Apurahat ja residenssipaikat

Tiede ja taide

Life among looms – a life time made public through a private collection

For centuries textiles for interiors and clothing have been produced by hand in most homes in Finland. Even with industrialization, urbanization and increasing economic wealth the access to looms remains and the possibility to create textiles by hand has been a desired activity. Today centrally located hand-weaving spaces can still be found in the largest Finnish cities. The fact that the interest in making has not stopped, when people did not have to weave out of economic need anymore, implies that the weaving process may mean more to people in Finland than solely the making of an object. We wish to communicate this side of Finnish textile history by publishing the story of Finnish weaving teacher Kaija Mälkki. Kaija taught weaving between 1965–1993 and has been part of the lives of thousands of Helsinki citizens: her students. Their stories are taking place during Finland’s historical development from rural to urban society, they all have their starting point in leisure time hand-weaving, but also touch on family structures, urbanisation, education, gender equality and are extensively documented by Kaija through her diaries, guest books, photographs, textile samples and clothing a.o. Kaija Mälkki´s material offers a micro history of the development of the Finnish society during a period of great change. By documenting and publishing this material, we wish to put focus on hand making in the privates sphere and discuss its relevance in today’s digitalized society.

The Life Among Looms project started in January 2020. The purpose of the project was to document and publish the collection of Finnish weaver and weaving teacher Kaija Mälkki (born 1937). The publication is a mix between a scientific and popular publication. In the publication the collection is examined by a number of scholars, designers and artists.

Kaija Mälkki´s life with weaving takes place simultaneously with the increased urbanization of Finland. Mälkki´s extensive collection of textiles, photographs, guestbooks, logbooks and magazine/newspaper clippings offers a micro historical view on this societal development and the development of the hand-weaving craft under these new circumstances.

Working with Kaija Mälkki´s archive has been an unprecedented possibility to tell another part of Finnish textile history than that of famous weavers like Dora Jung and Greta Skogster-Lehtinen. A part of Finnish textile history that most citizens, female especially, are part of and identify with even today, but which has not been told before, maybe because it belongs to the sphere of feminine leisure activities.

In a moment of time where textile crafts, weaving included, experiences renewed interest from an increased number of practitioners, we believe that this history is important to preserve and communicate, as it shows how textile craft, weaving especially, historically has had great impact on the lives of many citizens and thus the society and environments they have been.


Takaisin apurahalistaukseen