Interior design collections

The collection of interior textiles in the Craft Museum of Finland is very broad in its scope, containing both traditional and modern domestic textiles from rural and urban settings alike. The oldest objects date from the 18th century, the newest from the 2000s. The collection contains materials from private individuals, museums, as well as crafts schools and organizations including Helmi Vuorelma Oy, the Friends of Finnish Handicraft, Ryijypalvelu Oy, Neovius Oy, The Kuopio Region Crafts Organization Taito Savo, and the Kiikka carpet weaving workshop. The museum’s own projects and exhibitions have also contributed to the collection. 

The objects in the collection are a range of sheets, coverlets, carpets, decorative rugs (ryijy and raanu), curtains, doilies, and pillows. The archive materials associated with the collection include recordings of events, exhibitions, and stories related to interior design textiles (transcripts, DVDs, CDs, audio and video tapes), printed materials, newspaper and magazine clippings, as well as a large amount of textile models by well-known designers in both sketch and working drawing form. In the photographic collection, interior textiles can be found as both documented objects and in the context of documented exhibitions. 

By far the most common interior design textiles in the museum’s collection are tablecloths, making up about 60% of the total number of objects. The museum’s tablecloth collection project, initiated in 2003, gathered not only tablecloth donations, but a plentiful amount of oral history and photographs concerning tablecloth manufacture, use, associated stories, and the everyday life of women from the 19th century until the present day. Thanks to the project, about 1300 tablecloths now adorn the museum’s collections. 

The heart of the museum’s tapestry or rya rug (ryijy) collection is made up of 18th and 19th century folk ryas gathered by the State Museum of Arts and Crafts in its earliest years in the late 19th century. The rya collection and recording project, begun in 2005, yielded both additional ryas as well as associated oral histories and memories along with photographs. The current rya collection with about 250 objects is the second largest category of interior textiles in the museum, making up about 11% of the total.