Photos by David Ellis
The granddaughter of a Sami reindeer herdsman, rug weaver Wynne Mattila grew up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan admiring the rag rugs made of old cotton clothing by women of Finnish descent. “To me, they were beautiful,” says Mattila. “The weavers would insert bright red or blue bits in just the right spots, making the most of the materials they had.” After moving to Minneapolis, she wove her first rug in 1985 at the Weavers Guild of
Minnesota, and “before I was even finished, I knew this was what I wanted to do with
my life,” she recalls.
Mattila started to develop her own method while studying under Finnish teachers. She once attended a talk by Ann Sutton, a British textile artist, who emphasized that if you haven’t been trained at an art school, you need to master one aspect, personalize one technique, and do it. Mattila says, “That gave me permission to weave and use my colored fabrics to create my designs, which I’ve been doing ever since.” Today, her rugs are in homes and permanent collections at the Minnesota Historical Society, the Goldstein Museum of Design, and the Finnish-American Heritage Center.
Other weavers at the Guild encouraged her to teach, which she now does throughout the country, using special rugs she has kept over time as examples. Those rugs are also included in a book she’s writing, titled, “Warm the Room with Color: Weaving
Finnish-Style Cotton Rugs.” In the book, Mattila walks readers through her inspiring design process and the practices she considers essential to rug weaving. We asked her about those techniques, where she finds inspiration, and what else she’s working on.
What makes your technique unique?
I work at home on a 48-inch Cranbrook countermarch loom. While I love the traditional Finnish rag rugs, I use brightly colored, new, cotton-fabric strips I cut 1-inch wide for weft and an off-white 15-ply Finnish seine twine warp set at five ends per inch. My specialty is an alternating three-shuttle technique, which lets me do amazing color blending to create gradations and contrasts. The design of the rug is created solely by the arrangement of the weft strips. I’m painting in color and using fabric to do that.
Where do you find inspiration?
It starts with color I find in nature. Every day, I walk my Labrador and seek out a color experience, something that captures my eye. Years ago, I started an idea box, where I keep postcards, greeting cards, photos, art calendars, magazine pages, and the like. As I’m thinking about my color experience, I pull images out of my box that have that color in it. I also have an idea album on my phone for pictures of colorful delights I see on my walks. That’s how a new rug begins.
What do you do once a rug is completed?
I cut the rug off my loom, put it on the floor, and get a glass of wine. Then I walk around the rug to reacquaint myself with it, as the rug looks totally different on the floor than it does on the loom. The dog also walks around the rug and lays on it to give his approval.
Do you still accept any commissions?
I’m very select about any commissions I take on. The rug has to be something I really want to do. I need to meet with the person and understand what they want, as well as why the rug would be meaningful to them. I need to have a connection with them. Then, I’m going to challenge myself to do something I’ve never done before. The process is a totally creative, immersive experience for me. Teaching, however, is now very important to me. I want and need to pass on my knowledge to other weavers. That’s why the book is my legacy. My whole point is to promote excellence in rug weaving.
