Untitled Fire Cloud Ryijy

RyijyArt Textiles
Written By Petra Laaksonen

This is my second ryijy, and the first to be knotted on my own loom in my studio. It was inspired by the political and environmental disasters happening globally. Everywhere lives seem to be burning to the ground. We all see and smell the smoke, watch the flames, but don’t do enough to stop it. I hand-knotted this wall tapestry (rya rug, ryijy) for many hours, I didn’t quite count how many, but on average each 80cm wide row took me 45-90minutes, and there are 100 of them. Now and then a cat would help me along by sleeping on the rug-in-progress.

Close-up of wool yarn ends making up the thick pile of the rug. Banks of orange fibres press against swaths of other colours, like black, brown, green, and blue.
Close-up of wool yarn ends making up the thick pile of the rug. Banks of orange fibres press against swaths of other colours, like green, grey and blue.

Untitled Fire Cloud (Pyrocumulus), hand-knotted wool, thick pile wall rug, 107 cm x 82 cm, 2019 (Photographer: Seija Leskelä)

Petra Laaksonen
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Untitled Fire Cloud (Pyrocumulus) II Ryijy
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