Gotland's Crafts

As we talked to Gunilla about our interest in craft traditions and our current Sourced Material: Wool project she got excited. She immediately listed a name of people and places we could go visit and talk to around Gotland. We were excited to see what things we could learn here. Soon Gunilla, along with her sister-in-law Anna had planned a day of crafting and learning for us.

Gotland's economy used to be based on agriculture- root vegetables and Gotland sheep- but now its economy is built mainly on tourism. While there is still a lot of agriculture- like Frans' farm, as well as limestone mining and processing- it's tourism that creates the most money here. Gotland's tourism industry has allowed for a revival of crafts and cultural traditions. Tourist come here wanting to find 'authentic' Gotlandish products, which means the people living here have to produce them.

We see this happening in lots of rural areas that see lots of tourism, like Jake Levin's home, the Berkshires. This creates a complicated situation for the people who produce these objects. On the one hand it's wonderful that there is once again an economy for these local products and traditions, but on the other hand it can have an alienating effect- a feeling that one is producing these for an outside market. The touristic-fetishizing of these objects also drives up their prices. On one hand it's good, as it means more income for the local producer, but on the other hand it often means the community can not afford their own local products.

Not surprisingly, the majority of crafts in Gotland have there source in the agriculture here: wool and food (jams, honey, breads). Most of these craft-objects can be bought in the small shops that accompany many of the farms. They can also be found in tourist centers, boutiques in larger towns like Visby, and in small ateliers throughout the island where products- ceramics, candles, textiles, etc- are made and sold.

Our first stop with Gunilla and Anna was in Vallstena, at Ullverkstan Vallstena(Vallstena Wool-workshop), a beautiful wool crafts store and felting studio run by Annika Grandelius. Annika's shop was really exciting, we were immediately inspired. We told her a little bit about Sourced Material: Wool, and she went on to teach us some new techniques in her light-filled and airy studio. Annika has traveled all over Europe and a little in North Africa, learning about different felting techniques and making connections with different felters (she is particularly involved with a group of crafts-people in Estonia). But she is dedicated to using her own wool, from Gotland sheep, and cleaning and dying it herself.

Next we went to southern Gotland, to the town of Hemse. There we visited Gotlands Spinneri where the bulk of Gotland's wool is spun. The Gotland Spinneri has a fascinating history. In 2001 it was announced that the old Hablingbo Spinneri was to be closed and thus the machines, most dating to the 1920's, were going to be broken up and sold leaving Gotland without a wool mill. People in the local textile community were extremely upset at this news and immediately jumped to action. A group of woman organized and wrote letters to people asking to purchase a share of the mill (at 1000 kronors) and become a supporting member of the Hablingbo Wool-mill Economic Union. Their efforts were successful. After organizing a governing board and finding a home for the machinery they started to process wool again for Gotland. Anna is a member of co the-op and spins the wool from Frans' sheep here, which she then sells in her shop. The whole scene is quite beautiful- a bustling site of machinery and grey Gotland wool.