Rya and rölakan: the Swedish weaving techniques

A rya is a knotted weaving with a long pile. Ends of yarn are knotted into a woven ground, and for hundreds of years the rya was used as a warm cover on beds and in boats before it became an art weaving for the wall and the floor. Rölakan is a smooth flatweave in which the weft covers the warp completely and each colour is woven in its own field, so that the geometric patterns have small stepped edges. Both are old Nordic techniques that designers of the 20th century renewed.

Facts

The rya: a cover with a pile

The rya is woven on a ground of wool or linen. Between the weft shots short ends of yarn are knotted around the warp threads, forming a long, dense pile. In the Nordic countries the rya was used as a bed cover, in boats and in cold cottages, and the pile then lay inwards against the body. The pattern was often woven on the smooth side, which showed during the day, and in older ryas it is therefore not always the pile side that is the fine one.

The patterns are geometric: steps, squares, crosses and lozenges, often with dates and initials. Flossa is the same technique with a shorter pile, and makes a denser and more hard-wearing rug. Vernacular ryas are sought after today, and in Finland, where the rya is called ryijy, it has held an equally strong position.

Rölakan: flatweave in fields

Rölakan is a flatweave technique. The weft is beaten so tightly that the warp is not visible, and each colour is woven only in its own field and turned around the warp at the edge. The diagonal lines therefore get small stepped edges, and the weaving is identical on both sides, with no loose threads on the back.

The technique was used in Skåne and Halland for carriage cushions, covers and wall hangings in the 18th and 19th centuries, with squares, lozenges and stars in strong, plant-dyed colours. The weavers wove narrow strips that were sewn together into larger pieces. Rölakan is related to other flatweaves such as kilim, but the Skåne patterns and colours have a character of their own.

From the countryside to art weaving

When industry took over textile production in the 19th century, societies began to collect and preserve the old weavings. Handarbetets Vänner and the home crafts movement made the rya and rölakan models for new weavings, and artists began to design patterns for the techniques.

In Finland Akseli Gallen-Kallela designed the rya Liekki, the Flame, for Finland’s pavilion at the Paris World’s Fair in 1900, with flames in red and orange. It awakened interest in the rya as an art form. In Sweden Karin Larsson used rölakan and other vernacular techniques in her weavings at Sundborn.

Märta Måås-Fjetterström

Märta Måås-Fjetterström worked for home crafts societies before she opened her own weaving workshop in Båstad in 1919. Her rugs in rölakan and flossa were based on vernacular techniques but had modern, stylised patterns of plants, flowers and landscapes, in muted colours such as rust, ochre, green and blue.

The workshop continued after her death in 1941 with new artistic directors and designers such as Barbro Nilsson and Marianne Richter, and it still weaves in Båstad. The rugs can be recognised by the woven initials AB MMF, often together with the initials of the designer and the weaver in one corner.

How to recognise them

Feel with your hand. A rya or flossa has a pile, and the knots show as rows on the back. A rölakan is smooth and stiff, and the pattern is identical on both sides. Look at the diagonals: in rölakan they run in small steps, because each colour turns at a warp thread.

Then look for signs of age. Hand-spun yarn is uneven, plant dyes fade unevenly and give soft tones, and narrow strips sewn together point to an older loom. Woven dates and initials are common on wall hangings and covers, but they may also have been woven in afterwards. More textiles can be found in the textiles category, and other vernacular objects in the guide to vernacular peasant culture.

How to recognise it

Exercise

A weaving is smooth, the pattern looks the same on both sides and the diagonal lines run in small steps. Which technique is it?