Star-struck

Looking through images of Norwegian billedvev (tapestry), you will find many eight-pointed stars, utterly charming in their variety. In my Vesterheim billedvev workshop last week, two students chose stars for their weaving.

Linda Ryden wove a single star, and because she is very spatially-oriented, she graphed it out and wove it crisply, beautifully.

Stephanie VanHousen started her stars more free-form, inventing center section patterns and varying the star point colors.

Based on the interest in stars, I made a new handout this weekend to add to their notebooks. How can you help but be inspired by these charming, patterned shapes?

I added some shapes if you’d like to to design your own signature star.

Grab some markers or pencils, design your star(s), and weave away, continuing the billedvev star tradition that is several centuries old.

If you would like to print the handout, it is here in pdf.

I’ll write more soon about the two four-day billedvev workshops just ended at the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum, in which I was blown away by the enthusiasm of the students and how they were able to choose projects of incredible variety.