One of the things I love about Stockholm is the concentration of museums on Djurgarden. Think the Smithsonian but squished even closer together – less than half the walking space. Djurgarden is ‘the Royal Game Park’, an island that is controlled by the king and is now home to a wealth of historic museums and other fun things. On this island and in very, very close walking distance is (to name only a few):
The Nordiska Museum (Museum of Swedish culture)
The Vasa Museum (17th century boat that was sunk)
Junibacken – A children’s hands on museum
Grona Lund (an old-style amusement park)
Skansen (oldest open-air folk museum in the world)
The Nordic Zoo (part of Skansen)
Now many of these are also textile heaven. And the best part is that they are so close to each other that while my kids are riding a roller coaster, I can be across the street looking at historic folk costumes. Or my husband and I can split after lunch (delicious Scandinavian hot dogs) while I go to look at embroidery in the textile room for an hour while he takes the child behind the building to have him look at cannons on the Vasa. Or on my forays with the gaggle of kids by myself, I can easily trade an hour looking at embroidery for an hour at the amusement park – they love dealmaking.
I will talk about some of the textile haunts in the next few days – but I want to mention theVasanow. The Vasa
was a 64 gun warship built by King Gustav II Adolf. It sunk in a tragic miscalculation on its maiden voyage in the Stockholm harbor in 1628. In 1961, it was exhumed intact and treated. Since 1990 it has been on display in a building made especially for the enormous ship. It is awe inspiring to see such an elaborate ship in front of you. They project the colors onto the wood that it would have been painted as well – amazing. This is a great stop for the men with you as well as a 17th century stop for yourself. The costumed guides are happy to give you info. One of the Plimoth interns who worked with us on the jacket interned at the Vasa the next summer while I was there. We happily traded info back and forth on spots not to miss. She was working on buttons for the museum – there are some textiles there to be seen. But not embellished.
Tricia
Two years ago I was going to be in Stockholm and I was at the same time in the market for the silk fabric for Faith’s skirts. I knew we needed a great period reproduction and I always prefer to use something made by a western artisan or an old historic manufacturer. So I was searching out historic silk fabric makers. I had been told of a special silk museum/weaving studio by a friend of my friend who owned a fabric store in Stockholm. So I was off to see them.
Now you have to realize that when I am abroad, I have at least my own children and sometimes even my friend’s child with me. So these textile stops are a careful combination of my enjoyment, history lessons and a bit of stashed lolipops in the pocket if all else fails. We are often a hilarious and memorable group. (Someone asked recently how I could have taken a tour group of 50 to England. I said – heck – they were way easier than keeping three boys under 9 entertained at a museum on Jacquard weaving!). Three rules – feed, enthusiastically engage, and trinkets.
K.A. Almgren is a former silk mill on one of the Stockholm archipelago islands (most of the city is a chain of islands). It is reached just over a bridge from Gamla Stan, the old historic city center island. It is a functional mill used as a museum demonstration. There is a lovely, but very small gift store and a large floor dedicated to the history of the silk production and mill conditions. What excited me was the wonderful mill floor. The jacquard looms and ribbon looms that are still run by Sonja Enbuske, a master handweaver, are wonderful to see. Sonja really enjoyed showing the kids and me how she runs the period looms and discussing the other hardware that still is used there on special occasion. They even have an original morie machine from pre-1900. Wonderful! Sonja works on reproduction commissions for the royal palace as a demonstration, redoing textiles originally made for the royal family a hundred years ago.
The silk ribbons they make are turned into bookmarks, many are just beautifully moried and a fabulous remembrance of a visit. The boys took a long time to pick out their choices (trinkets). I have a rule when we are out on these types of adventures – you must be able to regurgitate a few facts to me for your trinket. That ensures that they pay attention – and usually get interested too. The boys had gotten so interested in silk and behaved so well that the staff went up to the display and opened it to give them each a silk cocoons after they had been surprised that there were bugs inside and wanted to see. Not a regular day – giving away an exhibit piece – these are lovely people. They were so excited that we boiled them in water that night and combed the silk, etc to discover the gruesome guy inside.
Sonja and her colleague told me about the silk fabrics in the gift store that were for sale. They were by a company called Duran Textiles (much more about them later). I collected several pieces to take back home to match to the Plimoth Jacket in case they would work for the skirt. We had a great time looking at the pictures of the Plimoth project that I carry on my iPhone. A great way to communicate is to carry these electronic pictures with you – then if you don’t speak the same language – a few pictures will speak volumes and you will communicate in ways you had never imagined.
If you are ever in Stockholm – take a quick stop at K.A. Almgrens.
One of the things I love about Stockholm is the concentration of museums on Djurgarden. Think the Smithsonian but squished even closer together – less than half the walking space. Djurgarden is ‘the Royal Game Park’, an island that is controlled by the king and is now home to a wealth of historic museums and other fun things. On this island and in very, very close walking distance is (to name only a few):
was a 64 gun warship built by King Gustav II Adolf. It sunk in a tragic miscalculation on its maiden voyage in the Stockholm harbor in 1628. In 1961, it was exhumed intact and treated. Since 1990 it has been on display in a building made especially for the enormous ship. It is awe inspiring to see such an elaborate ship in front of you. They project the colors onto the wood that it would have been painted as well – amazing. This is a great stop for the men with you as well as a 17th century stop for yourself. The costumed guides are happy to give you info. One of the Plimoth interns who worked with us on the jacket interned at the Vasa the next summer while I was there. We happily traded info back and forth on spots not to miss. She was working on buttons for the museum – there are some textiles there to be seen. But not embellished.
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