CHAPTER INTRODUCTIONS

Author: Johan Hofvendahl, Ph.D. in Linguistics, Communcations Manager, Kulturen

PATTERNS – FOR LIFE AND DESIRE

(Swedish title: ”Mönster – för liv och lust”)

Evolution has favoured individuals whose brains have a ”forecasting capability”, that is, brains that constantly look for order, physical causation, symmetries, or, to put it simply, brains that love patterns. The human world is a ”decoded” world, where events must be predicted, where situations must be recognized, and where lessons learned in previous contexts must influence how we should act in similar situations. The brain’s reward system makes it easy to love patterns.

Author: Anna Lindqvist, Curator, Kulturen

SVEN FRISTEDT – MASTER OF PATTERNS

(Swedish title: ”Sven Fristedt – mästare i mönster”)

When Sven Fristedt is asked where he gets his pattern ideas and inspiration from, he says that it is difficult to answer, but adds that just before an assignment is to be submitted, he starts with ”free association” (what he calls ”blue work”) and then the patterns emerge. When I put the question to him directly, he replies, ”Well, what should I say? When I was sitting on my grandfather’s lap – he was an architect and he died when I was four – I decided to become something artistic”.

STRIGLAKORS

KM 9597. Drawing by Axel Nilsson.

Author: Karin Hindfelt, Curator, Kulturen

Patterns: Åsa Tornborg, Conservator, Kulturen

ON SOCKS, KNITTING AND THE CHRISTMAS PRESENT OF 2022

(Swedish title: ”Om strumpor, stickning och årets julklapp 2022”)

The interest in knitting has increased enormously in recent years. This is not least noticeable in the many new books and increasing number of blogs and Instagram accounts on the subject. This article revolves around a pattern found in the Kulturen collections. The chosen object is a pair of red socks with white stars that were knitted for Crown Princess Louise and her, according to Kulturen’s founder Georg Karlin ”antiquated Scanian costume”.

Author: Ludwig Qvarnström, Senior Lecturer in Art History and Visual Studies, Lund University

THE VOCATIONAL SCHOOL FOR WOOD AND METAL WORK AND ITS PATTERNS COLLECTION

(Swedish title: ”Fackskolan för trä- och metallarbeten och dess mönstersamling”)

Right from the start of Kulturen’s museum operations, the importance of preserving cultural heritage and working the ”domestic craft and continued development of handicraft diligence” was emphasised. The ambition was to create a school for handicraft and the plans were realised in 1897 when a vocational school for textile craft was founded. Three years later, a vocational school for wood and metalwork was also established.

Authors: Anna Lindqvist, Curator, Kulturen

Marie Odenbring Widmark, Antiquarian Slöjd & Byggnadsvård

THE PRINTED PATTERNS OF CHRISTMAS

(Swedish title: ”Julens tryckta mönster”)

Printed Christmas textiles have a very special world of patterns with everything from nativity scenes, angels and elves to stars, apples and gingerbread men.

The mood-creating patterns are printed on tablecloths, hats, Christmas tree mats, aprons, calendars and Christmas stockings. Despite their far-reaching impact, Christmas prints do not have a long history. The first printed Christmas cloths were launched in 1924, with production only taking off in earnest in the 1950s.

Author: Dag Mether, Conservator, Kulturen

THE STONEMASONS' IMPRINT IN LUND – A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME

(Swedish title: ”Stenhuggarnas avtryck i Lund – en resa i tiden”)

Lund has a large number of stonemason’s marks dating from the 11th century. From the construction of Lund’s Cathedral in the 12th century onwards, the stonecutter’s marks appeared more frequently. It cannot be said with certainty how the tradition of stonemason’s marks came to Lund. What we do know, however, is that it was a tradition that existed in Europe and slowly appeared in the Nordic countries during the 11th century.

Author: Nina Davis, Curator, Kulturen

ORDER AND BEAUTY – THE COLLECTIONS THROUGH THE EYES OF THE FEMALE ARTWORKERS

(Swedish title: ”Ordning och ögonfröjd – samlingarna genom tecknerskornas ögon”)

Kulturen’s archives hold many metres of shelving bearing small cardboard archive capsules. Each capsule contains a number of catalog cards that describe objects. In 1894–95, almost half of Kulturen’s staff worked almost exclusively with making drawings in Kulturen’s object catalogue. No modern museum records its objects with such painstaking detail and quality. The images that adorn this article are just a sample of the many drawings that exist.

Author: Gunilla Törnvall, Ph.D. in Book and Library History, Lund University

PATTERNS ON PAPER AND ON PRECUT TEXTILE PARTS –HOME SEWING 1945–80

(Swedish title: ”Mönster på papper och mönster-på-tyg – hemsömnad 1945–80”)

Today, home sewing makes many people remember their own or their relatives’ diligence and toil with buzzing sewing machines, fine fabrics and rustling paper patterns. As early as the middle of the 19th century, the American companies Demorest and Butterick had started to manufacture the first cutting patterns for amateurs. Along with Singer’s introduction of the home sewing machine in 1858, the art of home sewing spread rapidly to the rest of the Western world.

Author: Aja

Guldåker,

Archaeologist, Kulturen AMONG ”GOOSE FEET” AND BLOCKS

(Swedish title: ”Bland gåsfötter och kvarter”)

Far from today’s perfectly reproduced maps with sharp straight lines, the map I am looking at was drawn by hand in 1821. With slightly shaky lines, crooked streets and neat handwriting it says: ”Plan of Lund, made by hand by N.I Löfgren.” In 1853, a more professionally produced map of the city appeared, yet both tell us of a city that offered ”strolling pleasures”. A dive into archives and memories helps us shed some light on the maps.

Author: Per Larsson, Ph.D. in Ecology, Curator, Kulturen

LANDSCAPES AND THEIR MAN-MADE PATTERNS

(Swedish title: ”Landskapets ränder är människans mönster”)

The fields of autumn and spring, with their sprouting crops forming stripes across large connected fields, are a symbol of streamlined agriculture. It is an agriculture that largely follows straight lines and leaves behind it the mechanical pattern of human ingenuity and efficiency. At harvest, the straw strands lie in long strips and the mown grasses are collected in strands before being pressed into silage. The seeding machine is possibly one of the most pattern-creating agricultural implements.