Norwegian Folk Art

I took some pictures of the members who contributed their handcrafted folk art for competition. Here are some examples.

This is an example of Norwegian Rosemaling. This form of painting has been around since the 1700's. There is a revival of the art going on now due to the Norwegain-Americans wanting to get in touch with their roots. Many of the Sons of Norway lodges have teachers who love to share their art. The plate is wood.

Now I am going to show you some embroidery from Norway. The name Hardanger is an area in Norway where this style of embroidery is found. How this is done is by counting threads and doing a satin stitch along with some threads that are drawn and some are pulled. In Norway this type of embroidery was traditionally done on aprons, which we still see today. Traditionally the Hardanger embroidery was done with white treads on white fabric such as it is found on the aprons. Some of the fabrics are as fine as 50 threads per inch. Today many women will use a heavier fabric and have added colored threads in some of the designs.

     This is an example of a table runner done in Hardanger. This person used a colored thread to do her piece.

     This is a close up for you to see the stitches used in this table runner. Blue is also a tradional color for Norway.

     This is another example of Hardanger on a table runner. This person choose red threads which is another traditional color of Norway.

     Here is the tradional white on white Hardanger embroidery done on a table cloth.

     This is white on white Hardanger embroidery done on shelf liners for bookcase shelf or a pantry shelf.

White on white treads done on a pillow.













This is actually a small pillow. Done in the 20th century version with color. Still this took a great deal of time to make for such a small piece.

 

There is also a category for knitting. There are three levels of learning and earning your badge of expertise. The third level and the final test is hand knitting a Norwegian sweater.

Here is an example.

Here are some purses that were hand knit first and then felted.

     This is an example of Huck embroidery. Sometimes called Swedish weaving. This was also traditionally done with white threads on white fabric. Norwegian women tended to embroider most household items. The weaving is done on even weave fabric such as Monk's cloth. This form of emboidery is done by picking up vertical threads on the fabric and you weave your pattern. It is a very easy form of embroidery to learn.

      Here is an example of Norwegian weaving. This is accomplished bycreating a textile by passing the yarn or thread over and under the warp. The weft threads are the treads that are connected to the frame of the loom

Here is an example of Norwegian wood carving.