Norwegian Embroidery

Cheryl

It looks like an embroidery that is regional. Reminds me of the embroidery of Silesia, Poland, and many of the baltic nations: a design peculiar to a region that is satin stitched.

Very > Would anyone here happen to know anything about rosesøm? It's a kind

Hi Diane, You're somewhat right about it being regional. The name means "rose sewing." It's the needlepoint version of rosemaling, which means "rose painting," and you're right; different valleys or regions of norway would specialize in certain designs or color schemes in both. I just can't seem to find any designs anywhere. I'm not coordinated enough to draw them freehand, either.

Dora

I'm late off the mark in replying, but you might try

(it's just a single page, but there's an email address you can try). They're the main competitor to Husfliden, and ought to know where you can buy patterns or find them online. Just ask!

If you would like, my husband's bunad is from the West Telemark region, and it's no trouble to take it out of storage and take pictures of his mother's handiwork.

Let me know! Becky A.

Thank you, Cheryl, for the referral to Scandinavian Stitchery. Unfortunately, they don't carry anything to do with roses=F8m.

Brenda, I know so little about rosemaling. Do they use templates? I never knew; I thought they did all that beautiful work freehand.

It never occured to me to search for "rosesaum," Dora. I'll try that right away and let you know what happens!

Thank you, Becky, for offering to take pics of your husband's bunad. That would be wonderful! I will go and check out heimen.net, too right away!

Rosemaling is done freehand. Period. If it's worked from a template, it's not considered rosemaling. My husband's father used to be pretty decent at it. He's made a few things for their house.

Rosesaum is a dialect spelling of rosesøm. It comes from the northwestern part of the country. We checked to see what the word is in nynorsk (the secondary Norwegian language), but the spellings overlap that of bokmål.

I've got some errands to do today, but I'll have some time to get DH unpack his bunad this evening. I think I've got some pictures from last year of his mother's bunad (also from West Telemark) on the 'puter somewhere. I'll get those to you as soon as I can find them.

Take care! Becky A.

Hello everyone. I just started reading this newsgroup and usually lurk. I looked at the pictures below and realized that when I was a little girl our family was stationed in Iran and our landlady was Armenian and she did beautiful work like in these pictures.

She would have me bring her all of my coloring books and go through them and use pictures from my coloring books as her templates, trace them onto really fine onion skin paper and lay it over her fabric and use that. I would watch for hours.

I don't know if that helps for experimenting or not.

Val Rollins

"lngrid" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@v46g2000cwv.googlegroups.com... Would anyone here happen to know anything about rosesøm? It's a kind of traditional norwegian embroidery (yes, there is something besides Hardanger!) that you can see here

here.http://www.telemarksnett.no/bilder/folkekunst/broderi_lo.jpgI"ve looked all over the internet for patterns for it and have come upempty-handed. Would anyone out there be able to help me find them, orare most designs under proprietary laws because they're used in bunads?

btw What is a bunad? Dora

There's a short definition and a long definition. Since it's got somewhat to do with needlework, I might as well give the longer explanation.

A bunad (BOO-nahd) is a traditional Norwegian costume. In the olden days it was the clothes you wore every day to milk the cows and shovel manure and plow the fields. The word 'bunad' used to simply mean 'clothes'.

In Norway, the term is rather specific. Nowadays, the word 'bunad' refers to a costume (design) that has been in continuous use from as early as the 1500s, but mostly from the 1600s to 1700s. Costumes that are merely reconstructions or approximations are called 'folkedrakt' (folk costume).

The stitching is usually pretty ornate. I don't even want to know how long it took my MIL to do the decorative embroidery on hers. The designs vary widely, depending on where the bunad's design comes from.

Try

for pictures as well as that wasn't too boring...Becky A.

Okay. Read a tiny bit as well as your post. Great sites to visit. Thanks.

If I understand correctly: bunad was originally the everyday clothing, of a distinct style. Later (1800's) it became a folk costume.

