Kaisa Melanton
1920-

Kaisa Melanton, who had been one of Barbro Nilsson's students in the textiles department at Konstfack in Stockholm, succeeded Barbro Nilsson as artistic director of Märta Måås-Fjetterström's workshop in 1970. In the course of five artistically innovative years she renewed the production at the firm, giving it a more strictly artistic bias. Kaisa Melanton produced a succession of designs herself including "Il Balcone" in 1972 using a free type of rölakan technique of rug weaving, "Viktoria", "Silverskogen" and "Skärgårdsmattan" in 1973-74. "Il Balcone" was purchased by the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm. "Skärgårdsmattan" – inspired by the natural beauty of the Swedish archipelagos – was commissioned by the government for the Swedish Embassy in Paris. This particular interpretation of a Swedish archipelago was woven in 1998 in a modified form.

The first half of the 1970s, when Kaisa Melanton was artistic director in Båstad, were a trying time for quality, hand-woven rugs. Fitted carpets and rugs imported from the third world took over the market. But MMF AB survived this difficult period and showed its superiority in the craft skills employed as well as the high level of artistic expression.

Kaisa Melanton was head of the textiles department at Konstfack from 1969 to 1979. For a long period she was also artistic consultant to the textile craft organization Handarbetets Vänner and from 1969 to 1974 she was a member of Sweden's National Public Art Council. She became a member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 1974.

In her own work as an artist Kaisa Melanton has made an innovative contribution to textile art in a succession of major commissions for public buildings. Her work can be seen, for example, in the town hall in Västerås and in the Stockholm Concert Hall where she designed rugs and curtains that were made by Handarbetets Vänner, Kasthall and MMF AB. The magnificent "Halv G-klav" rug was woven in 2002 in Båstad for Gustav V's smoking room in the Stockholm Concert Hall, a building designed by Ivar Tengbom in the 1920s.

"Skärgårdsmattan", rölakan [flat weave]
designed by Kaisa Melanton in 1974.