Rosemaling Embroidery

[ladybellringerm]

Greetings all,

I have been interested in learning about a certain style of embroidery. As an American of Norwegian descent, I'm very interested in the possibility of creating my own vest-telemarken bunad (the folk costume of my fore mothers). Here is a post with lots of beautiful photos of the embroidery I'm interested in learning: http://folkcostume.blogspot.com/2012/06 ... ry-of.html

The Rose embroidery is about half way down the post.

Anyway, obviously, it's wool thread on wool fabric. Looks to be mostly satin stitch, although other stitches are also involved. I have been unsuccessful in finding any reference material that actually provides direction and patterns, etc, short of actually ordering a bunad to make, to the tune of several hundred dollars. I'm hoping that somebody on this forum can point me to a possible source for information.

Peace and good stitching,
Keli Moffat

[AnneG]

Hi, Keli, I did some quick searching. Tole painting is somewhat like what you are looking for and there are some simple patterns. Could you copy, reproduce, appropriately size and repeat? These are layered like the roses and most seem to have a rose motif.
I know the originals are wool but I'd be tempted to use floche or cotton a broder.
The motifs follow the direction of the flowers. You can practice coloring with colored pencils.

[maudericcar]

After reading the article, I think if you printed the pictures... you can
Enlarge to fit and locate a vest pattern to modify. Rosemalling is quite
Simple and the tole painting patterns are out there...to make it your
Own. The article also said that they didn't have to be exact.

[maneki]

Maybe this answer is a bit too late, but I thought I should add my two cents.

Have you been looking for US or Norwegian sources? There are many companies and organisations in Norway dedicated to bunader. Most do, as you say, mostly seem to sell finished garments or kits, but if you contact them they should be able to either provide patterns or be able to point you in the right direction, e.g. to pattern books. It's worth a try if you haven't already.

Sometimes the use of pattern in folk costumes are really strict (especially goes for the reconstructed bunader where the patterns are actually owned by the regional bunad organisations) and have to follow certain rules so that might be why just finding patterns is so hard. Also, a lot of people probably prefer complete kits, considering that costumes often need special fabrics or ribbons you can't find in the local fabric shop (and because it's very nifty to get fabric with printed embroidery patterns on).

I'm Swedish so I'm not that familiar with norwegian costumes, but I have a copy of the magazine Bunad, in which you can find many resources listed. I assume you have already found them (or most of them) on you own but if not here's a list:

http://bunadogfolkedrakt.no/
http://www.bunadraadet.no/ (old link?)
http://www.folkedrakt.no/
http://dennorskehusfliden.no/
http://www.norskflid.no/bunad/bunader/telemark/

Here's a link to the magazine: http://www.bunad-magasinet.no/

Another resource with lots of pics: http://www.scandinavianfolklore.com/ (despite the name it's pretty much just about Scandinavian folk costumes, from Sapmi in the north to Denmark in the south --don't miss the blog, which is in english.)

[ladybellringerm]

Wow! There are definitely some new resources on your list, maneki! Thanks so much.