Three white women; two old and one young, smile into the camera on a summer day.

Two smiling women pose for a picture. One is young and slender ‐— she is wearing a Norwegian bunad and carrying a spindle and distaff. The other is old, stout, and dressed in a festive blue folk costume. They are outdoors on a hot summer day in Iowa.

It was hot as heck, but great to see old friends and make new ones.

#festivalseason #smalltown #Iowa #vesterheim #nordicfest

A 200-year old wooden trunk from Norway, with beautiful painted wood and incredible, three-dimensional ironwork.

A detail of the same trunk, with painted scrollwork that echoes the low-relief rococo scrolls the maker created in iron for the trunk's strapping.

Also, I need to post a pic of this incredible trunk in the collection of the #Vesterheim museum.Museum.

#rosemaling #ironwork #blacksmith

A colorful weaving in progress.

Looking at distaves in a museum storage space.

A painted Norwegian trunk from 1838

Two warp-weighted looms in a contemporary space with a rustic brick wall and big window.

My weaving, looking at treasures in the collection, and our beautiful demo space.

#Weaving #åkle #vesterheim

Agroup of women stand in front of a warp-weighted loom with a weaving in progress on it.

Wrapping up an amazing class with Marta Klove-Juhl at #Vesterheim. Now, on to Nordic Fest. ❤️🇸🇯

A museum curator wearing white cotton gloves holds up a piece of beaded and embroidered textile. It's an antique breastplate from a woman's dress, with velvet trim and metal bobbin lace on a handspun and handwoven ground textile of linen and wool with plant-dyed stripes.

A Hardanger-style breast plate or "brystukk" with elaborate and colorful beadwork on a red wool ground with black velvet trim.

A beaded brystukk with 8-pointed flowers in silver and gold, with imported brocade ribbon trim.

An antique embroidered brystukk with wool yarns on a cotton or linen canvas. Dark green velvet trim at top. Dark brown linen ground fabric. The colors of the red, yellow, blue, green, and black yarns are still very vivid.

In the textile archives at the #Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum, looking at treasures. 🧶

#embroidery #beadwork #bunad #folkdress #fiberarts

Folk Art School | Vesterheim Norwegian-American Registration for online and in-person classes through September 2025 is open! You can find complete information and sign up here! Use the links at the left ...

You don't have to be in Iowa to take some of these folk art and craft classes (and with the new on-demand classes, you can even get a kit sent to you to complete the project): vesterheim.org/folk-art-sch... #folkcraft #folkart #folklore #vesterheim #norwegian #weaving #woodworking #metalworking