Ritva Puotila (b. 1935) is a Finnish textile designer and the artistic director of the design company Woodnotes. Puotila founded the company together with her son Mikko in 1987 – Woodnotes was the first in the world to use paper yarn in the manufacture of modern functional textiles, and paper yarn is still a key element of the Woodnotes collections. Puotila has designed several popular rug collections for Woodnotes, such as the San Francisco, Fourways and Panorama series.
Over the course of her career, Puotila has won many prestigious design awards, and she was also named Finnish Textile Artist of the Year in 2001.
Ritva Puotila – a reformer of Finnish textile design
The long career of textile artist Ritva Puotila extends from traditional Finnish ryijy wall rugs and art textiles to functional home textiles, rugs and interior concepts. Born in Vyborg, Puotila studied at the Institute of Industrial Arts in Helsinki in the 1950s. In 1960, she won the gold medal at the Milan Triennale with her Zeus wall rug, which launched her international career.
In 1987, Puotila founded the textile company Woodnotes together with her son Mikko, and it quickly became one of the international success stories of Finnish design.
On the material’s terms
The nature of the material itself has always been central to Puotila’s design. Over her career, she has worked with wool, linen and a variety of fibres, but she is especially well known for the paper yarn rugs made by Woodnotes. The company’s starting point was the idea of using paper yarn as a material for modern functional textiles in a way that had not been seen before.
Puotila approaches paper yarn as a material with its own laws, whose lightness, roughness, reflection of light and natural shade offer their own aesthetic and structural possibilities. Woodnotes’ paper yarn rugs are fine examples of her way of bringing together clear graphic quality, a nature-inspired colour palette and the feel of the material into a single whole.
Awards and recognition
In addition to Woodnotes products, Puotila has designed a whole range of different textiles, including unique art textiles, ryijy rugs and church textiles.
Over her career, Puotila has received several honours, such as the Finland Prize for Art (1996), the Kaj Franck Design Prize (2000), the Textile Artist of the Year recognition (2001) and the Pro Finlandia Medal (2003). Her work is also on display in the world’s most famous museums, such as the MoMA in New York.
Who: Ritva Puotila
- Finnish textile artist and designer (b. 1935).
- Graduated from the Institute of Industrial Arts in 1959.
- Founded the textile company Woodnotes in 1987.
- Known especially for her rugs and home textiles made from paper yarn.
- Notable products: Woodnotes’ San Francisco and New York rugs and the Morning home textiles.
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