UNIQUE NORWEGIAN FUNDRAISER: ‘Rosemalers Raise The Roof’ with special project

By Lynn Sove Maxson –  

It started on June 1, 2013 in the Norway Museum, Norway, IL, home to the first permanent Norwegian settlement and Lutheran church in America. While demonstrating Telemark rosemaling at the museum, I mentioned that it was difficult to find interesting wood to paint. Roald Berg, member of the board of directors, handed me an old dirty cedar shake roof shingle and asked if I could paint it. While trying to design and paint the shingle, a woman from Minnesota asked to buy it while it was still unfinished and wet! It sold for $20. While painting another shingle, a couple from Iowa purchased it, again while still wet!

That was when I was told that there were 3 cases of  the original  160+ year old cedar shake shingles taken from the roof of the museum (once the Lutheran Church).  A new roof was needed. An idea to raise money for the new roof was born.

I took some shingles home to find a way to make them presentable after sitting on the roof, open to all weather for so long. After shop vacuuming and brushing them, several coats of Polyacrylic varnish were carefully applied. The painting was easier and more interesting when using the original nail holes and irregular wood, keeping the character of each shingle intact. Ten finished shingles were given to Frances and Roald Berg from the museum at another meeting. One was sold on the spot!

While talking to my friend Pam Rucinski, a Vesterheim Gold Medalist (VGM)  about our upcoming rosemaling class at Vesterheim Museum, she said to bring some shingles to the class and Nordic Fest!! Roald Berg then cleaned another 30 shingles and I varnished them.

Roald and I discussed a label to put on the back of each shingle to explain the history of the church and the Norway Museum today. The settlement was founded by pioneer Cleng Peerson in 1834.  In 1841 Elling Eielsen built a log cabin church which burned down after a few years. It was torn down and  replaced with the  existing building in 1846.

Upon arriving in Decorah, Iowa for our class, the project literally hit the roof! Everyone thought it was a great historical and cultural project. Painters from all levels wanted to paint the shingles. The only guidelines being to show the front of the shingle and ask our eager volunteer rosemalers to use as many of the existing nail holes, splits or cracks as they could as part of their design.

Before I knew what was happening, I received requests, written and spoken, for more shingles, some before they had even seen a shingle! Some artists painted traditional rosemaling styles while others were creative with landscapes and interesting designs. A quick call back home to the Museum set up a crew of volunteers to clean and prep the rest of the shingles even as we painted and sold the 30 I had.

Guests of the Quality Inn, where we were staying, were buying shingles as soon as they saw them. The motel even let Pam and I paint in the breakfast room after breakfast. The owner of the Blue Heron Knittery in Decorah let us use her patio one afternoon for our painting studio as Pam, Ellen Kerbs, another VGM from Colorado, and I painted more shingles! We sold them almost as soon as we finished painting them and had trouble keeping up with the demand for finished shingles!  Thanks go to all the buyers from Alaska to Maine, Minnesota to Virginia! Also, to Open Imports in Mt. Horeb, where Janice bought four shingles when I stopped in on my drive home.

Special thanks go to Ron Hovda, Teresa McCue, Lorraine Straw, Diane Edwards VGM, Donna Benson VGM, Pam Rucinski VGM, Nancy Schmidt VGM, Sara Tollefson VGM, Ellen Kerbs VGM, Sally DeReus VGM, and others who have offered to paint shingles.

There will be a paint-in day at Pam’s lake home in Oshkosh,WI.   Several VGM painters and others will be doing more shingles.

There is a limited number of shingles. All profits from the sale of the shingles will be used to repair the roof.  Donations should be at least $20 per shingle and many have given more.

The old shingles, which protected the church for so many years and through so much history, will now help the Museum and its Norwegian descendents in a new and original way. This is a great blossoming grass roots project!

For more information on the shingle project, please e-mail Lynn Sove Maxson at sovmax@wowway.com