This is RÚV English Radio with Darin Adam, daily English language radio from Iceland's national broadcaster RÚV.Hello, this is RÚV English Radio. My name is Darin Adam. Thanks very much for your company today.I'm in North Iceland. I've come to Blundus and I'm at the textile museum in the town which has a really interesting historyand it's a big day today because there's a big group of people who are fascinated by Icelandwho are coming to visit the museum in about 10 minutes.I'll let my guest introduce herself firstly because she's got a busy day. Hi.Hi.What's your name?Elin Sigurðardóttir.And you're the manager here?Yes.Yes. So before we talk about the museum, who's coming here in 10 minutes?Well, it's a really nice group and they like very much to come here and visit the museumand they want to know everything.So these are visitors from the USA. They love Iceland.Yes, they love Iceland and they love to come here and they are travelling a little bit more north.Well, they're on their way very soon. I might try to get a couple of words with some of them and see what they think of this.But let's talk in the time that we have about the museum.So what is the story that you try to tell here at the textile museum? What is it that this museum does?First of all, we have different exhibitions here.AndAnd, we always invite, we always have a new exhibition every year, a private exhibition.Yes.And we try to have these private exhibitions very, very different between years.And now we are having weaving and this artist's name is Hatta and she introduced for us different techniques in hand weaving.And is this her work on the wall here?Yes.So let's go over.So let's go over and take a quick look at this then because this is just on the way in as you come into the main part of the building.And so this is Hatta's work and this is the part that changes quite regularly.It's a different technique in weaving. For example, this, before we were used to make just a blanket and it's very, very thick.This is very thick. So this is a red piece and there's almost, this is almost like horses hair.Yes, horses hair.It is horses hair.Yes, yes.This is decorated with horses hair.And then we have all kinds of others and her boys, when they were small, they drove up a few floors, as you can see.Oh, okay. So these are the, these are the sorts of drawings that a mum might put on the fridge.Yes, right, right.That have been woven into.Yes, it's so nice, yes.What are these fabrics?Well, it's wool. And then it's something damask, that's what we call it, damask weaving.Yes.Damask weaving. Everything is handmade, you know.And then in this room here, we have a beautiful embroidery.It is also a little bit of embroidery from, and it's a little bit of embroidery from,It is a little bit of embroidery from, from the past.Oh, good.Mostly from the 19th until the middle of the 20th century.Yes, with figures of women and young girls wearing all kinds of different costumes.Yes, yes.How important are textiles then to the north of Iceland?Was there a big tradition in history?I think it's very important for everybody.People remember from their grandmums and the grandparents, and really want to think about it.Það er mjög hlutum að við, á þessu tími,einhvern veginni er bara... hvernig ég þarf að explanna þetta...hlut sjá aoðast að það ikke bara verði lima sem það séu fyrir einhvern veginni á því.Það er mjög hlutum að þau er ekki samanfarði þar sem þær þátt um því að það hefði hlut hérna.Og það er mjög fannvísið þetta tími þar sem það er ekki samanfarði þar sem þær þátt um því að það er ekki samanfarði þar sem þær þátt á því þau.það verður að það verðið þá á það.Það er verið.Það er verið.Það er verið. Þið erum hér í kittkað,í knyttingfaktorið í Kvamstangið.Við hefum að tala mjög hefðið um knyttingog islændum hú.Og ég er alltaf mikilvægt fyrir húnhvað þegar þú þarf að þú þarf að það.Það er ekki bara að verða skafir og vlíkur,er það?