Linladan was initially intended as a short project while residing between western Sweden and the Welsh countryside. During my search for old linen, I (founder, Tanja) discovered traces of a fascinating Swedish embroidery company called Nordiska of Gothenburg. At the time, there was very little information available about the company online.
Today, we know that Nordiska had a talented in-house design studio and global distribution, operating for over a century. Contrary to what I had been told by institutions and traders, the company’s archive was not permanently lost. The patterns were actually safely stored in an old linen factory by the owner, Mr. Leo.
After two years of searching and numerous dead-end phone calls, my journey to find the Nordiska archive finally ended when Mr. Leo answered the phone one Saturday in 2017. He confirmed that he had the archive and told me: “I knew you would call one day”. He asked when I could visit, and I drove out the next day.
I spent the following year on research and meeting with some of the Nordiska designers and their families, all of whom have been of invaluable help to the project.
It took about a year to begin reproducing Nordiska’s embroidery kits with the assistance of another well-established Swedish embroidery company. Throughout this process, I continued to research, document, and receive great encouragement from the warm and enthusiastic textile community.
Today we operate in the beautiful old town of Bristol, within the Christmas Steps Arts Quarter. This new chapter of our journey is named Studio Flax, as “flax” not only refers to the plant from which our threads are made but also signifies unexpected luck in Swedish. The discovery of a room filled with pristine 50-year-old linen embroidery threads was pure flax.
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