Lie, Ragnhild
Dublin Core
Title
Lie, Ragnhild
Description
Ragnhild Lie grew up in Gudbrandsdalen and Lillehammer and has knitted, chrochet, braided, sewn and woven since she was little. Ragnhild is educated as textile artisan and holds a MA in Textiles from Bergen school of Art took in 1997. Her broad range of textile-based experience includes fine art, theater and education. She has worked at Sjølingstad Wool Mill, studied tapestry at Oslo University College of Art and Design, taught at Lofoten School of Arts for kids and led courses from kindergarten to university level. She works as lecturer and textile artist within the textile field in Norway. She now lives and works on the farm in Stamsund where she manages and develop the business Lofoten Wool established in 2014. On the farm of Lofoten Wool business, Ragnhild has a herd of 30 sheep which provide the company with wool and meat. The meat is sold to a local slaughterhouse (located in Leknes, about 7 km from Lofoten Wool), while the wool is processed in order to create the woolen products sold in the Lofoten Wool shops, online and to third party resellers. Environmental sustainability is the key principle of Ragnhild's corporate and production philosophy.
Date
1966
Contributor
iain
Language
Norwegian
Type
Artisan
Identifier
400
Extent
x x
Spatial Coverage
current,68.1490556685704,13.7622515654953;
Europeana
Country
Scotland
Europeana Data Provider
Lie, Ragnhild
Object
https://lofoten-wool.no/en
Europeana Type
TEXT
Artisan Item Type Metadata
Biographical Text
Ragnhild Lie grew up in Gudbrandsdalen and Lillehammer and has knitted, chrochet, braided, sewn and woven since she was little. Ragnhild is educated as textile artisan and holds a MA in Textiles from Bergen school of Art took in 1997. Her broad range of textile-based experience includes fine art, theater and education. She has worked at Sjølingstad Wool Mill, studied tapestry at Oslo University College of Art and Design, taught at Lofoten School of Arts for kids and led courses from kindergarten to university level. She works as lecturer and textile artist within the textile field in Norway. She now lives and works on the farm in Stamsund where she manages and develop the business Lofoten Wool established in 2014. On the farm of Lofoten Wool business, Ragnhild has a herd of 30 sheep which provide the company with wool and meat. The meat is sold to a local slaughterhouse (located in Leknes, about 7 km from Lofoten Wool), while the wool is processed in order to create the woolen products sold in the Lofoten Wool shops, online and to third party resellers. Environmental sustainability is the key principle of Ragnhild's corporate and production philosophy.
External ID
MN_PR_01
Prim Media
686
Contact
post@lofoten-wool.no
Phone
0047 90 50 40 01
Occupation
fibre and textile crafts,artist
Knowledge Acquisition
She learnt to craft with threads since she was a child from her mother and grandmother, specifically knitting and hand made rugs. She learnt crochet tapestry in middle school, and later many different weaving techniques, e.g. card weaving (brikkevev), grindvev, warp-weighted loom and . In 1997 she acquired a MA in Textiles. In the present, she keeps on increasing her knowledge through her own research in books and talking to museum conservators.
Knowledge Transfer
Teaching employees, school teachings, doing art proyects, and courses for adults.
Field Worker
Elisabeth Rosa Brusin, Ole Andreas Sagmo, Rebeca Franco Valle
Gender
female
Area Relation
incomer
knowledge1
Sheep care and farming, plant dying with natural materials, wool processing, textile construction on the loom, knitting, design of knitting patterns, needle binding.
Area Reason
The practitioner moved to Lofoten before 2013 but not specified when, almost casually. According to Ragnhild, Lofoten is an Eldorado for wool and lamb/sheep meat that wasn't developed. Most of the wool produced in Lofoten was and still is exported to England to never come back to Norway. Ragnhild realised she should have taken action to reverse this trend and to give new prominence to the wool produced by Lofoten sheep at a more local level.
material1
Wool and silk
Involvment
full-time paid job
material2
Much of the wool production comes from local farmers that respect animal wellfare. Besides this, her own sheep are also The silk and some of the dyes are not local, and have to be inmported.
material3
There are not many leftovers of the production
production1
Knitting and weaving. Dying with natural dyes.
production2
She uses a modern knitting machine and a weaving machine.She also employs 50 persons knitting for her,. Mostly woman, adult and retired ladies as a contribution to their pension.
production3
It is a pragmatic relationship. When a machine stops working, it has to be fixed.
production4
The general electric supply
production5
There is very little waste generated. The wool leftovers are compostable.
workshop
The practitioner has separated rooms in her own house to practice, manage and store some parts of the production. She also has buildings to keep the animals (sheep) during the winter, as well as a plot of land for the summer pastures.
products1
Yarn, jumpers, mittens, socks, scarfs, curtains, pillow cases and blankets.
products2
For daily use as clothing or interior dressing, and meat for consumption.
