The indigo-coloured textiles are made from a technique called blue print. This is an old technique that was widely used in central Europe. You start out with a white cotton cloth and then apply a white paste where you want your motive to be. Then the cloth is dyed. The cloth will turn out indigo where the paste was applied, while the pattern remain white (reversing). This technique was also used in Norway in the past.

During the project period there has been staff and student exchanges between the two universities, seminars, lectures and exhibitions.

The final exhibition “One space, many ways”, held at the Skinnarlandsamlinga (The Skinnarland Collections) in Rauland in the region of Telemark, Norway, marked the conclusion of the project. The exhibiton showed works by TUC and AFD-students.

- Art is a universal language
Magda Grøn Hensvold is a student in he second year of her bachelor degree programme in Folk Art at TUC’s campus in Rauland, and was one of the students represented at the exhibition.

She has been trained in some of the most traditional techniques from Slovakia, such as blue print and lacework. Magda finds that cooperating in this way has been exciting and that it has been especially interesting to observe how the Slovaks work.

In Slovakia they work differently from how we do it. They are more artistic, while we are more focused on techniques. We learn a craft, while they work more with design. Art is a universal language, understandable to all, so I felt we had a good understanding of each other, although we now and then had to turn to body language, the TUC student says.

She herself finds blue print to be an exciting technique. The students designed their own individual motives on wooden blocks which then were used to transfer the motives onto long pieces of textile. Then the indigo dye was applied to the material by a Czeck textile printshop. The different textiles and products are shown in a project catalogue and on the pictures in this article.

The student who made this traditionally inspired outfit is from Slovakia, but spent four months in Norway. She has been inspired by native costumes in Norway, while the embroideries are inspired from the Norwegian Selbu pattern and what in Norway is called black stiching.

Strong tradition for craftmanship
The Nordic countries have a strong tradition within textile design. Slovak design is also strong, based on their culture and their historic tradition.

- Slovakia and Norway are far apart geographically. Still there are several meeting points between Slovak and Norwegian culture and history, as we both are part of a common European heritage. Differences in climate, geography and history are some of the factors explaining why certain textile techniques stand stronger in some countries than in others, and this is what has made our cooperation so exciting, says Bodil Akselvoll, Head of TUC’s Department of Folk Culture.

She has been organizing this project together with Maria Fullková of AFDA in Bratislava, Slovakia, who also has some thoughts on this subject.

- Slovakia and Norway are equal in the size of their populations and share Europe’s common history, but Slovakia is an inland area without coasts while Norway is a coastal nation. One meeting point between the cultures of the two nations is the long and strong tradition of crafts, she says.

The cooperation between TUC and AFDA started in May 2009 and will be terminated in December 2010.

The project has received Euro 40.000 in support from the European Economic Area, Norway grants and the Slovak “NIL” funds.