Creative Commons Photo Used from The Butterfly Jungle Blog; click on photo to visit
I haven’t tried Hardanger embroidery myself, but it’s lovely stuff. A textile art from Norway, it’s traditionally done on white fabric with pulled threads (that’s what makes the little holes) and raised, textural stitches. Expert artists can work on fabric with tiny threads and high thread counts (meaning, very dense, tiny work).
In researching for this post, I found two resources. One is from my favorite store that I’ve not yet visited, but hope to this summer: The Nordic Needle, in Fargo, North Dakota. I subscribe to their free email newsletter and if you like textile arts, I suggest you check them out. They have articles on all sorts of artists, their textile arts, and work to keep some of the less well-known arts from dying out. Here’s a link to their page on Hardanger resources. The second is a new-to-me website that seems to be full of lots of good stuff – including a free class on beginner Hardanger. The blog is called Needlework Tips & Techniques. Check it out!
A new trend is to include color as part of the designs. There’s a neat assortment of photos that came up when I searched Google for images, here.