Syracuse University SURFACE The Bead Forum: Newsletter of the Society of Bead Researchers Spring 2016 Issue 68, Spring 2016 Society of Bead Researchers Follow this and additional works at: https://surface.syr.edu/the_bead_forum Part of the Archaeological Anthropology Commons, and the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Society of Bead Researchers, "Issue 68, Spring 2016" (2016). The Bead Forum: Newsletter of the Society of Bead Researchers. 5. https://surface.syr.edu/the_bead_forum/5 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by SURFACE. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Bead Forum: Newsletter of the Society of Bead Researchers by an authorized administrator of SURFACE. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Issue 68 Spring 2016 Beaded Breastplates from Scandinavia Alice Scherer n Norway and Sweden, special festive dress Sigdal, Eggedal, Krødsherad) on the eastern. This referred to as bunad in Norway and folkdrakt makes sense when one considers that the glass Iin Sweden are composed in honor of and seed and bugle beads being brought in and used drawing from these countries’ past cultural tradi- would be most heavily concentrated in those two tions and as an aid in creating a feeling of national areas, due to sizeable population centers, difficult identification in the wearer. This latter is especially travel throughout a mostly mountainous country, true of Norway which found itself part of both and the retention of larger portions of trade goods Denmark and Sweden at different times in its in port cities and nearby environs. I have yet to history; a strong sense of find modern bunads in Norwegianness is espe- Sweden that incorporate cially prized, with the beadwork; most of the wearing of bunads par- examples I’ve seen thus ticularly on Constitution far from that country Day (May 17) contribut- are from the 19th cen- ing greatly to that. Many tury and so far, only the of the bunads, though breastplates themselves. not all, have interesting Swedish beaded forms, beadwork in their com- however, are significantly position and we’ll focus different from their Nor- on a particular form of wegian cousins, as will that here, the beaded be seen. breastplate (Figure 1). The most promi- We’ll not discuss nent type of beadwork men’s bunads; they are, in Scandinavia is the in any case, unbeaded. beaded vest insert, And not all women’s or bringeklut (oddly bunads, designed dif- translated to our ears ferently by region, have as “bring cloths”). The beadwork on them. The beadwork is gener- foci of beading in Nor- ally worked on a cloth way seem largely to be ground, usually embroi- centered in the general dered though sometimes Figure 1. Norwegian bride from Hardanger, Norway, in vicinities of Bergen on a colorized image by Solveig Lund, ca. 1890 to 1920. This netted, measuring about the western coast (Voss, elaborate bridal costume includes a breastplate at center 25.4 x 25.4 cm, and (with the four square crosses at top) that is likely beaded Fana, Hardanger, Fusa) (postcard, ID# NMA.0039996, courtesy of Nordiska Museet, inserted into the opening and Oslo (Valdres, Stockholm, published through Creative Commons, via a of a vest, perhaps for PUBLIC DOMAIN license). The Bead Forum warmth as well as decoration. In 18th-century Eu- rope, panels inserted into the openings of dress fronts were referred to as “stomachers” and may well be the original inspiration for this article of Scandinavian clothing, and likely began with the introduction of the laced bodice in the 1700s (Ebbing 1985). It has been suggested by various sources that early examples of daily dress using the “bring cloth” allowed nurs- ing mothers to slip aside the fabric, ensuring the baby easy access to the breast (Astri Grieg Fry 2016: pers. comm.; Fossnes 2008; Stuland 1980, 1989). The bring cloth, or breastplate, was worked separately from the remainder of the bunad, often on reused fabric and with scrap decorative materials, then joined to the in- side of the vest opening in a number of different ways. Figure 3. A modern breastplate by Elisabeth Søberg of Bø i Vesterålen, Nordland County, Norway. Breastplates today are more precisely made, with fresh new cloth for backgrounds and backing. Although motifs in this pattern of one large complete and two half eight-pointed stars are generally worked by stitching beads to cloth or needlepoint canvas, this example is netted (photo: Bernt Ove Søberg). Not only might materials from items worn during significant events be reused in the making of bring cloths, but as Gunvor Ingstad Trætteberg pointed out in Draktstudier fra Øygarden: 1938-39, published in 1941, a woman would generally have several bringekluts, anywhere from 5 up to 20. She noted that “a pile of bringekluts is almost like a fam- ily tree. Here is the one that great-grandmother used for her wedding, the one that grandmother