Dianne

Becky A wrote:

Thank you. I thought it must be a piece of clothing but it didn't occur to me that it might mean the entire ensemble.

Dora Dora

Bingo. Right as the outfits were being phased out as everyday wear, they were picked up again in the wave of nationalism that swept through the country in the 1800s.

My husband told me over dinner this evening that he's heard t-shirts and jeans referred to as a 'Bunad: Mark II'. That prompted a discussion on whether future generations would be wearing embroidered jeans and t-shirts on special occasions in memory of their ancestors.

Mamaaaaaaa...gramdma's making us listen to hip-hop again... Becky A.

's clunky, but it shouldn't be too hard to find the pictures. Their web design is atrocious, sorry.

Some of the more recent reconstructions are copy protected, yes. I should clarify for you though, since the protection is very specific. It's a little hard to explain, so forgive me if I'm unclear.

The embroidered pattern itself is not protected. You are free to use it for handkerchiefs, wallhangings, shirts, dresses, etc. However, it IS protected when sewn onto the bunad it was designed for.

For example, you may embroider the flowers found on the Oslodrakt anywhere you please...except for on a powder blue dress that's constructed in the bunad style. Otherwise, you're free to use the pattern. Anybody to wants to make an Oslodrakt must purchase the pattern (or dress kit) from an approved retailer.

Pictures of the Oslodrakt here:

's not so much that nobody owns the traditional designs. Rather, EVERYBODY owns them. They're part of the national heritage. Actually, a Norwegian would be incredibly flattered to see their heritage being appreciated enough to borrow from. Becky A.

Thanks for explaining. The amount of labor that goes into each piece must be amazing so I can see why they are protected much as one would protect a work of art. One would have to be very focussed. I'm not sure I'd be able to stick with it long enough. However, once done, I'm sure it would be an excellent incentive not to gain weight. Dora

In Mary Gostelow's book "The Complete International book of Embroidery" (ISBN: 0-671-22886-2) there is a section on Telemark that has a design that could be used on a bolero. The style looks very similiar to what is shown in your second link below (altho somewhat simplified.)

Mary Gostelow states that the designs are worked with wool thread on black or red woolen cloth or felt. The most common colors in the design are orange, purple or green. The stitches used are the chain, satin and stem stitch.

I have a "prarie pocket" that I inherited from my Norwegian grandmother. The stitching was done mostly with satin stitches, with the threads of one curve butting up against the next curve (no blank space in between the change in colors.) The actual pocket was made of a very VERY heavy felt (about triple the thickness of contemporary felt commercially available.) My guess is it was probably hand-felted. The design used was very formal - laid out with a mirror image - and fills the pocket almost to the edge. The thread colors were red, yellow and orange.

Good luck in coming up with something - IMHO, you will have a lot of stitching ahead of you.

Phyllis Maurer "lngrid" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@v46g2000cwv.googlegroups.com... Would anyone here happen to know anything about rosesøm? It's a kind of traditional norwegian embroidery (yes, there is something besides Hardanger!) that you can see here

here.http://www.telemarksnett.no/bilder/folkekunst/broderi_lo.jpgI"ve looked all over the internet for patterns for it and have come upempty-handed. Would anyone out there be able to help me find them, orare most designs under proprietary laws because they're used in bunads?

Becky, your mother-in-law stitched her own bunad? My heavens! The bunad photos you let me see were so gorgeous I thought she and your husband bought them from Husfliden. The bunads you let me see look better than the ones in the photos at Husfliden's website, so I'm very impressed that she embroidered them herself. I can't get over that... I am still looking at them, just because they are so beautiful. Did she actually sew them, too? I thought I saw what looked like hand-stitched seams in one of the photos. And IMHO, talking about bunads is not boring at all.

I did hear back from Heimen today and they told me they would mail me some patterns. I know next to nothing about current norwegian culture, so I was glad to hear that my interest would please them. I would like Rosesaum even if my ancestors weren't Norwegian. It's very very beautiful work.