Fantastic Folklore

My friend Eva-Lotta was right - I wasn´t disappointed when I finally held a copy of Scandinavian Folklore in my hands. It´s the book about folk costumes that you couldn´t even dream up.

This is a photo from the book release held at Biologiska muséet in Stockholm last Tuesday.

The photography is beautiful, you learn a lot about how folk costumes have been used and it´s a great source of inspiration.

It´s written in Norwegian, Swedish and English - which is really good if you wish to send it to a friend abroad, for instance.

But I have to warn you that it´s NOT a good bedtime read if you are easily agitated. Too much colour, too many pretty patterns – I could feel my blood pressure rising with every page I turned.

The authour Laila Durán has spent a whole year travelling around in Sweden and Norway visiting museums and private collections to take photograhps of folk costumes in action.
And a lot of the models in the book had gathered in Stockholm to celebrate the release.

Two Flokullor: Anna-Karin Jobs Arnberg and Lill-Karin Gustavsson in their Dala-Floda costumes. Like I´ve said before it´s my own personal favourite among Swedish folk costumes. There is something about the colourful embroidery that I can´t resist.

And I can´t believe my luck. Next weekend I will be in DalaFloda to attend a workshop arranged by Anna Karin Jobs Arnberg. Then I will try to learn how to do påsöm - the Dala Floda embroidery.

Their knitting wasn´t bad either. Anyone for a close up of that mitten?

Yes, I thought so.



















And Lill-Karin has knitted sleeves, made in the traditional twined technique.

The sleeves were usually knit in black and white wool and then dyed red.

I wasn´t the only one there taking photos of the event.



And even if you happen to like dressing in traditional style, it doesn´t prevent you from using the latest technology.

It was some party! And plenty to eat, too.
Served by maids in 18th century costumes.


Can you believe that going to events like this one is part of my job? No, I also find that hard. And now I´ll have to go on another diet and that will be really hard.










If you live in the US and would like to buy the book you will get a special price that includes the postage, so it won´t cost much more than what we pay in Sweden or Norway. Just send Laila an email.

And you can find her blog about the making of the book here.