TESTING TESTING

This is a little bit of playing around with sizes and scaling of images, as my blog is being redesigned a bit........

Jellyfish.

When visiting Berlin I went to the Aquarium and there I saw the most amazing jellyfish. The structures, colors, patterns ... everything was fantastic.

The way they were moving when swimming up was fantastic to look at. I'm so much in love with the lines.

These were amazing too. Like x-ray or ...

I share my studio with Marianne Johnstad-Møller, a knitdesigner who have been inspired by the jellyfish. She has knitted the most amazing light objects.

WALLS OF BERLIN.

My husband and I have just spend one week of holiday in Berlin, and it's such an amazing and fantastic city. So full of experimental art, history and diversity, all at the same place. We totally fell in love.

I like walking and discovering new things and we often just head to one of the areas of Berlin, quickly Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg became our favorites.
We just would walk around, going into a backyard, looking at walls.

It says it all: Love Ist Possible, Love Is Possible, Kærlighed Er Muligt.

One evning we went to Mitte and close to Hackescher Höfe, we went into a backyard. I fell in love with this little box on the wall with different things inside. It reminds me of a dollhouse. 

A poster with hearts.

Also in Mitte next to Hackescher Höfe. This grafitti, wall painting were so much full of details.

In Prenzlauer Berg the small balconies were full of flowers, just like my own in Copenhagen.

My husband got so excited every time we saw some of the old Berlin Mauer. I'm not even sure if this part above was the truth Berlin wall, and why people today have started putting chewing gum on it. But it gave the wall a fantastic texture.

Part of the Berlin Mauer, with contemporary graffiti.

One day we went and visit Sachsenhausen and in the basement of the kitchen, the former prisoners have made drawings on the walls. This one really touched my heart and I guess the priosiners were dreaming of the day when it was possible to have a real shower again.

On the Kollwitzstrasse in Prenzlauer Berg there were many beautiful walls like this.

It's not easy to be the postman in this neighborhood, but lovely is it.

Another wall painting, also in Mitte with bikes in the front.

Thank you to my dear husband for beeing part of this amazing trip to Berlin.

TEXTILE LETTERS.

Snapshots of some of my textile letters.

From Julie in Holland.

From Amanda R in Canada.

From Evdokia in Greece.

From Lisa in U.S.A.

From Teresa in Portugal.

From Zenobie in England.

From Our Strange Nature in Belgium.

From Avalanche Looms in U.S.A.

From Doni in Italy.

From Flaurette in France.

From Hermine in Belgium.

From Lisa in Belgium.

From Olga in Russia.

From Studio Meez in Belgium.

GARDEN COLLECTING.

Last weekend I have been home at my parents place and they have the most stunning garden, full of flowers, which is now blooming. Early in the morning I went out garden collecting.

A little "picture" of straws and grasses. To me these colors are amazing, full of life and energy. I would love to use them as inspiration for weaving. 

Details of limegreen together with light rosa. Pretty pretty!!

Purple, red, rosa, lilac, silver, grey, white and black.

Geranuims which we call "Storkenæb". This is one of my favorite Summer flowers, as there is so many different kinds of shapes, shades and colors.

Leaf from the Conny Broe Geranium. The nature is amazing and full of delicate patterns.

Purløg in blooming. This little green straw you can eat.

Sun, lines and colors.

HEDEBO EMBROIDERY.

My new passion next to weaving is embroidery. I have start making it again and also collectiong items, especially white in white embroidery. It's my favorites.
I visited Greve Museum the other day and they have a large collection of Hedebo Cutwork, where white linen thread was embroidered on white linen fabric. So beautiful and with such a detail, both in the stitches as well in the designs.

The Hedebo ares is known for Hedebo Embroidery, as well as decorated furniture. Motifs from the Hedebo Embroidery can be found in the painting on the furniture.

All photos are taken by me through a glass.
Many of the photos are of decorative towels which is about 35 cm in width and 150-170 cm long with two or three borders. On holidays and feasts the towels hang on the colored, woven curtains on the alcove in the Hedebo livingroom. The girls made the decorative towels when they passed their communion. The towels became a part of the trosseau. Some of the decorative towels were inherited.

Also a lot of the photos is of a Knædug which is about 75 cm in width and 100 cm long. The textile is named from the pole, hanging over the oven in the livingroom of the peasants. In Danish this pole is called a "knæ". It was used for drying socks. On holidays and feasts the pole was decorated with the embroided "knædug".

The embroidery techniques used in Hedebo Cutwork have their origins in the oldest form of Hedebo Embroidery, namely the needle lace edgins on collars and cuffs of the peasant shirts from the 18th century.
The embroidery is simple and is made only in Danish buttonhole stitch.
Hedebo Embroidery is not just one form of embroidery but consist of seven different variations;
Hedebo edges, Counted thread work, Drawn thread work, Square cut work, Hvidsøm, Baldyring and Hedebo Cutwork.

On Greve Museum you can find information about Hedebo Cutwork and they have even made a special webpage for Hedebo Cutwork which is in english too. The webpage is fantastic with cultural informations, how to sew and you can even explore Greve Museum’s collection of Hedebo Embroideries. Amazing.

Detail of a decorative towel with Baldyring.

It's a very practised and skilful needlewoman who have made the piece. It's pieces such as this which inspired the architects Thorvald Bindesbøll, Anton Rosen and Martin Nyrop to produce their later designs in Hedebo embroidery.

Detail of a Knædug. Under the cross stitch there is a border of H hemstitching.

Cross stitch where often combined with Hedebo Cutwork.

Here a detail of a decorative towel, which shows a monogram, with the year surrounded by a wreath, and a flower arrangement on each side. It has been sewn in red cross stitch.

Detail of a Knædug with Hvidsøm and square cut work. This Knædug contains both pure net fillings, rose fillings and woven fillings, as well as fillings of cross-stitching. At the bottom, a plaited warp made of coarser fabric has been attached with small overcasting stitches.

The Knædug is given the date 1834 and the initials KID, embroidered in square cut work and surrounded by vines and leaves in chain stitch and satin stitch. KID stands for Kirsten Jens Datter.

Detail of a bought fringe attached to a knædug.

Detail of a cut work Hedebo decorative towel. The embroidery is a fine example of early work Hedebo, where the tradition of having horizontal borders framed with H hemstitching is preserved. Despite the great openness of the stitching, the embroidery is solidly worked and the different fillings in the spaces show a great proficiency and an experienced needlewoman.

Here is the detail of the narrow border with a row of hexagonal wheels, each consisting of triangular spaces with points and beading loops.

Detail of a corner of a serviette in cut work Hedebo. It's finished with scallops with circular cut spaces in every scallop. Here it's possible to see the Spider Web filling in the holes.

At the Greve Museum there are several books about this amazing embroidery. I recommend these:

Udklipshede, Hedebo Cutwork by Jytte Harboesgaard. ISBN 978-87-988931-3-4

This book is a revised edition of Kniplingssyning fra Hedeboegnen, published by Borgens Forlag 1993. This book comes with ½ of the text in english and shows how the different kinds of stitches and designs are embroidered. Very useful.

Jytte Harboesgaard have her own embroidery webpage and the book is also available as an e-book.

Hedebosyning -en verden af variationer. Hedebo Embroidery -a World of Variations by Henriette Buus. Katalog from Greve Museum 2008. ISBN 978-87-89367-28-6

This book also comes with ½ of the text in english.