My Own Swedish Tapestry Flowers

Last winter I put up an exhibit of Swedish and Norwegian tapestries at the Weavers Guild of Minnesota–mostly Swedish. I thought they were charming, and I especially liked the common color scheme of bright flowers on a dark brown background.  You can see photos of the floral pieces that were on display in “Carol Johnson’s Tapestry Collection: Floral,” and read several more posts about the exhibit by going to robbielafleur.com and searching the words “Swedish tapestries.”

To weave my own small Swedish flower tapestry, I chose to add a Minnesota connection, a comment about the constant distressing news about the demise of bee populations.  I abstracted photos of three Minnesota pollinator flowers, important for bees–purple coneflower, butterfly weed, and purple prairie clover.

My design process was fairly “old school;” I drew and redrew the flowers, and cut them and placed them until the composition seemed balanced.  I based my nonrealistic bees on ones that say “Buzz, buzz, buzz” in a favorite book of my children and now two-year-old grandchild.

It’s a modest piece for memories of 2019.