Last september I was very happy and flattered to be invited by American Swedish institute, North house Folk School and Vesterheim Museum to go over to the US and give some classes of heddle carving + band weaving. The trip was a wonderful opportunity for me to see a bit of the world, meet new friends and of course teach a my craft to a whole bunch of new people!

Among many other things I got to visit the archives of Vesterheim museum, which is the largest museum focusing on Norwegian culture that is not placed in Norway! This museum is in Decorah, Iowa and it’s the go-to place for anyone wanting to learn more about Norway and life as a Norwegian immigrant in the US without actually going over to Norway.

I was invited to the museum to look at their collection of Norwegian band weaving heddles, most of which are thought to have been brought over by to the US by Norwegian immigrants. One heddle particularly caught my eye and I decided to make a series of heddles inspired by it when I got home!

There are many heddles in the Vesterheim collection, but this one especially caught my eye. There is something about it’s simplicity that I really like, and the delicate arch on top is reminiscent of church windows or a bridge.

Making this set has very much been a long train of thought. In exploring the shape of the original item I experimented with the form of the arches, changing the square shape to a trapezium and so on. The blue paint is, as you probably know by now, a personal preference for me but it was also present on another heddle in the museum’s collection, so I think it is not a very out of the box idea to choose this color after all.

The heddles are made from birch wood and painted with three thin coats of milk paint, covered with a layer of lins seed oil. I have also polished the surface of the wood after painting, to make it smooth. After the coat of oil is added the result is a smooth surface with a dull gleam that makes me think of eggshells. The oil lends it a bit of plasticity but it is in the nature of this kind of paint to be worn off when you use a tool repeatedly, and with time and use the heddle will start to show signs of wear, creating a patina that tells the story of the hours you spent weaving.

To keep the milk paint from cracking and chipping off one needs to add it in thin layers. This, in combination with the polishing process where I rub the painted heddles with a scrunced up sheet of baking paper, can make the wood peek through at the highest points of the woods surface. I really like how this accentuates the tool marks from my carving knifes. This gives the painted surface a special sense of depth that I really like!

All heddles in this set are marked on the back side with a little makers mark I have made up out of my initials, K and N. Marking my works hasn’t seemed very important to me until now, but after asking other craftsmen to mark their work for me it dawned on me that the signature isn’t about me boasting that “I did a thing“, but rather a way of saying that I am the one who did the thing.

Originally I wanted to release this set before valentines day, so even if I’m not typically drawn to using hearts as adornments for my heddles I gave it a go. Only one heddle with a golden heart made it to completion though. I was thinking of excluding it from the set because it stuck out so much, but I decided to keep it in.

This set consists of 15 heddles that will be released on March 10, 21.00 Swedish time. The heddles will be for sale in the webshop, not here on the blog. Here is a preview for you guys, so you can have a look at the heddles before they hit the web shop. Click or tap the images to enhance them and see the heddle measurements! If you are buying heddles from me for the first time you might want to read this blog post in preparation.