The Wedding Present

Making objects from tree roots (tægerbinding) is a lot of work, and requires a good deal of patience, both in gathering the roots and for the binding work itself. The advantage of the technique is that it does not require expensive tools, and can be performed anywhere – indoors or outdoors, and it is easy to take with you. Tægerbinding is a very old tradition, which gives exclusive products that have been highly valued at all times.

This weaved basket was given as a wedding present to Ingrid Olsdatter Sarri, when she married Nils Andersen Inga in 1885. On a daily basis, she used the basket to keep her sewing items in. The bride received it from her mother, Britta Andersdatter Nutti.

Britta Andersen Nutti also went by the name «Lettfot-Beret» (Lightfoot-Beret). She was born in Saarivuoma Sami village in 1822. Her reindeer herding household stayed on Hinnøya, including in Kvalsaukan. With her husband Olof Nilsson Sarri (b. 1830, Talma) and the children, they lived for periods on the Swedish side of Kjølen (the mountain ridge between Norway and Sweden) in the wintertime and moved to Hinnøya in the summer. In 1870 they settled on Tjeldøya and continued the reindeer herding.

It is reasonable to believe that it was Britta herself who painstakingly braided the basket for her daughter. Perhaps the craft work has given her peace in mind and a breather in spare moments.