A thank you note read at the book opening event in Bergen City library December 16th 2016.
“The key to understanding why words and images from spinning and weaving are still in use even after we have entered the forth dimension world and the digital age, when the majority of Western women no longer learn to make thread, weave or cut clothes – the key to understanding this is to remember that weaving came before writing into our culture.
Therefore we have a story thread, we twine together words and facts, we unravel lies and we talk about the fabric of life and at death the thread is broken.
The Jacquard loom with its punch cards grew out of the draw loom with its long warps and complicated silk weaving designs inspired from the East, and those were the forefathers and foremothers of the computer and its offsprings. The Internet was first named the Wide World Web – www – and the first software designers called themselves weavers – at least in Iceland.
Now that our culture stands at crossroads, it is necessary to turn back to the basics and try to find some firm ground to stand upon and some truths as we begin to unravel an unbelievable web of the multilayered lies international politics have shrouded themselves in. And then we must weave our way forth through history again but this time we are going to bring the legacy of womens’ work into light and respect and honor their contribution to that great story.
This is a feminine book as t it is a combination of many disciplines. There is history – a detailed how to do chapter – poetry and mystic plus scientific research into textiles and a tribute to the social framework that support this sort of activity and all are produced in a beautiful package. Modern women are extremely busy and we do not have time to think in the linear way men do or compartmentalize things in the same way.
I want to thank the Skald forlag and the Hordaland Museum complex for having the guts and the courage to publish this book and for choosing a designer that understands its message.”
By Hildur Hakonardottir, Author.
Northern Women Arts Collaborative 