In this episode we visit the loom manufacturer Toika, based in Toijala in Finland. The company has existed for almost 130 years, starting with reed production and later transitioning to making hand looms, which is still their main business to this day.

Technical innovation and changing conditions for manufacturing has influenced Toika’s operations across the decades from industrialisation to the emergence of computers.

We spent a couple of days in Toijala, where we met the family that runs Toika to this day. Here we had the opportunity to interview the current owner Jukka Yrjölä and his wife Mona, who also showed us around the production sites and shared their company archives with us. To watch the interview in full please visit: https://youtu.be/enBvBMmbjnI 

In this podcast series we are exploring loom production in the Nordic region over the past 150 years and up until today. Weaving is known as a tool-heavy craft and most weavers are aware that there exists different kinds of looms, but little attention has been paid to loom design and its influence on the craft of textile making.

Fabric of Society is a collaboration between PhD in Crafts Rosa Tolnov Clausen and artist Stine Linnemann. The Nordic Looms series is funded by The Danish Arts Foundation. Soundscape by Marco Madia.

Relevant links for this episode:

Toika https://www.toika.com/en/home/

Rosa Tolnov Clausen https://rosatolnovclausen.com/

Stine Linnemann https://www.stinelinnemann.com/

Marco Madia https://www.marcomadia.com/