The beginning - Chapter 3

Fast forward about 15 years and I had a college degree but not in Architecture. I decided halfway through college that I wanted to design the spaces that people occupied, not the buildings that housed the spaces. I wanted to get a little closer to the human side of designing buildings, so I graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Interior Design. So far so good!

I rose quickly in the field and soon started my own interior design firm. During this time I married my architect husband (a Swedisn-American), and adopted 2 babies, a boy and a girl, from South Korea. Life was perfect! I still wanted to do more creative things in my leisure time, though. I have a tendency to take on more complicated and larger projects, so I knew that I wasn’t cut out for spending my ‘off time’ doing quick-crafts for seasonal boutiques. I started thinking about my life-long fascination with textiles. I had a short encounter with hand weaving in high school, which thoroughly fascinated me! I still have the ponchos to show for it! My experience with the beautiful and diverse spectrum of textiles which I have seen and handled for my interior design projects have always been a high point for me, so I decided to take a class in weaving! As I took one class, and another, and then another I fell in love!

Weaving spoke to my soul! I loved everything about it; it’s history, the different natural fibers, the textures one could create, the exploration of color, the meditative quality of throwing the shuttle back and forth creating cloth one thread at a time. I had found my passion!

From this, v ä v a! v e v e! was born.  Well. . . actually, our name started out as Wooden Castle Textiles. This name came from our cabin in Wisconsin which my husband and I designed and built. The name of our cabin is a tribute to our Korean born children; "NamuSong"; Korean words for "wooden castle'. That was in 1992. But as time went by I realized that people were associating the name "Wooden Castle Textiles" with something to do with wood! That just wouldn't do! So I reached out for the help of family and friends! They sent me ideas and thoughts and it all came down to this:  Because of my strong Norwegian heritage and my solid ties to my husbands family who are of Swedish heritage; because many of my textiles have strong Swedish and Norwegian influence; and since I am weaving and weaving!!! .. . well, it just happened!  v ä v a! v e v e! meaning 'weave! weave!' The word 'väva' is Swedish. The word 'veve' is Norwegian. Pronounced together as vay-vuh vay-vuh.

We still spend warm summers at NamuSong (Wooden Castle), and every Christmas. Our almost grown children, having grown up on the lake, still love it there. Although their work schedules don't allow them the carefree summers to frolic on the lake, we still try to spend as much time as we can in this wonderful place. I have one of my looms right by a window looking out on the lake and I weave wonderful cloth while listening to the loons sing their beautiful songs. It truly is our little wooden castle where I v ä v a! v e v e!