Our Team
Nordenfjeldske Fibershed was founded in 2021 by Marte E Blomli, Årolilja Jørgensrud and Nina Alsborn. The aim was to establish an organization which would promote local textile production. We also hoped to contribute to the change towards more locally rooted textile production based on local raw materials and value chains.
Nina Alsborn
A great passion for teaching and sharing knowledge inspired Nina to pursue an educational career. However under the surface, she’s always had a deep interest in textile craft and production. This passion called her to Telemark, Norway where she worked for several years at a local yarn producer. Nina believes that yarn production is a meaningful craft which has a place in the future of textiles. She has observed that in today’s local textile production there’s a great need for more networking opportunities, collaboration, and support for smaller companies. She believes that focus on and support for the farmer is also imperative in order to reach a more balanced future in terms of resource use. In 2022 Nina completed a masters degree in traditional art, where she took a deep look at how wool - which is often seen as worthless and thrown away - can find new life through the traditional art of felting. She continues to research how this can be implemented on an industrial level. The driving force behind Nina’s involvement with Fibershed is her desire to strengthen the voices of organizations and individuals working in local textile production, and to strengthen the local textile community in Norway so that we can work towards a better textile for all - nature, animals, and people!
Today, our team consists of a wonderful group of skilled, knowledgeable and committed people who are interested in ethical and sustainable textile systems in areas such as handicrafts, textile design, industry, communication and research.
Årolilja Jørgensrud
Årolilja has worked practically, creatively, and theoretically with wool, textiles and sustainability for almost 20 years. She’s worked at all levels of the textile-production value chain, from raw material to finished product. She’s been a Norwegian wild sheep (villsau) farmer, worked in production and design in her own company, worked in product development in the textile industry and been involved in research and development products with a focus on wool. Årolilja has a master’s degree in agricultural and climate studies from NMBU in Ås and thinks that it’s exciting to unite the different disciplines of textile production, design, agriculture, and climate in her work. Årolilja currently works as an advisor at NIBIO (Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research), generally with projects related to better utilization of wool from Norwegian sheep breeds. Through her work with Fibershed Norway, Årolilja hopes to tie together different disciplines, establish new networks and to tighten the gap between country and city. She is particularly concerned with how people can use art and design to protect older sheep breeds, biological diversity, local traditions and knowledge about resource use that could soon be lost.
Together, we want to help local actors in the textile industry by acting as a contact network and interest organization for the entire value chain - from farm to finished textile.
Marte Blomli
Marte lives on a small homestead with her husband, baby boy, and shaggy little dog. She has a masters degree in Natural Resource Management from NTNU. She currently works at Selbu Spinneri, a small wool spinnery located in Klæbu, Trondheim, where she has responsibility for international and national research projects. Selbu Spinnery has specialized in conservation of wool from many of the threatened Norwegian sheep breeds. Marte is interested in protecting Norwegian textile traditions and she knits, weaves, handspins, and sews. She likes to enjoy life in the forest, fields, mountains, and sea. According to Marte, it’s imperative that we do more to take care of our beautiful earth, and because of this she’s always exploring ways to live a greener life. This is her motivation to work with promoting local, environmentally friendly textile production, and better agricultural practices through Fibershed Norway.
Through us, small businesses can have the opportunity to be seen and heard.
Carrie Pretorius
Carrie has been handcrafting since childhood when she started sewing clothes for her dolls at 5 years old. Her grandmothers, mother and mother-in-law gave her the basics in knitting, crochet, embroidery, weaving, sewing and painting. Today she runs a clothing repair shop and laundry and is the project manager for a regional project called Clothing Repair for Everyone. Her goal is to help others extend the lifespan of their clothing by providing repair services or by teaching others how to repair and maintain their clothing. Unfortunately clothing repair generates a fair amount of textile waste. This has led Carrie to look more closely into textile waste management and bio-fiber mending. Upon hearing of Fibershed and its mission to revitalize local and regional textile production, she became the Southern Norway Coordinator for Nordenfjeldske Fibershed. Her plans are to locate and map the wool,linen and leather producers, textile mills, and other producers and suppliers of bio-fibers as an additional resource for our tailors, designers and artist.
Would you like to contribute to our work? You can! Contact us, become a member or support our work through a donation. Join us into a better textile future!
Emilia Panish-Hoffmann
Emilia grew up in a house in the woods in New England where she developed passions for art, crafting, knitting, and nature. Emilia works within digital design and marketing, though she has a formal education in environmental science and sustainable food systems. She loves opportunities where she can combine her profession with her passion for arts and the environment. Emilia has always had a desire to work in the space between agriculture and consumption; bringing people’s attention to the origins of the food they eat and the fabrics that they wear, and supporting more socially and environmentally sustainable forms of agriculture. She hopes that her work with Fibershed Norway will help to move production and consumption of textiles in the region in a more sustainable direction.
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