Fueled by Literature
The 13th century norse Njal’s Saga has a passage known as Spjudsången – The Spear Song. It depicts 12 valkyries weaving a bloody battle. In their weaving, the warp and weft are intestines, the loom weights are severed heads, and the tools the Valkyries are using are swords and pointed arrows.
The Valkyries weave the story of an upcoming battle. When I sew, each stitch adds its own story. Both through the thoughts that follow the work of my hands as if casting a spell and through the history behind each material I use: threads scraped from the red silk skirt my mother made for me, yarn I spun and dyed myself, the thread a new friend gifted me.
When I read the Spear Song I was experimenting with ancient methods of textile production such as hand spinning and warp-weighted looms. I liked the tension in the image of the fierce witchlike valkyries using the slow domestic process of fabric making.
With this work, I also wanted to explore how the rapid brushstrokes of painting can be translated into embroidery; how to capture the fast, impulsive and slightly random feeling that is often found in abstract painting.
Process
I started with a vague idea of an abstract and dynamic image that captured the feeling of violence and power that I read in the poem.
I worked in a slate frame keeping the fabric stretched like a canvas, passing the needle with my left hand from the front and with my right from the back. First I used watercolour to stain the fabric and then I roughly sketched out some directional lines with a heat-erasable pen.
From there I improvised the specific placement of the stitches, choosing thread as I went along to get the texture and colour I wanted.
I added a backing in the same fabric to give the piece enough stability to hang without sagging. The idea for the mini loom weights came while working and I made and added them last.