Text and photo Laila Duran ©

Today the celebration of the Jokkmokk winter market starts. It is minus 15°C and the sun is shining. Thousands of people gather and the market not only shows the goods of the trade of the reindeer keepers but for a whole week there are lectures, courses in sami crafts, theater, music and dance. This year’s market theme is “Music on the Arctic Circle”. If you want to know more you should visit the websites and see what is going on. Here are some: http://www.jokkmokksmarknad.se/home/ Take a look at this as well, it can hardly get more exotic:  http://www.jokkmokksmarknad.se/news/with-instruments-made-of-ice/

The young woman is wearing her Jokkmokk kolt. The coming week there will be thousands of beautiful folk costume from all over Sapmi to be seen in the streets of Jokkmokk.

The young man with his reindeer is wearing a Sami costume from Karesuando.

North and south Sami costumes. The woman to the right is wearing a costume from Jämtland and the woman to the left a costume from Jokkasjärvi.

To keep her warm she is wearing a fur hat and a storm cape, njálfáhtta.

All the Sami costumes has storm capes. The young man is wearing a green cape of broadcloth trimmed with red and yellow ribbons.

To celebrate the Sami national day on the 6th of February the Norsk Folkemuseum in Oslo has made a large exhibition with old photos from the Sami culture from a hundred years ago. If you want to read more you can also visit:

http://www.norskfolkemuseum.no/en/Collections/The-Sami-Collections/

All text and photos are protected by Copyright.

Text and photo Laila Duran ©

The folk costume or “Bunad” from Setesdal has a long and unbroken tradition. Randi Gåserud Myrum, working at the Setesdal Museum, is wearing the Bunad she made herself in 1990. Two woolen skirts are worn on top of each other: one white, “understakk”, and one black, “svartestakk”. Both have embroidered waist bands and hems decorated with strips of broad cloth. The wide skirts are held together with a woven belt, which is wrapped two times around the waist and closed in front with a silver clasp. The headdress is made in black wool with red printed flower motifs. The woolen stockings, “krotasokker”, are held up with leather garters with silver buckles which are called “spretti og sprota”.

Over the white shirt a jacket, called “Blåkofta”, is worn, which is short enough to show the embroidered skirt waistbands. It is closed with silver lacing rings and a silver chain.

The jacket is embellished with embroidery at the cuffs, shoulders and center front.

A shawl with woven pattern, “Kyrkjetæpe”, was worn over the Sunday best clothes when going to church in winter time. Since at least 1880, it was woven with a cotton warp and wool wefts in a technique called “skillbragd”, equal to Swedish “opphämta”. The name of the technique is derived from that the pattern shed was picked up and opened with a broad wooden stick.

The shawl was 175 cm long and 55 cm wide. It was common to separate the red fields with borders in green, blue, pink, orange and purple color. The most elaborated shawls also had small flower motifs brocaded on the red ground. The shawl on the photo was woven in 1935 by the wearer’s mother in law.

For more information about Setesdal and the museum please visit www.setesdalsmuseet.no

After the release of our first book we took two months to promote the book before starting on the next one. This time we are going to show lots of folk costumes from different areas in Sweden and Norway but also take you to visit people who still knows how to produce the garments in the way they used to. I have already visited a Sami family who keep their newborn in a “gietka”, a leather cradle, decorated with wool ribbons and silver charms. Next week I am off to central Norway to a gathering of dancers and musicians from all over Scandinavia.

I will start blogging again in September to show you some of the sites I have visited. Until then have a nice summer ………..

19th Century decoration of Christening gown. Dalecarlia Sweden.

Norwegian costume silver, “sölje”.

Anybody who want to see a bunad bonanza should visit Oslo on the 17th of May. The Norwegian national day is celebrated all over the country. Here is the main street, Karl Johans Gate, in Oslo and the Royal Castle.