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Nordic and world braids and bands 2022
Nordic Lectures
Turned threads and thoughts: Heritage skills and modern art The story of my path as a tablet weaver, teacher, and textile artist, in which the technique is a tool, a way forward, and not the destination. The materials, tools, and meeting with people, visions, and functions. The pedagogy of manual skills, literature, and philosophy as a basis for artistic creation. The rest is life.
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The Faroe Islands are situated in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, between Norway and Iceland, and north of Scotland. The population is about 50.000 people. The climate is windy, wet, cloudy, and cool. Nothing much grows on the rugged terrain except grass, which feeds the many sheep that have provided wool, which was for many years the foundation of the Faroese economy, as well as material for clothing. These days the economy is mostly founded on fishing and fish farming. Out of necessity, the Faroe Islands have a long tradition of making their own textiles, many of which are still practiced today. Especially knitting is important, and the Faroese knitting patterns, though many of them are similar to patterns in other Nordic countries, are distinctive, being mostly quite small and intricate. Wool was used for most items of clothing, either knitted or woven, and often felted as well. Several bands and braids have been used for both decoration and practical purposes on clothing, but also for ropes and strings. Many of them are also used in other countries, as they are mostly very simple. However, most of the Faroese bands and braids are manufactured using no other implement than one’s own hands and body. Some of them require two people working together. The national costume of the Faroe Islands is very popular, it is worn for graduations, weddings and at Ólavsøka, which is a national holiday on the 29th of October. People of all ages, children, young people and older alike enjoy wearing their national costumes. They are highly valued, as well as being expensive, with all the silver ornaments and the specialized items of clothing.
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Braids and bands were part of costume and household use from the recorded time of human life in Denmark. Bog burials and other archaeological finds show an extremely high technical level of weaving, sprang, tablet- and rigid heddle bands. Passementerie became a recognized guild in the 1500s, after which the most decorative bands and lace were more often bought from workshops or merchants selling goods from Germany and France than were made at home. Peasants bought imported silk ribbons for their costume but continued to weave and make the simple bands they used as garters, apron and cap strings until around 1880. The last handmade braids and bands disappeared when regional dress was largely abandoned in the early 1900s. Then it became popularto revive these textile skills through ladies’ magazines and weaving schools, but today they are goneagain except for the occasional committed scholar, weaver and dedicated hobbyist. Can heritage skills be resuscitated?  |
A wealth of prehistoric cords and bands made of various fibres and animal skins has been recovered in Denmark. They range from simple plied cords to more complicated woven or braided bands. Because Denmark is rich in organic finds from archaeological contexts these objects reveal a variety in the material culture that in many other areas are lost to us. The presentation will have a sweeping chronological focus from the Stone Age to the Viking Age.
Photos: Cords found with a body in Sigersdal Bog, Northern Zealand, dated ca. BC 3500. Braided leather cord from Tollund in Jutland, dated BC 400-110, found looped around the neck of a man’s body. |
Stories of our bands - traditional Finnish bands and new interpretations During my lecture I will give you an insight to traditional Finnish bands as a part of our cultural history. Handmade bands are still often used as a part of the national costume, but in a time before zippers and velcro, bands also had an important everyday function. Bands and how they were used can tell us different stories about our past, traditions, and values. What would these stories tell us and look like in our society today? In my work while learning about and weaving traditional Finnish bands from my part of Finland, Ostrobothnia, I found these stories both interesting and important. The stories formed the starting point for my exhibition “Ribbons and Stories” where I interpret the usage of the traditional bands in new modern ways.
If we, as a weavers and crafters of today, can tell a story why and how we choose to work with certain techniques and materials, we can give the craft more value and secure its place in the multifaceted society of today. 
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Fashioning the Viking Age is a collaboration between the National Museum of Denmark, Lejre Land of Legends and Centre for Textile Research at the University of Copenhagen. The Viking Age is a popular period of the Scandinavian prehistory and both museums and living history centers are engaged in the dissemination of this fascinating period. Reconstructing Viking age clothes helps make history come alive, and the decorative woven bands on these clothes are unique and important. However, contrary to what many people think, this is not an easy task as the archaeological finds – on which the garments should be based – are often small and fragmented, poorly documented and hard to “translate” into whole garments from all parts of society. The aim of this 3-year project is to create new and archaeologically well-founded interpretations and reconstructions of Viking Age textiles and clothing. In this project, we demonstrate and visualize the variation of the textiles’ qualities, based on preserved archaeological textile and tool material used in the Viking Age. From this knowledge we reconstructed two full high-status outfits. This lecture will focus on the garments’ braided and woven bands.
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Traditional dress of the Sámi, the indigenous peoples of northern Scandinavia, includes many decorative and functional braids and bands. The traditional designs and techniques have been known for centuries and are regarded as intangible cultural assets. Like other Sámi handicraft skills, braids are actively protected, taught, and practiced, with a strict view of family traditions and appropriation. Braids are woven on rigid heddles, with or without brocading, as well as being finger-woven and braided. The colors are distinctive and bright, worn as belts and apron strings, stitched onto coats and caps, used for carrying knives, and wrapped around boot tops. Designs and colors can be so specific that they are only used by one family, and are thus not taught to outsiders, but the techniques themselves will be well known to braiders and weavers the world over.
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A ship burial with rich grave offerings to accompany two Viking women was excavated in Oseberg, Norway in 1904-05. The longship was the last resting place of two high status women and contained many precious, excellently preserved grave goods. Garments, silks, tapestries and 52 beautifully woven braids were found, some still in the weaving process with tablets carved from wood. The ship and its contents, one of the finest Viking finds anywhere, are exhibited at the Viking Ship Museum at Bygdøy in Oslo. Bente Skogsaas has analyzed and made reconstructions of 10 of the tablet-woven bands but most of the bands are in too poor condition to be reconstructed.
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In Norway the oldest finds are bands from the Roman times, then the Migration period, Viking age, Uvdals- and Skjoldehamn bands from the Middle Ages, tablet woven bands from the peasant age and various techniques with the rigid heddle. Some areas have special band looms with heddles, upright, and sometimes with warp weights. There are also special looms for weaving in kelim technique called cradle-looms. The Norwegian Folk Art and Craft Association (24,000 members, founded 1910) aims to keep the traditions and develop them further. The Red List is an action to prevent local, traditional craft techniques from being lost, and includes techniques as rigid heddle weaving, sprang, and braiding. 
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A brief history of 1000 years of Icelandic textiles 1000 years of Icelandic textiles include traditional weaving techniques, embroidery, and felting as well as bands and braids made of skinnsaumur: a coarse, woolen imitation of mixed guipure lace; fótofin bönd: (footweaving) plain tabby woven bands; slyngdir/slynging: edged with woven bands; spjaldvefnaður: tablet weaving; bregða: finger weaving.
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