Sweden has one of the longest unbroken and richly indigenous tapestry weave traditions in Europe. Hand weaving in Sweden, although having to struggle along with much of the rest of Europe, against competition from industrial looms, was always seen as part of the rich rural heritage of Sweden. It was particularly favoured for domestic use and young girls were taught from an early age to be proficient in the craft.
With the founding of the Handarbetets Vanner, or Friends of Handicraft in 1874 by Sophie Adlersparre, Molly Rohtlieb, and Hanna Mathilda Winge, three Swedish women who did much to integrate the old traditions of Swedish hand weaving and tapestry into the burgeoning interest shown largely by urban dwellers in fast disappearing rural crafts, through the Arts and Crafts movement.
It was seen by many that if a number of the traditional crafts were not encouraged, they would be lost forever. This was often problematic as many rural workers were drifting towards urban centres across Europe, as cities became a magnet for the ambitions of rural populations who were often disinclined to take up the labour intensive and badly paid traditional craft skills. Sweden, in the respect of rural crafts, was luckier than some of the more populous and intensely industrial countries in Western Europe. By the end of the nineteenth century, Sweden still had a relatively large rural community with few big industrial towns. However, it was still seen that the rural traditions that the Arts and Crafts movement supported and felt were vital to the integrity and future of the various different indigenous cultures of Europe, needed particular support and encouragement.
All of the pieces shown here were produced in the very first few years of the twentieth century. They give a taster as to what was expected from a revival of hand weaving in Sweden, much of it produced, in the Arts and Crafts tradition on an amateur basis. They were based on traditional design work and represent what was seen and felt to be the typical style and interests of rural Sweden. Two of the examples shown here have weddings as their theme, while the other carries on the long running Scandinavian theme of abstract flat pattern work.
It is the interest in both the traditions of Sweden and its rural culture, but also that of the weaving tradition itself, which has kept hand weaving alive within Sweden. This has allowed a whole raft of individuals from professionals who used both hand and industrial weaving techniques, to the strictly hand weaving of the amateur. All have helped to produce and inspire work that has continued that tradition across the twentieth and into the twenty first century.
Further reading links:
33 Contemporary Swedish Weaving Patterns for Monk's Cloth
The Big Book of Weaving: Handweaving in the Swedish Tradition: Techniques, Patterns, Designs and Materials
Swedish Weaving /Huck Embroidery Designs Book II
SWEDISH TEXTILE ART: Traditional Marriage Weavings from Scania (The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Swedish Textile Art)
The Treasure Chest of Swedish Weaving
Swedish Weaving,
Favorite Scandinavian Projects to Weave: 45 Stylish Designs for the Modern Home
Swedish Hand Weaving - Weaving Patterns
Weave Structures The Swedish Way - Volume 1
Swedish weaving on monk's cloth: Four designs, 22 different patterns
Manual Of Swedish Hand Weaving
247 Swedish Craft Artists: A Guide from South to North
Swedish Folk Art: All Tradition Is Change
