Each year the Scanweavers (the Scandanavian Weavers Interest Group of the Weavers Guild of Minnesota) select a project for the year. Each member weaves their own interpretation of the project. This year we elected to weave something that is inspired by an artifact at the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum in Decorah, Iowa.
In June we trekked the 150 miles to Decorah to be inspired. We were awed by the collection of costumes, coverlets and other textiles, many well over a century old, and many contributed by early Norwegian settlers. See this Smugmug gallery of photos of the pieces that we studied.
My inspiration: If you are familiar with Norwegian traditional costumes (bunads), you’ve seen the wide colorful belts of the women’s costumes of the region of East Telemark. At the Vesterheim I was pleasantly surprised to learn that these belts are tablet-woven!
I plan to weave a band in the style of these East-Telemark belts. I future posts I’ll describe the design and weaving process.