Barbro Nilsson (1899-1983)
In 1889, the Swedish textile designer Barbro Nilsson was born in Malmö, in the Southwest of Sweden. She was educated at Johanna Brunssons vävskola and Tekniska skolan in Stockholm (now Kunstfackskolan). She became a capable, inspiring and demanding teacher in her textile subjects.

Married to the sculptor Robert K Nilsson, she collaborated with him as well as painters, like Sven X:et Erixson, who produced drawings that she converted into tapestries. Barbro Nilsson was a master in combining color and form. Her creativity with textile colors makes her unique among Scandinavian textile artists from this century. She also mastered a number of different weaving techniques and worked as the right hand designer to Märta Måås-Fjetterström.

In 1942, after the death of Märta Måås-Fjetterström, she took over the leadership of the atelier in Bastad where she created carpet patterns such as the tapestry technique, knotted “flossa” in relief, flatweave and knotted high pile. She died in 1983 but the interest in her carpets is still increasing.

Read more: our blog "BARBRO NILSSON & MIDCENTURY SWEDISH TEXTILES"

Märta Måås-Fjetterström (1873-1941)
Classic, timeless and pure; such was Märta Måås-Fjetterström the woman and her art, the artistically expressive tapestries and rugs that define and epitomize the Swedish textile ideal. Born in 1873 in the south of Sweden, she initially had planned to illustrate books, but when she began to send highly profound cartoons of tapestries to the Museum of Historical Culture it was clear her genius was to be found elsewhere. She gained recognition as an artist in 1909 when she created a series of works, all exhibited in premier museums and galleries. She was then asked to design the rugs used in the Nobel Prize ceremonies because of the universal appeal and support of her work. Ten years later Måås-Fjetterström set up her workshop with a few handloom weavers in Bastad. From her study at this resort town, she enjoyed an expansive view of the wide, tranquil Laholm Bay, and grew all her favorite flowers in her cherished garden.

In this atmosphere of genuine peace and freedom, Märta Måås-Fjetterström created textile art that transformed the world into ornamemtal art without losing any of its innate vitality. Her pieces are clearly inspired by nature. Although graphic in style, the motifs are taken from the natural world with colors as complex and changeable as nature itself. Indeed you can almost smell the plants and the damp soil and yet every flower has become a strictly ornamental, personal design with its own function in the total composition.

Her diligence, creative energy and enthusiasm, present throughout the entire 22 years she ran her workshop before her death are best illustrated by more than the 600 designs, sketches, and woven patterns she left for the world to enjoy. Her compositions range from heavy-pile carpets, hooked rugs and kilim rugs –works of art, all of which were rooted in the deep Nordic cultural traditions inspired by Scandinavian nature and woven by young girls whose hands were graced with weaving traditions passed down through many generations.

* Pieces were signed either “MMF,” if produced during Märta Måås-Fjetterström's lifetime, or “AB MMF,” for those made after her death in 1941.

Read more: The House that Mӓrta Built….