Það er verið.Og það er verið.títur inn, águshaði brí öllum heiminn.Bað третьast vegar centið varir skatla continuedur áður?Eftir við búum fyrir Guðbjörn und 별로 er við að hérna vejagarremi colors. Það berir frímir þá, en það sé vuld táardiður að aðlandsbut before, around 1860, it was an artist, his name was Sigurður and he designed skauðbúningur.It seems to him we should have something new and this man, Sigurður, he was romantiker.It seems to him that the costume should be a symbol for the nature in Iceland.And about ten years later, in 1870, he designed kýrtil and it's much lighter.It seems to him the young ladies should have something lighter because the others are made by wool.Because if anyone doesn't know what the Icelandic national dress looks like,it's all based on a black thin dress with different patterns, isn't it? That's the variation.Yes, Sigurður, it seems to him these costumes,they should be black. But before, we had more colors. In the 18th, we had a little bit more colors.Do you think that the national dress, the national costume, I guess, for men and women is becoming more popular again these days?Yes, I think so. Especially now, on these years. I know there's many young ladies there trying to make shirts.So not just on the 17th of June?And here in the museum, I had all these courses for many years, every second year, you know.AndI had a leader, or teacher, and she came over from Söðarkrókur, and yes, sometimes they made a new one,and sometimes they had got an old one from their grandmum, and they had to change it.And we could up and search, yes. But unfortunately, she passed away.So the group that's coming soon are the 17th, I think you said, of the season.Yes, the 17th.Is this museum open just for groups as we head into the winter?Yes, on the wintertime.On the wintertime, it's mostly open just for groups.But of course, if I'm working here, because I'm working very much here inside,then of course I let people slip in if they are here on the door, you know.And over to the left here, on the other side of the seating area where we started,this is the older part of the building, isn't it?Yes, it's on the other part, because we started there over, in this small house.This small house was built as a stave room for Kvennarskóli.In this big house, the White House over there, it was a school for young women.Yes, so there's a sign on the building over there that says Kvennarskóli, that's not still the school then, is it?No, no, it was closed in 1979, I think, or 8, I don't remember.But this was a stave room, because in 1937, when this was built first, it was before tour houses.For cows.On that time, people, if it was school, it was necessary to have a stave room and cows for milk and such.And now it houses more of the national costumes that we've seen.The museum was here and it was opened first in 1976,and it were women in the women unions here around, who started first.But now it's private foundation, you know, and the community is in the back.Yes.Þetta björnstjómi er á Halldóra, þannig að við það erum það hér,því við erum það það hér og við erum það hér á Halldóra Bjarnadóttir.Halldóra var náttúrulega 1873 og það vandur 1981.Það var 108 þegar það stjórnstjónaði.108?Já, og Halldóra var náttúrulega velnum hlutinu fyrir í Íslandiog það stjórnstjónaði mjög mjög mjög fyrir hlutinu,þar er það svona tjórnstjóna af stjórnstjóna,mjög mjög mjög mjög mjög mjög stjórnstjóna,þannig að Halldóra var náttúrulega verið að þessu stjórnstjónaþað var þessu stjórna og það fyrir í Halldóra,og það var það sem við varum að hluta út,þannig að við þáttum hið r broadlyni á Halldóra.Það var það sem við þáttum að hluta út.Þau þar общем smilast, sér stjórnstjóna í tíma.As you heard the smaller part of the, well it's not that much smaller actuallybut in the older area of this building and there is a roomor what would have been Haldóra's bedroom as it might have been set upor possibly one of her workspaces.She's sitting, there's a model here of her sitting in front of a spinning wheel.She has a lovely old radio which as you know if you listen to Rúðinglis radio regularlyI am about to say I hope it's tuned to Rúðinglis, I'm sure it was.Here is her desk, here is the lamp by which she did her work.You can go downstairs a little bit as well and see more of the kind of lifethat she would have led.My goodness, 108 years, what a life to capture.Come down the steps and here is a large loom that would have been used.There is a much, much bigger spinning wheel in front.Huge, this wheel must be about a metre and a half in diameter,much bigger than the one that you'd operate by foot certainlyand more of the items of clothing that would ultimately have been made here.I'm going to head back upstairs now as the guests have arrivedand they will soon be taking the tour that I'll be taking as well.I'll try to grab a few words with them.I'll just say in the meantime that we're going to post a link,on the page accompanying the show from Rúðinglis Radio,to the Textile Museum here in Blundus, as you heard,open for guests to visit as we head into the winter season.Hi, can I grab a word with you?Oh, sure.What's your name?I'm Kathy.Kathy, where are you