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Near the origin TEXT TINA IGNELL PHOTO BENGT ARNE IGNELL Evening sunlight streamed into the Mejeriet gallery windows, over Alskog on the east side of Gotland. Textile designer Eila Burvall lives and works here with her husband, ceramist Tomas Stöfling. Row upon row of soft throws in gorgeous, natural colour ranges line the walls of the shop with rag rugs in calm, graphic designs. A little further down into the gallery is a stunning array of Eila’s fantastic woollen rugs. 20 vävmagasinet 1/13 Left, The throws are woven with grey weft from Gotland´s Spinning Mill. Eila dyes the warp herself using acid dyes, in shades close to those achieved with plant dyes. Centre, The “Window”, 1 meter wide,design crops up in several guises. P.10, A blanket at Folhammar in Ljugarn. orn in Finland, Eila Burvall came over to Sweden as would not be enough warp. And then worked out that, if I cut a seventeen-year old, following her mother’s advice to alternate ends to make them longer and knotted in new ends, I learn Swedish and get some decent work. She trained would actually have enough warp to weave up what was needed. as a mental health care worker and worked for several This was such an amazing aha experience, it gave me the feeling Near the origin Byears in this field. Until she felt she had done enough. Her in- that I really had begun to master weaving. Since then, I rarely terest in textile practice, something that had been there in her feel daunted by different challenges. All I have to do is try things from childhood, found more scope and she decided to do the out and attempt to find the best solutions. one-year weave course at St Erik’s Folk High School. Her aim was to become a textile tutor. SO IT WAS WITH THIS MINDSET THAT IN 1980, straight after the – But when I saw what the work situation was like for my weave course, she and Tomas moved to the old dairy on Gotland, teacher, I realized it wasn’t teaching I wanted to do, I wanted to a property bought by Tomas’ parents in the 1960s. The first year, weave myself. Eila and Tomas dedicated themselves to renovating some of the It was a specific incident in her weave training, she said, that rooms and creating a workspace. Year two was when they got had got her hooked on the technique. going and opened the shop. – Mostly we were weaving swatches, but I did want to weave Subsequent renovation and extension work has been carried a bigger project and set up a warp to make new car upholstery out gradually and meticulously, little by little, to get things as ▲ for our Citroën. As I was getting to the end, I discovered there they want. The original working parts of the old dairy were still vävmagasinet 1/13 21 The Architect’s Firmament, 140 x 240 cm. 22 vävmagasinet 1/13 in place. The loading bay became a floor, while the old cast iron when she did a show at the local blues club. Some of those rugs plate flooring turned into an excellent base for white podiums. were woven in bright blue, red and yellow. – We like to start from what there is and build on that. – It’s important to veer off the path sometimes, taking a little sidetrack. You might find something new that takes you on a bit. RUGS FORMED PART OF EILA’S OUTPUT from the outset. First of all came rag rugs, frequently designed with shaded fields of light HER BREAK FROM RAG RUGS when wool came into the picture was and dark encountering each other. One rug could start light and short: a longing soon brought her back to them. Rag rugs are a finish dark or turn in the middle. Always in twill. little faster to weave and offer another choice for customers. Now – I really like that weave structure. It is a way of achieving a most of her rag rugs are woven in the same technique as she uses slanted patterning in what is intrinsically very quadrangular. for the woollen rugs. Some of the wool rug designs recur in the Then in 1994, she started on her woollen rugs in double faced rag rugs, when they acquire a more rustic feel. Cotton warp is structures, for her a new technique, in a new yarn, the rug wool used, while the wool rug warps are of linen. from Wålstedts Textilverkstad. In one winter, she wove up 13 large rugs, all in the grey range, which were then exhibited in ONE WHOLE WALL IS COVERED WITH BEAUTIFUL THROWS, sumptu- the gallery along with Tomas’ ceramics as a summer show. It was ous and impressive. All have a soft grey weft, from Gotland’s called Ursprunget – The Origin. spinning mill. The warp yarn is a slightly harder twisted two-ply – I don’t know how I had it in me to weave that many big rugs. from Kampes Spinneriprodukter. Eila dyes all her warp yarn her- But it was wonderful discovering wool, which is truly amazing. It self. During the 1980s and up to the mid 1990s, she did plant- is lovely to hold, has a beautiful lustre and feels so nice and warm. dyeing. Today she uses acid dyes for a similar colour range and It is the perfect material for double weave structure, producing finds the results are better and the yarn retains its lustre. One good compact rugs that feel soft and firm at the same time. soft shade follows on from another in the stripe sequences. Here, Eila’s form language radiates simplicity and consistency. The design starts on the warping mill. rugs, nearly always a metre wide, give her the opportunity to – I hang up the shades in the order I want and this gives me a make more of a design and don’t feel “too slender”, in her view. picture of what could happen. Then when I warp up, which for The patterns are largely mathematically built up and technique- me is one of the best stages, I might alter the order a little. Until led, but provide the space for a lot of variation. Her Window it feels right. Sometimes I insert one or two thicker strands of rug design came about during a walk along the seashore, when she wool yarn to produce a little relief. saw a house with four-paned windows. Threadings are often various twill variations, and if you look – With that design, it is essential for the panels to be a little closely enough you see dashes of patterning coming through here taller than they are wide, even if only by a few centimetres. The and there. Spontaneity in both the entry and the shedding. eye is incredibly sensitive, she pointed out. – I do it mostly for me, it is so much more fun to weave when The length of the rug determines how many rows of panels something is going on and your eye has something to rest on. can be included. Sometimes the shading in the warp and weft are so close that the patterning is as good as invisible, but that doesn’t matter, she ANOTHER IDEA IS BASED ON SMALL STARS scattered over a deep blue said. It can stay a bit secret. ground. The original idea came from a knitted sweater with little For variations on the same warp, she sometimes substitutes a dots belonging to Tomas. He asked her to weave a rug using few ends with new yarn. Different throws can then be produced this idea, greeted initially by her with some hesitancy. Eventually from the same warp. This ties in with her story about how she working through to a technical solution, she got the well packed sorted out her first weaving problem with the car upholstery, and woollen yarn to form white stars that stood out clearly. Not so- it runs through the whole of her weaving history. Things don’t mething that could have been achieved with rags. have to be that difficult, it’s just finding a good solution. – It feels wonderful to still be surprised by what is possible, she says. The dairy in Alskog operated as a dairy from This design is called The Architect’s Firmament. 1912-1960. Eila Burvall and Tomas Stöfling A grey and green colourway turns this very same design into a moved there in 1980. At the end of the 1980s, they embarked on clover meadow, with little leaves of clover. Maybe the four-leafed their gallery enterprise with invited artists, kind. That’s up to the imagination. including Lena Cronqvist and Peter Tillberg. Her rugs, according to many beholders, have something “Fin- Then in summer 1994, they decided to put on nish” about them, which led to the question as to whether she a show of their own. thought her Finnish stock has had an influence on her form Contributing to its theme, The Origin, Eila Burvall exhibited her woollen rugs for the first language. time. As from 1998, after 10 years of shows – Yes, I do. I grew up in a home where we did not have a lot, with invited artists, they have been showing but what was there was meaningful. I believe this is important, their own work in the gallery. Each summer, one should not surround oneself with too much stuff. In the end both the shop and the gallery are filled with you turn blind to what there is around.

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