belts

This week I´m working on new dresses for the guides at Moster Amfi. Three new dresses and three new belts.

The design is inspired by late medieval dresses, when the vikings were still around, and active at Moster. The belts have an embroidered Catholic prayer, found on the old church-bell from the 16th century. The church itself is probably from around 1030. And as we al know, Norway was Christened in an organized matter by King Trygvason, and he started this task at… you guessed it: Moster.

The dresses are made from matka silk. Matka is an Indian term for rough handloom silk fabric made from very thick yarns spun out of pierced cocoon in the weft and organzine in warp. The yarns are obtained from short ends of silk from Mulberry silkworms and spun by hand without removing the gum. As such, there are slubs and irregularities that give the fabric a unique character. It looks something like tweed, but the fibers are all the same color.

The belts are first stamped with fabric color, then added freestyle machine-embroidered letters of the Ave Maria-prayer.