from, Kathy?I'm from California.Okay, so a long way from home, it's a bit colder today than California, maybe?A little bit, yes.Yes, especially in the summertime, yes.What do you think of what you've seen here?Absolutely gorgeous.I'm fascinated with how they were able to get the thread so fineand then the work that they're able to do with it is just so intricate.Do you have an interest in knitting and textile?I do some knitting, yes.Have you learned anything here that you might want to take back?Any techniques you want to use yourself?I just got started so I'm not quite sure yet.I'm not quite sure.You've been on this trip for a few days now.Yes, I have.I think you've seen other parts of it.Yes, I have.You started in Borginnes, I think.I started actually in Reykjavík.Okay.Yeah, and then we went to Borginnes, yeah.What do you think of the country?Absolutely gorgeous and the people are so warm and friendly.I'm really impressed.And it's different, it's different than any country that I've ever seen before.Hi, could I interrupt you for a second?Sure.What's your name?I'm Carol.James.Where are you from?I'm from California.You're from California too.I just spoke to someone else who's also from the state.So what do you think of what you've seen here?I'm totally impressed.I have a little bit of history in the weaving processbecause my mother-in-law had a loom very much like that one.Okay.And I think the work is absolutely gorgeous.What do you think of the exhibition on the top floorwith the new kind of weaving, the new technique?I think it's great.Yeah, no, it's all beautiful, yeah.I know nothing about textiles, to tell you the truth.However, I was just telling Carol here,the machinery, the loom,the looms and the spinning stuff,really, I just find it fascinatinghow the machinery works.So you know something now then about it?I know the mechanics behind it.Nothing of the textile.No.No, sir, your wife said I should speak to youand you would happily...Well, because she doesn't like to speak to...Anyone.Anyone.But you do.Yeah, pretty much.Okay, what's your name?Bradley.Bradley, where are you from, sir?Outside of Philadelphia.Okay.Okay.And you're on this tripwith the rest of the Road...Scholars here.What do you think of what you've seen so far?So many differencesand yet we have German relatives and so onso we see a lot of the similaritiesand so on along with it.We've always wanted to get into the Norse countriesin our travels.Yes.We hadn't yet.This is our first one.First one.I think you started with the best one.I would say that.Well, of course you would.Yes.Tell me what you think of this museum.I'm a craftsman.I'm a craftsman myselfso I really enjoy good craft.Okay.I myself work in woodbut I enjoy the fine detailand the hard workthat I know goes into good craft.And I think you're rightbecause the technology that was availablein the days when these crafts were made,when these items were madecompared with today,you had to be good, didn't you?You had to be patient.That's probably more sothan even being goodbecause if you rushed it,you ended up with an inferior product.Yes.But you had to be patient.It took a long timeto produce a small bolt of cloth.And being someone who works with wood,I guess you're interested as wellin the machines and these loomswhich are made from wood,complex machinery.Yes.Yeah, it was probably one of thegreat technological changes of the timewhere they were hand knitting everythingand hand weaving stuffin a rough homespunas opposed to,even though this is now considered homespun,where the looms were in the homesand they were...But building these looms from scratch as wellwas no easy feat, I guess.No, I'll tell you right here.This is good craftsmanship right here.This is one of the bigger loomsthat we're looking at.I don't know if you've seen it.I don't know how old this is, but...Yeah, it's spruceand it's beautifully done dovetailsin the corners.That'll hold and never pull aparteven though you are puttingquite a bit of stresson the machinery.And these would need to be builtto last because this wassuch an important source of income,such an important resourcein someone's life.You had to get this right, didn't you?The craftsman in me says yes.Everything is straight.Everything is plumb.Everything is...Well, although older,as you can see where it started to dry.Yes.As old spruce will do.So it passes the test.Yes.There is more from Rúf Ingliswith all the news from Icelandin Inglisat ruv.isslash Inglis.Rúf Inglis Radio,it's a daily Inglis language radiofrom Iceland's national broadcasterRúf.
