Flettehjerter (Woven Heart Baskets)

Norwegians don't put as many decorations on their trees as Americans, and most Norwegian decorations are hand made. Woven heart baskets are typically made for Christmas tree decorations from good quality paper in two contrasting colors (often one of the colors is bright red). The little baskets can hang empty or have a few small treats in them. Virtually every school-age child in Norway learns to make these woven hearts.

Instructions for weaving a 3-tab paper heart basket with photos with step-by-step instructions, and a simple pattern to go with it. Remember to use bright contrasting papers for the two halves and make the handle from the same color as one of the halves. Another excellent site for 3-tab paper heart baskets was written for and by school children with little movies with the instructions. There is also an accompanying article about Christmas traditions including a discussion about julenisse. Yet another description for a four-tab heart basket for children in grades 6-8. This site claims to have Danish woven baskets, but they have a nice diagram for three-tab hearts.

Hvetevefting (Wheat Weaving)

[One insight I gained while preparing this web page was that the British use "corn" to mean "grain" and not "maize," in the same way that Norwegians use "korn" to mean "grain." Thus "corn dolly" is another term for a "wheat weaving." To me a "corn dolly" was a "corn husk doll" made out of maize husks. So if I wanted to find nice designs for wheat weaving, I needed to be more international in my outlook on language. --CHP]

In Norway wheat is braided into different patterns and shapes for decorations for the house and for the Christmas tree. Now small ready-made straw decorations for the tree are so common and cheap in the stores that most crafts people make only larger and fancier decorations for home or hytte (cabin) and buy little ones for the tree. Thus passes away a tradition of families making ornaments fresh each autumn.

World Wide Wheat Weavers site, including access to galleries of designs; guilds, conventions and associations; wheat suppliers, books and news about the craft. There is a nice introduction which explains why wheat, and not other grains, is appropriate for weaving, and a little about historical background.