When we got there, we met my friend Nina, who was demonstrating how to decorate candles and making apple-wreaths.

With all the tiny apples falling prematurely off my apple-trees in the wind, this might be a good way to use them after all!

Oh, they warm colors of fall! (Allready?!) Nature is a queen at color-mixing!

Here´s my little wreath, made with the berries from the dog rose. They grow wild around here.

There were other demonstrations as well. The blacksmith was there, offering to pull out teeth for only a dollar!

In another of the old houses, three girls were making jams and drinks from apples. (Isn´t that blue-color on the door amazing?!)

In yet another house two old ladies were making flatbread, or “lefsa”, which is a sweet version of flatbread. You moisten it, leave it for ten minutes, and serve with butter and sugar (or syrup) and it is SOOO yummy!

Ok, I had to show this one. Isn´t it just supreme? A kid´s high-stool. Made by a prisoner while in jail. I´m captivated by the organic flow in the lines of the carving and the stool itself.

Another thing that truly fascinates me, are these old bowls. Until the 1950s, when we found the oil offshore, Norway was one of Europe´s poorest countries. And the picture below shows how one took care of ones possessions in a completely different way than today. When a bowl broke, instead of throwing it away, they would mend it. Not with glue, but by drilling small holes in the porcelain, and hammering in small metal plugs, fastened on each side of the crack. This was a difficult job (no wonder!) and was usually performed by traveling gypsies, up until the 50s.

Back outside, one of the most popular activities was making your own bark-boat. The kids shaped the form of the boat with knives, made a little hole for the pole with the paper-sail. The museum had even made an “ocean” for all the ships!

Here is the interior of another house. This one is from the middle ages. Isn´t that kind of cool, that there still exists houses from the middle ages? Anyway, these houses are square, with earth floors, covered in juniper and heather, with an open fireplace in the middle of the room. Along all the walls were built-in benches, where they would sleep. And apart from the tables, and the free-standing benches, there wasn´t really much more in there. Right above the fireplace is an opening in the roof, to let the smoke out. No doubt practical to let the smoke out, but a lot of heath went with it, not to mention all the rain and snow coming in. They owe a gold-medal to the guy who invented the chimney!

This was after all a hat-day, so where are the hats? Well, actually, a lot of people were wearing hats, but there was also a big hat-exhibition.

Kirsti Norberg Moe, one of less-than-a-dozen Norwegian hat-makers (she´s not a mad-hatter talked us through her part of the exhibition. This is the royal head-wear department. See the tiaras on the plates, serving as “name-tags” for Norways four recent queens and crown-princesses?

Here she´s explaining her thoughts on how freedom was effected by 9/11, and how it inspired her to make the black version of Liberty. The other hat is called Nefertiti, from the Egyptian queen.

Last, a picture of a little boy with his little bark-boat.

A round´up  of impressions from my spring and summer. Photo Friday´s theme is Round.

Above is the latest in the painted Austevoll seahouse-series. Acrylcs on canvas and wood, 20x20cm. I´m thinking it´s a very big and light space in the middle here, and I really want to do something with it, just not sure what… Maybe it just needs more warmth?

Actually I think I´m not loving it, because I´m going back to being conservative in my painting. I want to be free when I´m painting, not conservative. Typical my favorite parts are the red doors!

I made my own version:

Using a hand-crochet doily, adding a layer of metallic chiffon, and sewing it down on a pale moss-colored ribbon that ties in the back.

And then adding a rather beautiful broach from Accessorize.

And talking of chockers/neck-warmers (in lack of a better name), has anyone seen this type before? I found it at an auction a few years ago:

My bet is that it is home-sewn, with velvet and cotton-lace for decoration.

Here seen from the back. I´m thinking it must be a piece made to be tucked into a dress, probably in the same fabric.

Inside it´s a very fine woven linen. Judging by style, color and material, I´m guessing it´s from around 1900, no later than 1910.

I appreciate any other views, guesses or information on this piece.

Both are from the 50s and home-sewn. The red one is in a cotton brocade, the black in heavy rayon taffeta. Or at least I think so, from the feel of the fabric, as there are no labels.

Ooo, I´m gonna be stylish this fall! (tji-hi…)

Above is the original. And below is the first layers of color.

It´ll be my weekend-project. I want to add some reds and pinks, maybe flowers and butterflies and other relatively cute stuff. Maybe a dragon-fly.

Take a five-minute break. Dance!

What do you get when you add glass…

glass-beads…

and a flaming blow-torch?

You get beautiful beads, of course! Well, I think they are anyway!

Here they are still cooling. I do hope I get them off, I really want to make a necklace somewhere down the road.

But what was the best treat?

She taught me how to blow baubles! Like for Christmas ornaments!

They are pre-made, we added the color, heated it up very slowly and started the shaping via blowing into the tube while the glass was red-hot. How uber-cool is that! The one above is half-way in the progress.

I was so excited while I was working on it, I was exhausted when I was done! And it actually requires a lot more patience than making the beads. A bead takes a couple of minutes, the bulb takes about half an hour of heating and blowing.

And even though it´s not remotely perfect, I am so proud! It´s not a Christmas-bulb. It´s a all-year-round-bulb. It has to be. I´ll hang it in my window by my Mac, so I can look at it

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This was a big family-weekend, with two birthdays to celebrate, and the crafty result is that I had time to crochet on the ferries to and from. So my little thing I started on Saturday, is now a complete scarf. That is, I finished the yarn, but I would really like it to be even longer, so I can wrap it around my neck several times.

I´ve been listening to Bill Bryson telling me about all sorts of natural science, including atoms and protons and algae and cells and I´m thinking this almost looks like a textile illustration of a science-project… cell-mutation or something.

But before we head on into fall, let me just tell you that last week we had two days of summer with 24 degrees! With this sweet surprise in the garden:

Wild raspberries growing in my garden. Not many, but enough to put a smile on my face, and a sweet spread on my sandwich. Every two days, I can go out and pick some more. Yay!

I´ve lived most of my life on my little island, and until 2001 we needed to take a ferry to get to the mainland. After that we got a bridge and the world´s longest underwater tunnel (until the record was broken half a year later by another tunnel slightly longer).

We used to have 3 ferries going from different parts of the island, now we only have one left. I admit, I hardly ever take it. But today was special. Because today it´s not just any ordinary ferry.

Today it was The Knitting Ferry!

From 9 AM to 3 PM anyone can board, pay a return fare, and stay on as long as they´d like, and join in Norges Husflidslags (The Norwegian Handicraft Assosiation) 100th anniversary, by knitting their way across the fjord.

Up in the saloon, the knitters had taken over, even decorating the place with some of their creations. a lot of chatting, and a lot of knitting needles clicking away.

Isn´t this kind of a cute way to display hats? On smiley-faced balloons?

It was my Mom´s birthday, so we joined in, but only had time for one round-trip, as she had another celebration to rush off to. I just managed to get started on a little project. I prefer not to use recipes, but just be creative and try out things. As long as you know the basic technique, there´s no end to what you can do.

Eventually I´m hoping this will be a long scarf. But there´s a long way to go…

(Oh, and it isn´t knitting, it´s crochet. But don´t tell anyone onboard!)