Scandinavian Motifs -- Jewelry Artist Draws Her Inspiration From North European Folk Art

Art-jewelry maker Lori Talcott knows that her consuming passion, Scandinavian folk art, is hip or fashionable almost nowhere outside Ballard, Poulsbo and Scandinavia.

Yet while multiculturalists, art historians and even some of her own colleagues in art-jewelry design may pooh-pooh Northern European folk art as boringly white-bread, Talcott has embarked on a one-woman campaign to enlighten people to what she considers the beauty and mystery of Scandinavian folk art, especially its jewelry and costumes.

A native of Olympia whose family roots are English, Talcott has become so knowledgeable about traditional Scandinavian jewelry design and folk motifs that last year she taught at Rauland Folk Art Academy, Norway's most prestigious folk-art center. She speaks a blend of Swedish and Norwegian, thanks to college courses here and numerous study and research trips to Scandinavia.

"This is folk art," she said recently in her Leschi-area studio, waving toward an elaborately decorated, bejeweled, red, black and lace "top hat" worn by Norwegian brides until the late 19th century. Part of the bridal outfit included many layers of hammered and filigreed silver jewelry.

"But if you open a book on folk art, this funky white-girl art usually gets left out," Talcott said. "But I think it's beautiful, and I want to pay tribute to it."

Others agree. This month Mia Gallery has mounted a show of Talcott's Scandinavian and Eastern European-inspired art jewelry. She considers some of the pieces, mostly brooches and necklaces, traditional.

"They are my own design, though I've made them in a folk-art tradition, working with the grammar of traditional design," Talcott said. Other pieces she considers "contemporary" but "inspired by folk art."

Those without backgrounds in Scandinavian folk motifs may find it difficult to differentiate between Talcott's traditional and contemporary pieces. All are made of mostly silver accented with gold and semiprecious stones. She hand-makes each piece using traditional techniques that essentially boil down to hammering, cutting and engraving the metals.

What is obvious is that all her jewelry is relatively large (brooches are 3 or 4 inches in diameter) and clanky (some have little charms and talismans that tinkle and twist), and it has a decided medieval look to it. Faces of women in medieval crowns are worked into some pieces along with motifs from the natural world such as roses, leaves and stylized "trees of life."

Despite its size, the jewelry is feminine and meant to be worn exclusively by women. Brides wore layers of it on their wedding days, and married women wore other pieces for holidays. As in many other folk cultures, a family's savings was sometimes put into jewelry worn by the women, said Talcott.

Part of what fascinates her is the mingling of ancient European pagan and pre- and post-Reformation Christian beliefs found in Scandinavian folk art and jewelry. For instance, though contemporary American culture associates hearts with romance and valentines, Talcott says that the burning heart has a long and far-less-saccharine traditional meaning.

"The heart brooch was worn all over Europe from at least the 13th century. It has tons of symbolism," said Talcott, including references to Jesus Christ and his martyrdom. Similarly, the tree of life is about regeneration, seasonal changes, the cycles of human life and the natural world. The bird motifs she uses also have references to Christian imagery, in which birds often represent the soul. Birds also were important in pagan Norse mythology.

"Odin, the king of the Norse gods, had two ravens named `Thought' and `Memory' which he sent out to get information for him," said Talcott. "I love that image of the birds out scouting for him."

It's in the family

It's not surprising that Talcott, 36, is bewitched by jewelry. Her great-grandfather and two great uncles founded Talcott's, an Olympia jewelry store that still is run by her brother. As soon as she was old enough she helped wrap packages and mend broken jewelry. She studied gems and made buying trips to New York with her father. Her family assumed she'd go into the business.

But at Washington State University she studied art history and Scandinavian languages, inspired partly by her fondness for visiting countries where everyone skis. She had spent a year in Scandinavia as a high-school foreign-exchange student and spent another year there studying while at WSU. She fell in love with Scandinavian folk dancing, traditional costumes and music. (She still regularly travels around the Puget Sound area to participate in Scandinavian folk-dancing parties.)

After college she worked in the family business for a while, but yearned to make one-of-a-kind art jewelry. So she quit her job at Talcott's to spend a few years working for many of the area's leading art-jewelry makers. In the late '80s she enrolled in the University of Washington's metal-design program, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1990. A year later she apprenticed herself to one of Norway's most highly regarded, traditional silversmiths. Talcott's professional and personal roots are now so strong in Norway that she visits at least once a year and is represented by an art gallery that shows her work.

A small, quick, energetic women, Talcott often wears her long hair neatly pinned up in a pair of old-fashioned braids. On a recent day in her studio she complemented the hairdo with a short dark pleated skirt, black tights, knee boots and a bulky sweater. The outfit - indeed the whole look - suggests a well-scrubbed 25-year-old from a small Scandinavian town about to schuss off on cross-country skis. Talcott is an accomplished skier and for a while worked for a guide service on Mount Rainier. Aiming at a wider audience

But her main focus these days is her jewelry and Scandinavian folk culture. In the past Talcott has displayed her work at the Nordic Heritage Museum in Ballard, but she hopes the show this month, her first solo show at Mia Gallery, will reach a different audience. Included will be a traditional Norwegian women's folk costume adorned with layers of her jewelry. Prices will range from $350 to $2,200.

Talcott has a theory about why people who admire folk art from Africa, Asia and Latin America sometimes dismiss the notion that the folk art of Sweden and Norway is less interesting. "There's been a cheesification of Scandinavian folk culture," she said. "It comes from the gingerbread architecture in Leavenworth, the Lawrence Welk show, things like that.

"But I'm on a mission to try to get some recognition for European folk art," said Talcott, who is also starting to make pieces based on Estonian and Slovakian motifs. "It's not that I'm trying to save folk art. It isn't dead. In Norway it is still a living tradition. But I am interested in how it changes." ----------------------------------------------------------------- Jewelry exhibit

Lori Talcott's show, "New Work in the Tradition of European Folk Jewelry," will be at Mia Gallery, 512 First Ave. S., through March 31. Hours are Tuesdays through Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Sundays 1 to 5 p.m. On March 7, during the First Thursday Gallery Walk, the gallery will be open until 8 p.m., and several of Talcott's friends will model traditional Scandinavian folk outfits.