Lost Aini Vaari textile design discovered in estate and produced as Forssa city wallpaper

A previously unseen wallpaper pattern, Paradise, designed by Finnish textile artist Aini Vaari (1931–2024) has been produced as an official city wallpaper for Forssa, after its discovery in her bequeathed archives, state broadcaster Yle reports.

Vaari left her entire body of work and its copyrights to the city of Forssa in her will, with the condition that her designs be used to preserve and revive the local textile tradition. The city council accepted the bequest in October 2025, and Forssa Museum has now begun commercialising her patterns, hiring a textile designer to oversee the project.

The Paradise pattern, drawn in 2014 but never before published, depicts elements of Forssa’s landscape—including Ankkalampi bridge, a fountain, chickens, pigs, and squirrels—along with a hidden message visible in the original sketch. The design echoes mid-20th-century children’s textiles, according to museum director Kati Kivimäki.

Local conservator Elina Wirkkala adapted the hand-drawn pattern into wallpaper, creating over 20 colour variations. Light blue tones proved most popular with the public at a April home design fair, though Wirkkala’s personal preference remains the original blue-and-orange pencilled version. The wallpaper is now available for purchase through Forssa Museum.

Vaari, a textile print designer at Finlayson’s Forssa mill from the 1950s to 1970s, produced an estimated 2,500 patterns in her career. Roughly 1,200 of her surviving sketches are archived at the museum’s Pattern Centre, supplemented this spring by additional materials from Tampere. Some handmade drafts were lost during production, Kivimäki noted.

The museum plans further commercialisation of Vaari’s work, with newly hired designer Riikka Laaksoharju developing strategies to integrate the patterns into Finland’s broader textile heritage efforts.