Billberg,a Project2 Textile Design Id

CONCEPT STATEMENT AMANDA BILLBERG ID 197: S3

Although Norway is renowned for being a peaceful country, their early history included the violent Viking era. Norwegians give credit to the Vikings for their current peaceful status because the Vikings had to go through many wars to gain Norway’s status of power from other countries. A symbol of the Viking’s strength and success, their ship, is used in repetition to emphasize their significance to the region and to add rhythm. Geometrical rhythm is also very common in Norse knit. Knitting is a necessary part of life in Norway due to its cold climate, but the Norwegians have turned it into more than a need. Since it is a fact of their life, they incorporate it into their traditions, and here the red color and geometric pattern of the flag comes into play. Norwegians have developed a strong sense of national pride and thus use the colors of their flag, red, white, and blue, in many of their textile designs. The horizontal symmetry and balance of the flag is used as the template to create this specific textile. The textile also displays Norway’s National Coat of Arms, placed in the top left of the created flag at the intersection of stripes to create an emphasis on the important national symbol. The textile has a main spot of emphasis inspired by the red knit mentioned earlier. Knitted fabrics of this region almost always have a focal point that is repeated only once per square, as in this textile. It can be said that overall these patriotic images are combined in a way to re-create create the form, balance and color of the Norwegian flag with emphasis on the historically significant features of Norwegian society as in typical Norse fabrics. .