THOUGHTS FROM UGLY DUCKLI
I have often wondered why the Danish woven paper heart means so much to me.
Perhaps it is not only the heart.
Perhaps it is the weaving itself.
“When we weave hearts, we weave in and out of each other’s lives.”
THE STRIPS
A heart is created because the strips cross each other
A traditional Danish woven paper heart is made from strips that move in and out of each other.
Each strip follows its own path.
Along the way, they cross. They pass through each other, around each other, and then continue on.
And it is only because their paths cross that the heart can exist.
A LITTLE LIKE LIFE
We meet. We walk together. We move on.
I think our lives are a little like that too.
Some people enter our lives and stay for many years.
Others are with us only for a short while.
Some we love. Some we work with. Some we meet completely by chance. Some we lose. And some we leave ourselves.
But while our lives are woven together, we leave traces in each other.
We become a small part of each other’s story.
Some connections last a lifetime. Others only a moment.
That does not necessarily make them less meaningful.
Someone can be part of our life for decades, or for a very short time, and still change something in us.
A conversation can stay with us. An experience can become a memory. A person can open a door, teach us something, or simply be there at a moment when it matters.
And then our paths may separate again.
WHEN THE SYMBOLISM BECOMES REAL
And then we find ourselves sitting together, weaving
Perhaps this is where the symbolism becomes strongest for me.
When people actually sit around a table and weave paper hearts together.
While the paper strips move in and out of each other, our own lives are woven together for that little moment too.
I feel this especially during my Private Paper Heart Experience at my home in Frederiksberg, Copenhagen.
People walk through my door from other countries and other lives. For a couple of hours, we sit together. We weave. We talk. We share stories. They tell me a little of their lives, and I tell them a little of mine.
Then they walk out of my door again and continue with their lives. But for a little while, we have been woven into each other’s.
AND THE HEART REMAINS
Perhaps that is why a woven heart can become more than a Christmas decoration
The little paper heart can travel home with you.
It may hang on a Christmas tree in Copenhagen, London, New York or somewhere completely different.
It can be carefully packed away and brought out again the following Christmas.
And perhaps, when you see it again, you remember the people, the place or the moment when it was woven.
Then the heart becomes a small, physical reminder of a connection that once existed.
PERHAPS THAT IS WHAT I LOVE ABOUT THEM
We do not live beside each other like parallel lines.
Our paths cross.
Weave a heart with someone who matters to you
Or perhaps with someone you do not yet know will come to matter.
I have made a free weaving guide if you would like to try making a traditional Danish paper heart yourself.
Some people stay.
Others move on.
But while our paths cross, something of us remains with the other person.
When we weave hearts, we weave in and out of each other’s lives.
Perhaps that is why I never tire of them.
Rikke ❤️
Rikke is the founder of Ugly Duckli in Frederiksberg, Copenhagen. She shares her love of the Danish tradition of woven Christmas hearts and the stories, memories and people connected to them.
Ugly Duckli is built around a simple idea: When we weave hearts, we weave ourselves into each other’s lives.
Rikke creates Ugly Duckli’s own paper heart designs and welcomes international guests into her Frederiksberg home for the Private Paper Heart Experience, where they learn to weave traditional Danish Christmas hearts.