Melissa Sammalvaara / Hattara

“My work starts from small, modest things and, on the other hand, from an open-minded investigation. Slowness and brushing are key in making ryas, or ‘ryijys’. It takes skill to learn to find and interpret threads and create different, new combinations from them. Knotting itself is a meditative and creative process: I often make my rugs in an instant, and the completion of a work that may take months is like a slow improvisation, a painting where one stroke of the brush takes a whole day.”