Please join me for two lectures coming up on zoom. In the broad-ranging Nearly Wild Weaving lecture, I will discuss my passion for traditional and contemporary Scandinavian textiles and how my work has evolved. The second lecture on May 4 with Damascus Fiber Art School will focus on Frida Hansen’s transparent tapestry technique, with lots of photos of historical and newer transparencies. There will be little overlap — sign up for both!
Interview One: Nearly Wild Weaving. (In England!)
Tapestry: In Conversation – With Robbie LaFleur
Wed, April 24, 2024 11:00 – 12:15 GMT-7. (Eventbrite calculates the time for each guest’s time zone. It costs 10 pounds, which Eventbrite conveniently charges you for in your own currency.)
During our conversations we find out how our guests approach their work, what inspires them, what techniques they favour and why. Hear the stories behind some of their work and have a chance to ask questions.
Throughout this season we are taking a more international view of tapestry weaving, and this month delighted to be crossing the Atlantic once again, this time to talk to Robbie LaFleur who is based in Minnesota. And as we talk, we’ll also be travelling back across to Scandinavia, finding out more about Robbie’s long association with weaving in Norway.
Robbie started her weaving studies in Norway, and her work is strongly influenced by traditional Norwegian weaving. She has a particular interest in the work of Frida Hansen, which she was able to pursue in some depth during a funded research programme in 2019. Robbie has been the editor of the Norwegian Textile Letter for many years, giving us enormous insights into Scandinavian contemporary and historical textiles, and she is also a weaving instructor, introducing many others to the different facets of Scandinavian approaches to tapestry weaving.
We will find out what brought Robbie into tapestry weaving and especially the world of Scandinavian weaving, how she approaches her designs, the influences on her work and discover where her work has taken her.
Interview Two: Damascus Fiber Art School (In Oregon!)
Frida Hansen and her Followers: Robbie LaFleur Online. Saturday, May 4, 2024. 10-11:30 Pacific time. $10. Register here.
Robbie LaFleur will talk about Frida Hansen and her followers from the 20th century to the present. Frida Hansen, one of Norway’s most famous tapestry artists, designed beautiful wool panels in her signature transparency technique. Using open warps combined with meticulous woven areas, she wove textiles with fluid drape and dramatic contrasts of color and shadow. Robbie will highlight Hansen’s transparencies and those woven by her many followers, stretching more than a century up to Robbie’s own tapestries in open warp transparency.
The presentation will be approximately an hour long and followed by a 30-minute Q&A. Registered individuals will receive a zoom link. Be sure your email address is entered correctly when registering. A recording of the presentation will be available until June 3, 2024.
Bonus: A Third, In-Person Talk
Gallery Talk: The Valley Grove Tapestries
Sunday, April 28, 2024 (beginning at approximately 9:30-9:45)
St. John’s Lutheran Church, 500 3rd Street West, Northfield, MN 55057
Many readers know about my commission of four tapestries in traditional Norwegian billedvev style woven for the historic Valley Grove Church near Northfield, Minnesota. While the tapestries are not in their summer home, they are available for display at other venues. This month they are showing at St. Johns Lutheran Church in Northfield. I will be giving a gallery talk about the tapestries on Sunday, April 28, at about 9:30-9:45, between the two church services that are at 8:30 and 10:45.
There is also a webinar from Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum on the project. Valley Grove Project: Contemporary Billedvev Tapestry Weaving with Robbie LaFleur.
