PICTURE RUG

The mural is based on the patterns and designs of Karelian thread blankets from Luumäki area, adapting Pätäri's model. The painting was made together with students from Kangasvarsi School in Luumäki.

Colorful and detailed thread blankets were originally used as bedspreads and brides have made them as trousseau. Today, blankets are used as wall hangings. Thread blankets are specifically a Karelian tradition. Ten blanket designs from different families have been cataloged from Luumäki.

Certain patterns are repeated in Luumäki blankets. Similar patterns are used in many different cultures, partly because the patterns of the patterns are also determined by the weaving technique.

The age of the thread blankets' designs or patterns cannot be determined, but it is known that blankets were woven in Karelia as early as the early 19th century. Similar patterns also appear in Karelian embroidery patterns. The patterns have various names related to life and living, such as hare's paw, käpälikkö, reunaranänikkä, tree of life, the picture of the world or siiviläinen.

In workshops organized at the school, the students were introduced to the Karelian thread blanket tradition and developed their own patterns. The students considered how to express different emotional states or even natural phenomena with abstract patterns.

The project was coordinated by the village association of Kangasvarsi. I carried out the design and draft of the work and the implementation together with the students and the village association.