Nesle
FROM PLANT TO GARMENT
TEXTILES AND THREADS OF NETTLES
Our ancestors rubbed nettles between their hands and obtained fibers and threads. They knotted fishing nets from them, and this may have been the first step towards textiles. The hollow fibers insulate and are suitable for durable textiles such as workwear, bags and upholstery, but also for various clothing and decorative textiles.
The textile industry is today the big villain of the climate crisis, and the world is crying out for sustainability and clenching its fists against emissions. But imagine if textiles made from nettle could contribute to reaching the UN's sustainability goals? The strong fibers break down without leaving scars on the climate landscape. With research on nettle, we can cultivate plants with the properties we want - adapted to the climate and growing conditions; There are an infinite number of varieties and species of nettles with different properties where growing conditions such as soil, water, light and nutrition have a great impact on the properties and benefits. The plant can be used for both durable materials and the shiniest muslin. So beautiful was the muslin that King Frederick I in 1720 made a law that prohibited "servants and other uneducated people in both cities and rural areas" from using it. But despite the amazing properties of the fabric, nettle had to give way to more fiber-economic plants such as hemp and flax. With the import of other spinning fibers from around the world, the Spinning Jenny's journey towards climate doom was a fact. The nettle cloth kept its name, but in the textile the nettle was gradually replaced with cotton and an old craft was forgotten... ALMOST!
THE PROJECT
In 2018, I came across Nettle for textiles (Facebook) and started making thread from nettle. And I was hooked! I wanted to familiarize myself with both the craft and the cultural context. In order to gain historical and cultural grounding and quality, I took the initiative for a documentation and training project through the Norwegian Crafts Institute. After a pilot project in the fall of 2020, I received the go-ahead to carry out the project "From plant to garment". My mentor has been Kristine Bjoner in Steinkjer, who has shown me how they worked with flax and nettle through the Trøndelag cycle on farms in the old days. I have also received help from Aud and Gunnar Bakken and Václav Michalička with staff at the Centrum tradíoních technologích museum in Příbor, Czech Republic. In the project, we have gone through soil types and nettle varieties, cultivation, harvesting, drying, weeding and processing for spinning and weaving. I have documented the craft and dug like a badger in old sources for cultural context such as superstition, traditions, work processes, gender roles, tool design and the role of textiles in society. I have interviewed witnesses and (professional) people with different perspectives on nettle textiles. The work has mainly taken place in Lier and at Ryghsetra in Mjøndalen in Drammen. In 2021, 12,000 nettles were collected for the project, and the following year a further 4,000. In addition, we collected 2,000 nettles for Aud, which are not part of the project work itself. I am writing, but this has been a huge job that would not have been possible without cooperation with the nettle dragons I present below, as well as talented people at home and abroad with expertise in nettle, flax and other plant fibers. The project is documented periodically in the blog here and will be completed around summer 2024 with a report that can be borrowed from the Norwegian Crafts Institute.
PROJECT SUMMARY
The blog has different categories. See the posts for the project "From Plant to garment" in chronological order:
2021
2022
July
July - Oct
Aug - Sep
Oct - Nov
Nov
2023
Apr – June
June
July
Aug – Oct
2024
Jan – Feb
Aug – Sep
2025
Spin (coming)
THE NETTLE DRAGONS
Initiator and project implementer
Fride Kramer Riseng
I am the hand that types this blog and the initiator, whip and potato of the project. In 2018 I started making nettle yarn, but am still in training! Behind me I have around 30 years of cultural work. I am a costume designer educated at Clothing & Costumes at the Norwegian School of Arts and Crafts (now KHIO) and have also completed my education in cultural management from OsloMet
Project Manager, Norwegian Crafts Institute
Kjetil Storeheier Norheim
Kjetil Storeheier Norheim is an advisor and project manager at the Norwegian Crafts Institute. The institute documents, preserves and promotes traditional crafts that are in the process of disappearing, and is an accredited NGO (non-governmental organization) for UNESCO. The institute collaborates with the Arts Council of Norway on the protection of intangible cultural heritage and is funded by the Ministry of Culture and the Directorate of Education.
Mentor
Kristine Bjoner
Kristine is a farmer from Steinkjer and my mentor in farm production of plant fiber in the old days. She received training from Eli Reistad Stokke (1944 - 2004) from Steinkjer and Margaretha Nilsson (1904 – 2001) from Brunflo in Sweden. From Per Ward (1925 – 2005) from Strådalen she learned to spin fishing line on a spinning hook.
Mentor
Aud Harstad Bakken
Aud is the leader of the Drammen and Opland Crafts Association and has a lot of knowledge about different craft traditions. But perhaps most importantly, her use of natural resources has been in the project. Together with her husband, Gunnar, she owns Ryghsetra, which is considered to have high national, cultural-historical and botanical value. Most of the project has taken place there with haying, barn drying, mowing, wood-fired drying and preparation. Members of the crafts association have participated in parts of the project work.
Mentor
Gunnar Bakken
In addition to extensive knowledge of natural resources at Ryghsetra, Gunnar is a civil engineer. The combination of these two worlds has been invaluable to the project when we have lacked the knowledge and experience to practically carry out tasks such as drying and clearing 12,000 nettles. Gunnar has found good solutions that have been simple, environmentally friendly and very functional, - mainly through the cultural-historical use of natural resources and other objects he has found around his feet.
Tekniker
Tormod Riseng
Tormod (Nickname Tålmod which means patient...) is a technician and documents the project on sound, film and image. He works daily at Drammens Teater and Union Scene, and as a freelance technician. In addition to juggling microphones and lenses, he is a patient ox under the nettle yoke and has participated in every conceivable and unimaginable task along the way.