Day 20 - Nothing Like I Ever Expected

​Today started off with some casual conversations over coffee with some of the ladies at craft camp. A conversation I later found out was invaluable regarding the language used to describe how to make a vöö (belt used in folk costumes). One of the ladies, Michele, went through and described the process of how to loom, using all the terminology. It was like another language but later came in handy. I thought it was a lovely way to start the day as there was another lady from Norway sitting there knitting some fingerless gloves too. It is amazing what can connect us and in this case it is handicrafts. I was so grateful to have had this conversation because I was now somewhat aware of weaving and the process to a degree. Granted it was regarding a loom but the processes seem similar. Michele did say that to set up a loom and do the warping takes about 2 12hr days to do, and that is where the work is. Once it is warped (or all the threads are on, it gets easier from there). Once we had some breakfast, we were off to craft camp!

​The classes are held in one of the oldest buildings of Tartu University and it is dedicated to handicrafts. People come there to learn traditional ways of doing a range of crafts such as weaving, metal working, wood working (just starting), wool dying, just to name a few. It used to be a bread factory during Soviet Occupation, and they have tried to keep things the way they were, but with the equipment needed to develop and grow the handicraft in Estonia. I was amazed at all the things they had in this place. We walked into the weaving room and holy moly… they had almost 10 big weaving looms and a massive warping wheel! It was incredible and I had never seen anything like it. They were all set up, ready to go and this is where I would spend most of my day. We then walked some more and there was a room dedicated to jewellery making. The machinery and things they had there was incredible. Everything was lined up in a row so many people could participate and it looked like they had everything they needed. There was a wood working room, probably not as impressive as Dad’s shed but it was still pretty cool. Then lastly we were in the wool dying room/area which had massive machines and all the things you needed to dye the wool. They have clearly invested a lot of money into this University and it was incredible. After we had a little tour and then purchased our coffee mugs. The pictures on them were painted there by children from a disabled school and you can rent the mug for the week for tea and coffee. I really liked this idea. We then headed to the “weaving cave” to start our class.

When we arrived we were met by Piia and Angel. Piia is the author of the book “Estonian pick-up woven belts”. Mum, thankfully, said she already has a copy of this book as it is sold out an the publishers are not sure if they will do another run of the book. It has all the patterns you would need to make a vöö and now we know how to read them! She is an incredible lady, so kind and helpful. Her vest though, oh my god, it was made of vööid! It was a blend of a number of belts put together to create a vest and it was so beautifully done! I loved it and maybe one day I can make one! She started off the presentation discussing the significance of the belts and how they are different, even the belts themselves are different from one end to another. I have never noticed this but when I get home I will have to check it out, especially the Kihnu one. She showed us the correct wool and linen to get using these board things. Luckily Ingrid is going to the place that sells these this week so we can have a copy of it. Once she explained a bit more on the belts and we got a patterns, collected and weighed our wool, we were off!

​We had to measure ourselves to ensure we got the right length vöö and move the pegs around on the board to get the right length when doing the warping. She then started the process on my vöö showing us how to warp the wool around the pegs on the board correctly. You have to read the pattern and make sure that at the gate you are doing it opposite sides each time. We really had to concentrate on this, as well as making sure you don’t lose your spot on the pattern. It takes an incredible amount of concentration because if you stuff up at this part, you stuff up the whole thing. I was absolutely amazed at this process. It is not what I expected when you make a vöö. I mean I don’t know what I was expecting on how to make it but I didn’t expect this, with no weaving background. It looked so pretty with all the strings on the board, wrapped around. They did tell us, and because I didn’t know at the start, we have to keep the same tension throughout the whole thing because, as I found out, it changes the tension when you go to do the weaving and you have to problem solve there. It is also beneficial to have two people when doing the warping and mum and I worked out a good system to do this but we really had to concentrate so we didn’t miss anything. We found out that with a Seto vöö (the one mum was making) the colour is always on the back side of the gate, except for maybe one, and before you take it off you need to check the threads mirror each other. If they don’t, you either find the problem, or start again. Once we had both finished warping we had to take the threads off after we had gathered them and created the gate, correctly. Once that was done, we tied the strings loosely together ready to attached to a loom or hook, to be able to start the weaving process. This blew my mind how we had created this and ready for the next step. It is a whole heap of threads in its current state but with more work, we will create a vöö. I really enjoyed the warping process and feel like I should be able to do it again. I really wanted to understand it because I told Piia, it isn’t like we can take her home and have her teach us one on one!! She did giggle at that.

​Once we gently got the belts off the warping board we were set up to do the weaving. It looked funny as we were dotted all around the room, making sure we had enough space to hold tension to be able to weave it. I was surprised at how tight we had to make it to be able to work with it well. Angela and Piia were so helpful and really made sure we were on the way to being successful in making our belts! I was so grateful to have had that experience and really look forward to the next step.
Until tomorrow
Marissa xx