Ulrikke Greve was raised in a well-to-do culturally-oriented home. Her father, a medical doctor who later headed the National Hospital, had founded Norway's first handicraft school in Hamar in 1875. She graduated as a pharmacist in 1892 but turned to decorative weaving, receiving instruction from Augusta Christensen. Soon one of the country's best weavers, she taught in rural Nordfjord until she was invited in 1900 to head the weaving school at the Arts and Crafts Museum in Trondheim. After undergoing further training in Copenhagen, she led the school to prominence in 1904 when 17 tapestries were produced. They won gold medals at the world's fairs in St. Louis (1904) and Liège (1905).