Me and Izabela have been working at Bunad og Kleloftet for a few days since we got here. I was there for 4 days and I think Izabela for 6 as she is interested in fashion and dress making whereas I am working towards a fine art project perhaps using pattern as a key visual element. The women that work there all have their own individual businesses but also manage to work as a team which is nice. They were really welcoming towards us although maybe a bit uncertain as to what to do with us at first. The first day we were able to look around, chat to all of them and take lots of photos to get a feel for the place. We were then shown how to use the machines and did a bit of sewing work. I think we both learned very useful new skills such as traditional hardanger embroidery techniques (very hard work, took us around 2 days to complete a tiny square), cross-stitching and bead work. The women were very helpful, in particular, the woman in the photo above speaking to Izabela as she taught is all the embroidery and helped us whenever we got stuck - which was a lot! I am very grateful to her as it is such a busy time of year for them as the 17th of May is coming up (which is when they celebrate the anniversary of Norway becoming an independent country) yet she continued to give us unlimited help. Their work place was very homely and I think what was so attractive about it was that everything was done entirely by hand. Nowadays, I think that is quite difficult to find and they clearly loved and valued what they were doing.
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