The Textiles

Traditional Swedish Textiles

Many of the textiles in my shop are woven on my two Swedish looms: an Öxabäck Ulla Cyrus, and a Glimåkra Standard. Both are countermarch looms, which, through their mechanism of both lowering and raising warp threads to maintain even tension, make them ideal for weaving the highest quality cloth.

For my table linens and rugs, I exclusively use cotton, linen, and wool sourced from Swedish spinning mills that have been in business for over one hundred years. When possible, I like to use single ply yarns, as they produce textiles of uniquely high quality and wonderful hand.

I often find the patterns for my textiles in old Swedish weaving literature, sometimes dating back to the 1800s, and adapt the colors and weave structures to fit my own taste. I am greatly indebted to my teacher, Becky Ashenden of Vävstuga, for teaching me all I know about the tools and techniques of Swedish weaving.

Silk Shawls

In addition to my devotion for weaving traditional Swedish textiles, I also weave one-of-a-kind shawls using naturally dyed silks and silk blends. My interest in this style of weaving arose during my internship at Trådverk in Sweden. The depth and complexity of natural dye colors mixing together on lustrous silk is endlessly satisfying and beautiful to me, and I love the potential these shawls offer me for artistic exploration.

I use a thirty-two shaft Louet Megado dobby loom to weave these shawls. This loom provides me with the capability of weaving highly complex patterns; nearly any pattern I can imagine can be converted into a weaving draft to be woven on this loom using Photoshop. While this type of weaving is on the other end of the spectrum compared to traditional Swedish weaving, the freedom for creativity my Louet Megado offers me is highly alluring as an artist.