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.
ReplyDeleteThanks Janice. During the summer tourist season there are still demonstrations like that held at many glassworks; I'm less sure if there is still anywhere you can watch a clog maker at work...
DeleteLoved 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.
ReplyDeleteBarbara, glassworks and potteries and such places still attract tourists in summer and then also offer demonstrations. Probably less small workshops left now compared to 50 years ago, though.
DeleteThese 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.
ReplyDeleteMike, clogs are probably still part of many folk costumes - and folk music - in Sweden, too. Not my area of expertise, though!
DeleteGood photos! This is likely a lost art, as most things now are meant to be thrown away instead of being repaired. We live in a disposable society.
ReplyDeleteGinny, we certainly do. There are still people and societies who care about keeping old traditions alive though; and I think also an increasing awareness of recycling etc.
DeleteIn the first Sepia photo, the racks with boots look very familiar to me, since I worked in shoe factories in the 1980s and 1990s. The first place I worked had those racks to transport shoes in various stages to the "next step", the second factory was more modern so the racks weren't necessary, they had lines similar to conveyor belts but with just the rollers and trays of shoes were pushed along them.
ReplyDeleteRiver, I've never been inside a shoe factory myself - and strongly suspect that we don't have very many of those left in this country. Most of the shoes we wear nowadays are probably produced in China, or some other country a long way from here... (Even if the design should happen to be Swedish!)
DeleteSame here, that's why I lost my job that I loved, the factory closed and shoes were made in a country where the cost of making them was cheaper, so the company owners and shareholder could make more profits.
DeleteFascinating!
ReplyDeleteThat trip sounds like a good time for you three girls; precious memories even more precious now since Gunilla died (I remember you mentioning this on your blog, and Lena is the artist who painted the boat picture in your flat, right?).
Meike, I suspect the picture you're referring to must be a small one that currently serves as background to my Barbie dolls. The artist behind the original of that picture is indeed Lena, and in this case it's a print mounted on a 'pot coaster'. Lena has had a lot of her paintings turned into prints, coasters and trays etc to sell to tourists in connection with her summer exhibitions on the west coast. My only original by her doesn't have any boat in it - just sea and cliffs and a starry sky. (Bought when my brother and I visited one of her exhibitions in the summer of 2023.) In 2024 she collected a lot of her paintings in a book, which I also bought, and sometimes have on display, one page at a time, on a small easel.
DeleteThe old shoemaker’s workshop and the ceramics of Höganäs seem to carry not only the texture of Swedish handicraft traditions, but also the warmth of a summer now preserved in sepia and remembrance
ReplyDeleteThanks Ro. In many ways these photos also represent a lot of typical summer holiday trips I've made through the decades, either with family or friends.
DeleteYou just never know when a picture you took at some point will become the perfect shot to match the Sepia Sat. theme of the week! Glad that one popped in your mind because it was perfect & also brought back all those old memories. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm from Sheffield, known for steel. Back in my grandfathers' day everyone worked in a steel factory doing various jobs. Sadly thats all gone save for the large, automated factories and small artisan works.
ReplyDelete