Saami Bandweaving

The Saami
The Saami (Lapps) are known as the people of the sun and the wind. They are a nomadic people of northern Scandinavia and are reindeer herders. Saami ethnic heritage, language, traditional clothing, and handicrafts are distinct from other cultures in Norway, Sweden, Finland or Russia.
Saami Art
The Saami traditionally decorated their tools, clothing and other items of daily life. Clothing was made of reindeer skins and felted wool. Clothing edges were decorated with colorful bandweaving and woven belts.

Photo of a Saami woman wearing traditional dress.

My Saami Heritage
My grandmother was a Norwegian Saami. Here are some photos that I have of her and my father.

Sami of the Kola Peninsula

Saami Traditional Arts
Program notes are available on-line for a presentation made by Artist Anna-Stina Svakko, visiting the Bay Area from Porjus, a traditional Saami village in northern Sweden.
Varanger Saami Museum

A Norwegian museum exhibits Saami Duojdi handicrafts.
Arctic Norway
A cultural excursion to Norway to visit Saami ‘grene’ weavers. folk museums and travel by riverboats past scenic waterfalls and fjords.
Saami History
Archaeologists have linked the oldest Scandinavian stone age culture, the Komsa to the ancestors of the Saami. Ghengis Khan wrote that the Saami were a nation he would not try to fight again. They didn’t believe in war but were peaceful retreaters and disappeared in times of conflict. They moved their homes and reindeer and adapted to their new natural surroundings.

Saami Crafts

Saami Blog
A great blog with photos of Skolt Saami weaving – grene.

Saami Weaving – You Tube

First the edge is woven on a rigid heddle loom and then the warp is attached to an upright warp weighted loom.

Saami – You Tube
I have added some interesting Saami links onto my You Tube Channel

Saami Belts and Braids

woven Saami belt

Saami Double Heddle Loom
The colourful Saami braids are woven on a rigid heddle that has an extra hole for the colored yarn.

Stoorstalka Weaving Reeds
A traditional Sami weaving reed made of modern materials.
Buy the Loom

Band Weaving Patterns
Bands or belt patterns woven on a rigid heddle loom.

Sami Band Weaving
Sue Foulkes has written a book about Sami band weaving with patterns for weaving 26 bands.

Saami Books and Music

Lapps and Labyrinths: Saami Prehistory, Colonization, and Cultural Resilience
Saami prehistory from 5000 BC to AD 1500.

God Wears Many Skins: Myth And Folklore Of The Sami People
This poem records the creation story of the Sami, a nomadic people of Northern Europe, and then retells several Scandinavian folk-tales derived from their playfully animistic world view.
UK: God Wears Many Skins

..More Saami Books…