Loja Saarinen

Loja Saarinen (1879-1968) was trained as a sculptor and photographer. Through her work at her brother’s architecture firm, she met and later married Eliel Saarinen. Exposed to the textile arts as a student, she began weaving in earnest before emigrating to the United States with her family in 1923.

She designed and wove textiles, carpets, and rugs for many of the Cranbrook Academy of Art buildings. Loja was the director of the weaving department at Cranbrook from 1929 until her retirement in 1942.

Loja Saarinen (designer) and Valborg Nordquist Smalley (weaver), Rug No. 1, 1928, Courtesy of Cranbrook Art Museum and Ronald S. Swanson, R. H. Hensleigh photograph