Anne-Marie Elvius was a textile artist who also wrote textbooks and was commissioned to deliver many public artworks.

Anne-Marie Elvius was born in Västerås in 1921. She was the daughter of Maria and Gustaf Adolf Olsson. Her mother was a teacher whilst her father was a principal and school inspector. Anne-Marie Elvius gained her school-leaving certificate in 1940 and then attended Stockholm’s Högre konstindustriella skola (advanced applied arts school), now part of Konstfack (college of arts, crafts, and design) until 1945. Anne-Marie Elvius married Per Elvius, a pharmacist, in 1946.

Anne-Marie Elvius was only 24 when she was appointed artistic head of the Stockholm county and city handicrafts association. She retained that post from 1945 until 1955. During this period her various designs included ‘rya’ rugs and others, as well as cotton material, all of which was subsequently sold at NK department store. Some of Anne-Marie Elvius’ embroidery patterns from the 1950s can still be purchased today from Svensk Hemslöjd.

Following her time working with the handicrafts association Anne-Marie Elvius then became a freelance artist, although she always remained engaged in other enterprises that were more permanent in nature. She served as artistic advisor for the De Fyras Bod association from 1955 to 1971. This association sold handicraft items which had been produced by individuals suffering from illnesses or who were physically challenged in some way. The association had a shop at Stureplan in central Stockholm.

Anne-Marie Elvius was for many years commissioned to produce public artworks, including for Södertörn judicial circuit, the Supreme Court, Svea court of appeal and for Lidingö församlingsgård (congregation premises), St Annagården. These are just some examples of her extensive output. For the latter she designed a choir rug which was woven by Sylvie Hägg.

Further to her artistic work Anne-Marie Elvius also produced several textbooks. The first of these was Jag vill brodera, published in 1960. This was an embroidery textbook intended for children and young people. Barbro Bergvall did the book illustrations on this occasion but later Anne-Marie Elvius produced her own illustrations in her books. 20 years passed before she released her next book but during the period starting in 1980 and right up to 1991 Anne-Marie Elvius produced several textbooks for Medborgarskolan, primarily focused on textile group-work. Anne-Marie Elvius also served as an inspector of handicrafts at Medborgarskolan in the period from 1971 to 1986, whilst continuing her freelance work as a textile artist. Anne-Marie Elvius also produced illustrations for other teachers’ textbooks which were also published by Medborgarskolan publishers.

Anne-Marie Elvius died in 2012. Her ashes were strewn in the memorial garden of Högsrum on Öland.