At first I thought I have no photos like that... But then a summer holiday trip from the past popped to mind - made with two friends nearly 50 years ago (49, to be exact), to the Swedish provinces Halland, Skåne and Småland. The colour photos in my album from 1977 have faded - but since this is Sepia Saturday, never mind! ;) I managed to copy some with my phone camera, and edit them a bit.
The friends I was with on this trip were Gunilla and Lena. Gunilla sadly passed away three years ago. (She's the short one in the photos - she stopped growing when she was around 8 to do with health problems and medication with that side-effect.) Lena is the same age as me and since her official retirement (from teaching) is still keeping busy more or less "full time" as a water-colour artist, living on the west coast (where she was also born), and having several exhibitions there every summer.
Back in the mid 1970s, all three of us were living/studying in Karlstad; and that summer we went on a car trip together to the southern Swedish provinces of Halland, Skåne and Småland - where we visited several places do with different kinds of handicraft.
In Halland, we visited the workshop of an old shoemaker, still making wooden clogs by hand. (Wooden soles, leather tops.) I think this was someone Lena knew since before.
From Halland we went on to Skåne, where we visited a ceramics workshop or two in Höganäs - a village well known for several workshops and factories of that kind.
Here are my friends posing near one such place; and then going in...
The photo below is not my own but a postcard (glued into my album).
The province of Småland is best known for its many glassworks. We visited at least two of them, Boda and Kosta. I'm not sure at which of them the two photos below were taken.
Linking to Sepia Saturday 827
Really interesting photographs and history, Monica. Skilled craftsmen are a dying breed, I fear.
ReplyDeleteLoved your young interest in crafts! These are great memories from those years, and I hope some workshops like these still exist there. North Carolina is known for lots of pottery places, as well as craft schools - at least here in the mountains. I didn’t even think of that connection today! Oops.
ReplyDeleteThese were perfect choices for our theme. I always enjoy visiting craft shops which allow you to see people at work making things. It's instructive to see the different methods they develop to speed the manufacturing process and become more efficient. Clogs are footwear that once were very common with rural people who often appear in my postcard collection of old folk musicians. The sound of wooden shoes dancing on wood floors became a big influence on music.
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