Woodnotes
Woodnotes is a Finnish design company founded in 1987 by textile designer Ritva Puotila and her son Mikko Puotila. The company is still owned by its founders.
The original concept behind Woodnotes products was to combine artistic creativity inspired by Finland’s rugged nature with advanced technologies to shape of Finnish raw materials: wood and paper. Woodnotes is the first company in the world to use paper yarn in a contemporary way in functional textiles. Ritva Puotila wanted to use paper yarn because of its properties – to make the most of its unique characteristics, not as a substitute for other materials.
The Woodnotes collection, which has expanded over the years from carpets made from paper yarn to a comprehensive concept, is augmented every year with new, relevant, and innovative products.
Woodnotes products are recognized around the globe for their elegant design and superior quality. The company currently exports 70% of its production to over 40 countries. Woodnotes products are sold at higher-end interior design and design retailers.
Woodnotes products have won numerous international awards.
Ritva Puotila
Ritva Puotila, artistic director of Woodnotes, founded Woodnotes with her son Mikko Puotila in 1987, basing the company on the concept of paper yarn. Puotila says that paper has properties that differ fundamentally from the other fibres she use: its lightness and rustling, its clean natural colour when unbleached, its whiteness and the glow of colour.
Ritva Puotila has raised the status of this traditional Finnish material to a new level, that of designer textile. From the start, the Woodnotes collection consisted of a broad range of interior textiles, from carpets and blinds to upholstery and small objects for the home. Woodnotes’ foray into this new field was rewarded immediately during its founding year with the French Oscar Prize, continuing with further recognition in subsequent years.