products3
They are sold in businesses of the area interested in selling handcrafts to tourists, such as Lofotr Viking Museum. The yarn is sold in yarn stores throughout the country. Besides this, some exclusive businesses order textiles for interiors (Hotels and tourist business). There is also a shop in the farm and they have an online shop in their website.
products4
Eventual workshops for learning how to use the yarn. Workshops for learning how to dye with plant dyes and visits to the farm.
products5
Yes, but they have been rarely used.
products6
Tourist that want to have high-quality local products, particular that knit themselves. Local businesses such as shops and hotels. The online shop sells directly to customers worldwide.
products7
They have their own hand-made tags with information about the sheep breed and the kind of natural dye used to color the yarn, but no official certifications.
tourism1
They have some tourist-oriented selling points (Ie. Lofotr Viking Museum). Many people going to the museum and buying products there also go to visit the farm afterwards. They also buy directly in the farm shop. A popular product loved by the America tourists are the Norwegian sweaters. Workshops and visits to the farm are also offered under request. Tourists come from the whole world to Lofoten, where the workshop is located. The greater bulk of tourists is European, with a majority of Germans. Local national tourists are also generously represented.
tourism2
Ullturisme er da jo veldig stor i veldig mange andre land. Du kan dra til Scotland, Island, Farøyene og Ytre Hebridene og overalt så er det mye fokus på ull og sau, og hvor viktig sauen har vært for mennesker her i nord. Men det gjør vi veldig lite her i Norge. Når jeg får tid, vil jeg får gjort det.
partnership
The collaborate with the local farmers that bring wool for them, wool shearers, the husflidlaget, knitting festivals,the slaugtherhouse, and other artisans of the area. They are members of creative associations such as the Norske Kunsthandverkerer and Norske Billedkunstnerer as well as farmer associations such as Småbrukerlaget, Bondelaget and education groups such as Utdanningsforbundet. With Norske Kunsthandverkerer they actively collaborate in artistic exchanges and exhibition projects. They also collaborate with academia in a project in Tingvall with the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomic Research called "Amazing Grazing". It researchs sheep farming as a sustainable industry for Norway, analysing the impacts in the landscape, climate and economy of the processes involved in farming, and the long-lasting life of derivates such as wool textile.
challenges1
One of the challenges is to get the wool and prepare it for selling. There are no local wool preparation plants, so she has to send the locally sourced raw material and send it to a cleaning plant. After that, the wool is send to the workshop and crafted into yarn and the other products. The combination of the farm managing and modern life is also challenging, specially in the areas where people have their holyday houses (hytte), and carry on with modern lifestyles, while the sheep need the space to graze unfenced. There are also economic challenges since the sheep farming does not generate a lot of money.
challenges2
Det er jo veldig få som klarer å lage penge på å jobbe med sau i Norge nå. Så det er en stor spørsmål: hva gjør vi mellon brukerer videre? hvordan... hvor får vi maten fra? hvor får vi klærne våres fra? Hva er viktigst? Skal vi bygge ut og bygge ned oss natur eller skal vi letter etter forbinde her og levelige kår?
references
https://lofoten-wool.no/en
https://www.nibio.no/prosjekter/amazing-grazing-baerekraftig-kjott-og-ull-fra-sau-som-beiter-i-norsk-utmark?locationfilter=true
https://www.smabrukarlaget.no/aktuelt/bonde-og-smaabruker/,
https://www.norskekunsthandverkere.no/kunstnerregister/ragnhild-lie
https://husflid.no/
https://www.utdanningsforbundet.no/
https://www.bondelaget.no/
Esther Haukeland, Innføring til plantefarging. Cappellen, 1982.
Animalia: Norwegian wool Standard. https://www.animalia.no/no/Dyr/ull-og-ullklassifisering/norsk-ullstandard/
Beder, Nicolina J., Seyður Ull Tøting. SPF. Sprotin, 2010.
Flååt, Inger. Votter i Namdalen. Nauma Husflidslag, 2010.
Grimstad, Ingun K. and Sårdal, Tone t. Norsk Strikkehistorie. Vormedal Forlag. 2018.
Grimstad, Ingun K. and Sårdal, Tone T. Ren ull. Aschehoug, 2013.
Hrútaskrá. https://www.rml.is/is/kynbotastarf/saudfjarraekt/hrutaskra
Joensen, Robert. Seyðabókin. SPF. Sprotin, 2015.
Johnston, Elizabeth and Juuhl, Marta K. The warp-weighted loom. Kljásteinavefstadurinn: kljásteinar klingja. Oppstadveven: klingande steinar. Skald, 2016.
Kjellmo, Ellen. Båtrya i gammel og nyt tid. Orkana, 1996.
Sundbø, Annemor. Usynlege Trådar i Strikkekunsten. Samlaget, 2006.
https://www.norskebilledkunstnere.no/
Citation
“Lie, Ragnhild,” VERAP, accessed July 15, 2025, https://culturality.museum/omeka/items/show/687.
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