spring day. Her investigation of turned tapestry weaves reignited my interest in learning more about them -- you can download a copy of an article she wrote in 2005 here, with her permission. Without her knowledge, expertise, kindness and generosity, this Fulbright project could not have happened.

Visiting Grinakervev

I recently had a chance to visit Grinakervev, which is located on a farm in the countryside about 30 minutes north of Hønefoss. A family-owned and operated company, Grinakervev produces very beautiful fabrics in traditional Norwegian designs. I was particularly delighted by their damask fabrics, but their Beiderwand, double weave and other fabrics are also of very high quality. They weave their fabrics on mechanical looms, both jacquard and dobby, as well as on hand-operated dobby and drawlooms.

On the left, above, is a photo of part of the Grinakervev building that houses the hand-operated looms and the shop; on the right is the mechanical jacquard loom on which more of a cotton and linen damask fabric I purchased is being woven, in another building. And below is an exquisite wool damask fabric they weave, with a detail view. This fabric is intended for garment and upholstery uses.

Weaving Experiments with Spelsau Wools

For quite a long time, I’ve wanted to experiment with using lampas weaves on a turned tapestry warp. Here is the first test. Both types of weaves are combined in the horizontal bands of geometric shapes, and the plain rectangular areas below are some lampas weave variations.

The yarns are the Norwegian Spelsau wools I purchased earlier at Rauma Ullvarefabrikk and Hoelfeldt Lund. The warp is 10/2 Brodergarn (5,000 meters per kilogram), and the weft is 1-ply Bolstergarn (4,500 meters per kilogram). Now I’m ready to weave a much larger piece using these materials with some of the turned tapestry weaves I've tested this winter.....

More on Springtime in Norway

On the left is the apartment I’ve been living in when working at Digital Weaving Norway, with the sweet little car I’ve recently been driving parked nearby. It turns out that “drive time” music in Norway is quite similar to what one hears on the radio in Michigan when going to and from work – at least on the radio station the car was tuned to when I borrowed it.

On the right is the springtime view from the hill near my apartment. I photographed this same view shortly after I arrived in Norway in January, but then it was snow-covered. The water you see is part of the Tyrifjorden, an inland waterway that is northwest of Oslo. Earlier this week, I was treated to a spectacular helicopter flight over this area of Norway – the Norwegian landscape is incredibly beautiful!