Wynne Mattila
Finnish Runner/
Cotton Rug Technique Workshop
Material Fee: $10
Students: 8
Skill Level: Intermediate.
Loom Requirement: Baby Wolf or equivalently-sized floor loom, 2 harness minimum, 10 dent reed. The loom needs to be warped to the point the reed has been sleyed prior to the start of the workshop.
Students in this workshop will design and weave a table runner, approximately 14 inches wide, in the Finnish rag rug style, using cotton fabric strips as weft and Finnish cotton seine twine as warp. Color blending of fabrics using the alternating 3-shuttle technique will be emphasized, along with design and craftsmanship. Floor looms will be warped in plain weave sett at 5 ends per inch in a 10-dent reed. Techniques specific to rug weaving will be taught in the workshop. These topics include cutting fabric in one continuous piece, tension, using a temple, floating selvedges, shrinkage, end finishes, and more.
Handouts include ideas and inspiration, photos and fabric samples, information on calculating the quantity of fabric needed, selecting and preparing fabric. Handouts will be mailed to participants about a month before the start of the workshop.
Students will need to purchase 15-ply Finnish seine twine from WEBS for their warps. (This seine twine currently costs $17.50 per 500 gram spool.) Students will also need to bring prepped fabric to class (machine washed and dried, sewn, ironed) totaling 3.5 yards of 44-inch wide quilting weight cotton. Students should pick a minimum of three different fabrics.
In addition, they will need a 14-inch wide temple, scrap cotton knit fabric for weaving the header (an old cotton t-shirt), stick shuttles approximately 12-21 inches long, one per fabric, 1 boat shuttle with bobbin, 2 ounces of rug wool for weaving the header, a small calculator, tape measure, scissors, rotary cutter, plastic cutting guide, and mat, notebook, pencil and pen, graph paper and colored pencils.
Wynne, a native of the Upper Peninsula, lives in Minneapolis, where she designs and weaves rugs which reflect her Finnish heritage. It all starts with color—the way she sees color creates a feeling in her. This is the basis of her design. Two of her rugs (one as a how-to project) appear in Weaving Contemporary Rag Rugs. Her work was exhibited and won awards at the Midweat Weavers Conference last summer in Hancock, MI. Wynne has been teaching rug weaving to beginning and advanced students at the Weavers Guild of Minnesota since 1998. Her classes emphasize beauty, function, technique, and the love of color in rug creation.