had for Figure 2. Two dramatically different eight-pointed stars her confirmation, and the ones which mother used for in an early 19th-century breastplate from Ulvik, Norway. From the Bu Museum collection, now part of the Hardan- Sundays and holidays” (Ebbing 1985:291; Trætteberg ger Museum in Utne, ID# BUM-H-478 (photo: Eva Brænd, 1941:15). Along the western coast, including Bergen originally published in Magasinet BUNAD, 2008 5(4), and itself, wool-on-wool embroidery is more prevalent than reproduced with permission of Heidi Fossnes, publisher). bead embroidery (Karin Custance 2016: pers. comm.), Beaded breastplates satisfy a number of creative urges: but even when beads are used in the surrounding • they use up luxurious materials that one may area, they are often worked on a background of wool have in short supply; needlestitch, thus reserving the colorful sparkly beads • they allow the reuse of salvaged materials, often for the actual design (Fossnes 2014b:50). This may from garments with special meaning; have been a cost-saving measure as beads are always • by nature of their location, they may be seen by more valuable by the centimeter than woolen yarns. everyone; The making of breastplates has changed some- • they allow much attention and talent to be lav- what over the last 200 years. In earlier times, materials ished on their small space without a large amount were largely limited to scrap or reused cloth and small of time; amounts of special fabrics and trims, and the women • they’re a fine indicator of the skill of the women did the work themselves, either for their own use or who made them; and that of near relatives or for sale to locals; nowadays • in the aggregate, they’re often an attractive re- the breastplates are often made on order by a number corder of family history. of people, readily found on the internet, and some- -2- times, though not generally, hundreds of miles from the Spring 2016 purchaser. The beadworker will supply finished work In examining many of the designs used in Scandina- to be coupled with other bunad segments, either by the vian beadwork, I’ve been struck by the fact that the design purchaser or more likely, by a company such as Heimen element used more than any other, and by a significant Husflid in Oslo or Norsk Flid at numerous locations margin, is some variation on the equal cross, likely derived around the country, that handles the making of bunads from even earlier designs of crisscrossed lines, and repre- for people who wish to purchase complete or partial en- sented here by eight-pointed stars. This motif considerably sembles. Many women also make their own breastplates, preceded the Christian era in Scandinavia and is thought in classes held by the Husflidslag, local organizations to represent “either the four seasons, four winds, four ele- associated with regional Husflids that act to preserve ments, or some other aspect of physical nature” (Duchane old designs and patterns and record them for posterity 2005:117). It is visible in Viking woven bands (Christensen as well as teach them. Most of the patterns now in use et al. 1992) and in wooden carvings, as well as other mate- are drawn not from the mind of the makers but from rial culture, especially that based in fiber, such as woven a bank of designs recorded by the various Husflidslag coverlets (Larsen 2001) and knitted clothing. (Elisabeth Søberg 2016: pers. comm.). The information The use of the eight-pointed star (also known gathered is funneled by the different groups throughout as eight-petaled rose) and its cognate, crisscrossed Norway to the Norsk institutt for bunad og folkedrakt lines, additionally is felt to be protective. Many of the in Fagernes, national keepers and organizers of historical breastplates were originally incorporated into bridal data on Norwegian folk culture. wear and the multiplicity of crisscrossing silver or gold ribbons, the more the better, was symboli- cally aimed at warding off the trolls and other evil spirits who might wish the bride harm on her wedding day (Astri Grieg Fry 2016: pers. comm.; Fossnes 2008; Stuland 1980, 1989). The eight- pointed figure would take numerous forms, depend- ing on the creativity of the beader. On page 2 are two quite different examples side by side (Figure 2) on the same breastplate as stitched by one of three spinster daughters (or Figure 4. The Hardanger bunad was, for a time, the most evocative of those made in or out of Norway, representing both Norwe- gians in general and Norwe- gian-Americans overseas who celebrated their ances- tral heritage (courtesy Gail Hetland, President, Portland, Oregon, Grieg Lodge and the baby at picture’s center). -3- The Bead Forum “Holma virgins”) of Kristian Kølle, a minister residing incorporated into a 19th-century bunad in the col- at Holmen croft near Ulvik, Norway, in the early 19th lection of the Sigdal Museum (Fossnes 2009).