Announcing an exhibition
"Coarse Woolen Cloth" will be opening at Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum in Decorah, Iowa July 17, 2027 – November 7, 2027. Special events will be scheduled. https://vesterheim.org/
Vesterheim will host this exhibition featuring the story of weaving vadmel cloth, fulling at the stampa and garment design in the vibrant textile community in Vinje, Telemark. Seen through artistic and technical perspectives, the exhibition will highlight historic and contemporary examples to bring the Season for Weaving to life.
The Season for Weaving: Reviving the Stampa for Finishing Handwoven Cloth, Carol Colburn
“When the Christmas holidays ended according to Primstaven,[i] the spinning of yarn for the vadmel weaving should start. This work was to be completed by March 17, Gerterudsdagen, and the weaving was to start. The fulling should hit the spring flooding in the river. This process lasted until electricity and the textile industry took over this work.”
Ingebjørg Vaagen, Master weaver from Telemark, Norway
In the springtime at Vesaas Farm in Telemark, Norway the view of the surrounding mountains changes daily. Patches of snow high above the tree line get smaller each day and that means that local river waters are rushing. The season is ending for weaving at the loom, and it is now time for local weavers to bring their rolls of cloth to the stampa, a community-owned water-powered fulling mill, in order to create vadmel, a water-and-wind-resistant wool fabric that has been used historically for clothing and even for Viking sails.
While early fulling technology has been used since medieval times, the seasonal use of local water-powered fulling mills is rarely experienced by handweavers today. Fulling of cloth is important for preparing it for the next steps of sewing for everyday and festive clothing. In the community of Vinje, Telemark, this complete seasonal cycle of cloth production can still be experienced by handweavers. Near the Vesaas Farm, a reconstructed stampa stands on the banks of the Klevastøylåi river which runs along a valley surrounded by snow-capped mountains. Engineered and patterned after the few remaining similar mills in Norway and Sweden, this stampa was built of heavy wooden timbers in the 1990s. Owned by the Vinje community, the skills needed to care for and operate this invention have now been nutured into the twenty-first century.
Over the last 30 years the stampa at Mjonøy Cultural Center in Vinje has been used by weavers of the Vesaas Farm Studio and the Rauland Folk Art Academy. Between 2002 and 2011, the Vesaas Farm Studio hosted two-week workshops with international groups of students, organized by Norwegian and American textile artists Ingebjørg Vaagen, Eli Vesaas, and Carol Colburn with assistance by Mae Colburn. Participating weavers wove six meters or more of coarse woolen vadmel from yarn spun of the wool of indigenous spelsau sheep, then fulled their cloth at the nearby stampa. With fulling, the yarns pack together, the fabric becomes dense and its surface becomes smooth, resulting in a cloth that does not ravel and shapes easily. Students in the two-week workshops fashioned their cloth into custom made garments, taking inspiration from the rich folk-art culture of the region and shaping their cloth using a blend of traditional and contemporary sewing techniques. Fifteen years after the last international workshop in 2011, a group of young local weavers gathered at Vesaas Farm to weave cloth from spelsau yarn, full it at the nearby stampa, and fashion it into vadmel garments. This time, the group worked with an added focus on documenting every step with the goal of extending knowledge of using the stampa.
The American-Scandinavian Foundation and Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum have sponsored and supported this important work of handing down the knowledge, art, and craft skills from the older generation to a younger generation of artisans from Norway and the U.S. The skills of harnessing waterpower and controlling the heavy timbers to transform woolen cloth into vadmel will continue as weavers gather each spring, bringing their rolls of handwoven cloth to the stampa.
[i] The Primstaven is a Nordic traditional calendar stick marked with runic symbols. Each symbol indicates the time of year for all aspects of rural life.