Dr. Michèle Hayeur Smith When cloth became the basic unit of currency in the medieval Icelandic economy, women–the sole weavers in Norse society–found themselves literally weaving money on their warp-weighted looms. These textiles are an abundant, rich, and diverse archaeological source for learning about women in the past. In this talk, Michele Hayeur Smith will…
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Pile Weaving on the Warp Weighted Loom in Norway.
Osterøy Museum, Hordaland, Norway. A while back we did a post on varafeldir by Hildur Hákonardóttir which is the Icelandic term for pile weaving. In Norway it is known as the same thing, varafeld. It is unclear where this technique originated but evidence suggests remote origins in the Mediterranean where to this day, various types of…
Research upends theory that Vikings taught Inuit how to spin yarn.
Article was published in the Globe and Mail, July 22 nd, 2018. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-research-upends-theory-that-vikings-taught-inuit-how-to-spin-yarn/?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=Referrer%3A+Social+Network+%2F+Media&utm_campaign=Shared+Web+Article+Links This is based on research conducted by Michèle Hayeur Smith, Kevin P. Smith, and Gørill Nilsen. Michèle is part of the Northern Woman Arts Collaborative. The paper was published in the Journal of Archaeological Science last week. The academic paper demonstrates that…
Artists and climate change
For those among you interested in climate change and the North specifically, this site and project was brought to my attention by Chantal Bilodeau, its creator. Chantal is a playwright and is the artistic director of The Arctic Cycle , Founder, Artists & Climate Change, Co-founder, Climate Change Theatre Action , Curator, Theatre in the Age of Climate Change Check out Chantal’s…
Stringing Together Purpose and People
I remember playing Cats Cradle as a kid in New Jersey. I never really thought about where the game came from. Recently however, while talking with anthropological archeologist Michele Hayeur Smith, I learned a bit about Inuit culture and life in the Circumpolar Region that led me to do further research and to the…
The Warp-Weighted Loom- Book review
Audur Hildur Hákonardóttir 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…
Reproducing a vararfeldur
By Marled Mader Varar- or Röggvarfeldur My project for this time staying ast the Textile Center, Blönduós, Iceland is making a vararfeldur. The first to reproduce a real vararfeldur were Hildur (hope to meet you sometimes somewhere in real), who is part of this wonderful Northern-Women-Project, Elizabeth from Shetlands and Marta from Norway. They wrote…
Northern Women Arts Collaborative 