Northern Women Arts Collaborative

Women Do Archaeology: Women, cloth, looms, and power in the Viking and Medieval North Atlantic

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…

THE VALKYRIES LOOM: THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF CLOTH PRODUCTION AND FEMALE POWER IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC. By Michèle Hayeur Smith.

Introducing a new book by one of NWAC founding members on the textile traditions of the North Atlantic, from the Viking Age to the Early Modern Period. To be published on November 3rd, 2020 with University Press Florida. “An impressive presentation of Viking Age and medieval textile production in the North Atlantic, especially in Iceland…

Norse North Atlantic Textiles and Textile Production: a reflection of adaptive strategies in unique island environments.

Paper presented at the 3rd International St. Magnus Conference: Visualising the North 14-16 April 2016, in Kirkwall, Orkney.

The Lady in Blue: the research, the exhibit, on Kastljós, RÚV, Iceland.

This video describing the research process behind the Lady in Blue exhibit was aired on Icelandic television in 2015, as part of the program ´Kastljós´.

Life, Death, Fate and Female Embodiment: Weaving in Viking Age and Medieval Iceland

Lecture by Michele Hayeur Smith Given at Bridgewater State University, on November 1, 2012

Traditional and Contemporary Textile Art in Northern Iceland

A trip to visit Heimilisiðnaðarsafnið / Textile Museum in Blönduós, north Iceland.

The Amauti as a Symbol of Protection

Cocoon, Pen and Ink, Metallic Acrylic Paint and Laundry Lint, 2017 During my recent involvement with the Northern Women Arts Collaborative, I have become interested in learning about Inuit culture. The Amauti is the first thing that grabbed my attention. The design of the Amauti is beautifully symbolic of motherhood at its most basic level of nurturing and protecting. The Amauti,…

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…

The Woman Dressed in Blue: a Textile Find from the 10th c. Icelandic grave and its reconstruction. By Marianne, Guckelsberger and Marled Mader.

Based on The Lady in Blue-Bláklædda Konan, National Museum of Iceland Project The Lady in Blue-Bláklædda Konan: the textiles. National Museum of Iceland.

Cowichan Knitting: History and Continuity

In this post I will focus on the a bit more on the background history of the Cowichan knitters and their techniques and how contemporary artists are responding to this history and honouring it.

Feldur by Hildurhak

The word feldur is Icelandic and means a skin from a living or a dead animal.

The Cowichan Women’s traditional sweaters, issues of intellectual property and cultural appropriation.

A flurry of media reports concerning the Cowichan Tribe’s claim that their famous sweater designs were being used illegally by the Hudson’s Bay Company for the 2010 Olympics held in Vancouver, BC Canada raised important issues around intellectual property and cultural appropriation. The outcome of the issue highlights the limits of legal, artistic and economic protection for creators of cultural products in this age of globalization.

Warping a warp weighted loom

In December 2015 a good friend gave me her old warp weighted loom, these photos document the adventure of learning to set it up, warp it, and weave with it.