The Osterøy museum sold a fabulous krokbragd book, Åklebragder fra Jondal og kring Folgefonna by Kristi Skintveit. It’s a fabulous combination of textile history, weaving drafts, and inspiring photos. Here is the book photographed on the Icelandic Air flight from Reykjavik to Minneapolis, when I had lots of time to read.
There were a few krokbragd coverlets at the museum, draped in places where I couldn’t get wonderful photographs. Still, I feel that even seeing partial pieces, or individual bands, is interesting and adds to understanding the “language” and possibilities of the weave structure.
This was an interesting and unusual tiny krokbragd in a glass-covered exhibit drawer. It was woven in very fine threads for a Norwegian costume breast-plate. To give you a sense of scale, here it is with some bodice pieces in other techniques.
The director said she had never seen another bodice piece done in krobragd.
Later in the afternoon, even though my friend Jan Mostrom and I felt like drowned rats from our lengthy walks around rainy Bergen, we hustled to an antique store I had seen the night before, trying to reach it before closing time. We were rewarded by seeing amazing coverlets. There was a whole stack of krokbragd coverlets, large double-wide pieces in beautiful condition. This one was 4500 kroner ($533).
This one, with patterns similar to those in the book I bought earlier in the day, was 3500 kroner ($415).
I wasn’t in the market for a large coverlet (small suitcase, small weaving budget), but it was interesting to see what was available. Jan was interested in the painted wooden baskets, and of course her favorite was the most expensive, at 12,000 kroner ($1,423). It was the nicest one, the owner told us, done by a famous painter.
We left the antique store happily inspired, but with room in our suitcases.