getting wild and woolly at rya-palooza
Rya-maker Melinda Byrd (left) had a rapt audience.
If you’re into all things midcentury, you would have had a great time at “Rya-palooza” — a totally shagadelic celebration of modernist Scandinavian textiles that took place on Marthas Road on June 8. Perfect weather made it possible to throw open the doors and have an indoor-outdoor exhibit of about thirty of these wildly beautiful abstract “art rugs” from the 1950s and 60s, and a good 40 people showed up for the fun.
Rya expert Melinda Purcell Byrd (who literally wrote the book about these rugs) came down from her studio in Maryland to give a talk about the rugs, with a hands-on demonstration of how they’re made.
The colorful, borderline-psychedelic ryas were hugely popular in America in the 1960s, with eye-popping designs that fit in well with the no-color-is-too-bold esthetic of the times. In Scandinavia, meanwhile, subtler and more sophisticated designs were being hand-made on a small scale, with abstract patterns and rich, unusual colors — works of art any way you look at them.
Ryas started to go out of style in the 1980s, as American tastes shifted to beige and bland. But interest in them is starting to revive, and Byrd is one of the few people left still importing the yarns that ryas are made from, and is trying to keep the tradition alive with her easy-to-use kits. She displayed about a dozen of her own creations and designs, all of them quite striking.
It was all great fun, and of course there was elderberry lemonade, almond cake and other Scandinavian delicacies to keep us going all afternoon!
Thanks to everyone who dropped by! This event was part of the Hollin Hills 75th Anniversary celebrations sponsored by the CAHH, so keep an eye out for upcoming events, like the Kiley-inspired garden tour on June 22. These are all meant to be easy, casual events for Hollin Hillers to get together around mutual interests, so if you’d like to host something like this, drop a line to Tania Ryan. Lots to celebrate in Hollin Hills in 2024!
Rya rugs, and the people who love them. Above: vintage designs by Ritva Puotila, Leena Halme, Verner Panton, Kirsti Ilvessalo and Melinda Byrd.