In September 2025, I found myself teaching my first overseas workshop in Frida Hansen’s wool transparency technique at the Norsk Folkemuseum in Oslo, ten years after seeing the Frida Hansen retrospective at the Stavanger Art Museum and realizing that her work would change the course of my own.
Grete Vetås came from farthest away to attend the workshop, from Bergen. She listened to my initial lecture twice – once in Bergen and then in Oslo. She told me that she signed up for my class as soon as she learned about it, and then thought she had better take a tapestry course, since some experience was required. So she signed up for a course at Rauland, taught by Anne Grete Krogstad, who was also in my class.
Grete chose to weave a peony from Frida Hansen’s Juni transparency (more on that tapestry here). She wove the blossoms with three super desirable skeins of red yarn that were dyed many years ago by her mother. She also followed her cartoon in the fashion done by Åse Eriksen. Instead of keeping a cartoon behind her warp threads, she traces the pattern onto clear plastic and smooths it over the top frequently, checking that the weaving is following the contours of the pattern.
Grete had to leave early to drive back to Bergen, before the predicted snow began to fall on Hardangervidde, in the mountainous section between Oslo and Bergen. In September! She beat the snow, and also finished the peony within a few days. She sent a perfect set of photos of the beautiful blossom, taken at different times of day. It demonstrates how back-lighting and front-lighting make it look so different.
Ellen Lyse Einarsen came with a modernist bird image by the American artist Charley Harper. It worked beautifully for her transparency piece, particularly because it meant closely studying the inspiration image and adapting it for the open warp woven technique. Sometimes it meant slightly simplifying the design, like making four leaves into three, or fewer petals on the blossoms, to weave it beautifully. Her geometric border worked great. Note how the border seems to float over the blossom in the bottom left corner of the weaving.
Ellen sent photos when she was finished.
Two of the students came with no weaving experience — with special dispensation because they are fellow Frida Hansen researchers. Tove Solbakken is a researcher with the Historical Preservation office in Oslo, and is working on a long-term project to document the house built by Frida Hansen in 1903, Bestumhus. So she wanted to learn a bit about weaving! She used my small pipe loom and made marvelous blossoms. She is also an artist who is passionate about pink, so when she was thinking about how to finish her weaving at the top, finding pink paint and a dowel at home was not a problem.
Adine Lexow currently has a three-year stipend with the Nasjonalmuseet in Oslo, while working towards her PhD thesis: “Frida Hansen: Weaver, Gardener, Artist, Woman.” She has already experimented with reproducing Frida Hansen’s dyes from her recipes, on a study trip to Berlin. Our class was lucky to hear her impromptu lecture on her research.
Adine wove a section from Hansen’s Hesteblomster [Dandelion] transparency. She ran into a yarn issue that turned into a very fun design choice. In Frida Hansen open warp transparencies, the weft is generally thinner than the warp. Adine wove some small squares on the bottom border, but because she used weft yarn as thick as the warp, the weft didn’t cover the warp completely and it would be difficult to weave in the ends invisibly. So she decided to leave the tails trailing down the front, adding more colors to the warp fringe.
Anne Grete Krogstad, an experienced tapestry weaver, chose a portion of a parrot tapestry designed in the early 1900s by Jullik Gulbrandsen. See a post about Anne Grete’s piece here, “Another Parrot in the Woven Flock.” Anne Grete Krogstad’s work is often featured in the Norwegian tapestry Facebook group, “Billedvev.” I recommend following it. See the full parrot in the post.
The workshop was held in the weaving shop at the museum, which was closed for the winter season. If you look at the background behind the student photos, you will see how cozy the setting was, with skeins of yarn, posters, books and knitting kits on display. It was tight quarters for all the weavers and looms, but it worked well for establishing a collaborative feel, with everyone learning and experimenting.
Elisabeth Magnus brought another Frida rose to the bouquet that has been woven in my workshops.
Stephanie Dickson absorbed the experiences of the other students, and worked on the design for her first transparent tapestry. At the last minute, her tapestry loom was not available for the workshop. It didn’t work out to finish the tapestry currently on her loom–and no one wants to cut off a nearly finished tapestry! You can see from the image on her screen, she was excited about Frida Hansen’s two-panel transparency, Juni.
Anne Ingrid Jacobsen drew a springtime design inspired by a delectable bag of yarn colors.
Lisen Kjørstad went all-in for free-form fun and color.
Kristine Lillestøl began a transparency with a magpie and roses, a bird featured in many Frida Hansen tapestries. Kristine drew her cartoon based on a section of a transparent tapestry by one of Frida Hansen’s followers, Jullik Gulbrandsen. She called her finished bird “a magpie of sorts” because of the beautiful color palette she chose.
Linda Patricia Grytten’s design featured birds with fall leaves.
Rita Hjellestad sat in front of a sunny window as she wove her Frida flower. Rita said she hadn’t touched her loom since she attended weaving school decades ago. I think her weaving muscle memory came right back.
It was an overwhelming experience for me. I didn’t teach in Norwegian, but spoke Norwegian often. The whole week was filled with more research and visits. I am filled with enormous thanks for all the preparations done by the Folkemuseum staff, and for the warmth and enthusiasm of my students. Tusen takk!