The Norwegian Textile Letter is Out, with a Special Focus on Finnish Weaving

The new (extra big) issue of the Norwegian Textile Letter is out! The first four articles have a special focus on Finland, first prompted by a blog post from Selvedge magazine about Finnish raanu weavings. No one weaves them any more, the author claimed. Well no, that isn’t true–Minnesotan Wynne Mattilla makes amazing raanus, and teaches about it, too. Read Wynne Mattila: The Raanu Tradition Continues in Minnesota.

Wynne Mattilla. “Black and White Raanu.”

Pälvi Myllylä wrote a photo-filled blog post about raanus on the site of the Finnish magazine Antiikki & Design in 2016. Read: Raanu: A Minimalist Work of Art (Part One). She highlighted the work of Finnish artist Elena Juopperi, who used old raanus sourced from donations and flea markets in a contemporary sculptural art work. Pirjo Heikkilä provided the translation. 

Bright raanus from the 1970s.

I checked in with Elina Juopperi about the status of her art work, and she provided an excellent update. Her sculpture is called Heritage, and through it she has worked to educate Finns about the raanu tradition. She wrote, “It has not been an easy work, partly because people have really not understood why someone should be interested about raanu, that horrible old-fashioned textile! Things have changed though since 2010 when I started to plan this work, and in a better direction!” Read: Raanu: A Minimalist Work of (Ongoing) Art (Part Two).
 

You’ll be surprised to read about how long it takes to set up her installation of stacked raanus.

The fourth Finnish-focused article is about a love-filed project.  Barb Yarusso reconstructed a well-worn rag rug made her Finnish-born grandmother, Alma Norha. Shot-by-shot, rag-by-rag, Barb inserted the weft from the old rug into a new warp. Read: In Honor of Alma: A Reconstructed Rag Rug.

The old rug spent many years in the front entry of Barb Yarusso’s grandmother’s farmhouse in Embarrass, Minnesota.

And that is only the first four of eleven amazing articles. Enjoy this summer reading! 
 

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