Teddy bear - green sapphire

As I’ve recently told, I was busy knitting teddy bears being abroad. Here the first one of the three(!), I’ve managed to almost finish during my journey. This one is knitted of variety of yarn, as usual. It is fully jointed and filled with polyester filling, it has glass eyes.  Its nose is needle-felted. It can sit alone, and stand with some support in the background. The height is about 30 cm (11,8")  standing, 23 cm (9,1") sitting.

It will be for sale soon - stay tuned.

I'll be back tomorrow with another one - blue bellflower.

Home searching - new colouring book in progress

Hello, I'm back and blogging again.
A couple of days before I saw a film about a russian painter.

He talked a little, and showed not that much either. There was beautiful music in the background, short films showing riverside scapes in winter, with a couple of views of his simple old wooden village house at River Kolyma. His household was sparse and simple. I liked his voice - calm and sort of "sotto voce", and his thoughts and observations about human nature and nature at all were sharp and deep. 

He had that inner balance, that awareness of what he can and knows, of what he understands, of what he will never understand, but can feel and immerse into that sensation and it will be enough, and he had that profound sense of awe towards the nature’s splendor and power. 

He said that it was that country that shaped him, the tragic destiny of his father, denounced as a national enemy in the middle fifties, expulsed over night to labour camps at River Kolyma, and that was the painter’s mother who has never abandoned to search her husband and finally moved to that region, where the little painter grew up and fall in love with, found his vocation and never left. That he learned to love that severe country and to see its beauties - he's proud now to call it home.

It got me thinking about home. About what is so important about it. 

About home as sort of composition of people you love, your family, people you appreciate talking to, not necessarily family, culture and history of the country, and very many other pieces that put together that puzzle which we call home. And that it may also not be bound to a certain place or country, like in my case, because of people I meet, countries I traverse, and cultures I assimilate, and many other pieces along the way, that I adopt, appreciate and keep and just like this they partake in what I call home.

I feel like home when I have the sensation of integrity, of wholeness, of inner balance, of deep joy and delight, and it all may originate from many different places and people, but also from a beautiful seaside, or a flower, or music, or foliage noise during the rain, or smell of growing tomato vine, and I put them all together  and just like this I feel myself at home.

With all this in my head I've started another colouring book for my little girl. I haven't planned any story here, but while drawing I've realised that the drawings shaped a story about a little dog, searching for something it has lost, and not knowing what it had been, maybe home, maybe not. It finds friendship at the end and this is what makes him happy. Here a peek preview.

New smartphone pouches in my shop

Here I am with a post from abroad. I’ve been busy in a last couple of hours with editing photos of my new products I’ve shot before departure and writing descriptions of my brand new smartphone pouches and can happily announce that they have been successfully landed on Etsy Raumalainen and can be viewed there in a couple of hours. Go check them out.

As for the rest, I’m knitting teddy bears and actually trying to squeeze a couple of finnish lessons inbetween (was one of my resolutions as for using my time effectively, while being far from my husband and our little girl), cooking gooseberry marmalade and watching cook TV-shows/co-knitting with my mum, talking and walking a lot with my dad, eating yummy Russian home made food, and blaming myself for not having brought my Schmincke watercolour box, because of gorgeous cichorium in light ultramarine blue blooming all around here. Well I do not have that much time, and have to go back home in a couple of days, but maybe I’ll make it work somehow and bring it to paper. 

Have a nice day!

Product preview - new smartphone pouches in mixed technique

Well, I'm going out of country for a couple of days and will be back  thursday next week.

Here a peek preview of what I've been doing lately - smartphone pouches - meet the first three of them. I still have to go to pack my suitcase and move to Helsinki to catch the airplane. These pouches will be going in next days in my shop, except of one, that was commissioned.

Hope to be able to make a couple of posts from "being-far-away", but if not, see you next week!

Think POSITIVE - Affirmation #4

Here we go with another affirmation. I‘ve started with no sentence at all, putting just many elements together, that I‘ve recently drawn in other projects. It got clear after I‘ve sketched the sphere in the hand, and like this I had an idea about sort of energy origin or transfer, or whatever, you name it, - from an abstract concept to an emotion, than maybe to a product or another concept and so on. 

And just like that I've transformed my inerte sphere into a living bird. It all made me think about transformation of an idea (being represented by a sphere) into matter, that has energy of motion – a bird. And that it will make it own way into the world – whether as an item of matter, or movement, or light (I mean when we emotionally support someone, kind of giving someone that kind of immaterial power, that emotional energy, sort of light, that may help to overcome difficulties or problems). This way into the world means acting and interacting with other people's feelings, thoughts, inspiring, motivating and so on. 

Like this I‘ve got to emphasise the importance of doing things right, because of their impact. They are an imprint of many things such as what we do, and what we think, and how we do it and how we feel about it, and how we deal with other people, that‘s how I got the sentence about the importance of positive attitude – I may not have any influence on diminishing the world problems, but what I do, think, or whatever, well, that may actuate some small wheels that can get a bigger and more influential one/-s to move – think and act POSITIVE!  

May your ideas, emotions or products carry that positive charge out there. The rest will line up.

Enkelinkukkat - new drawings

Pleased to introduce you a different kind of flowers – Enkelinkukkat, no idea what‘s the right name in english, has to be angel flower, I guess. Well, I‘ve hesitated this time about posting them or not – this time I‘ve not painted any background, what I‘m usually doing to put all the light in the foreground. These flowers were just different. Low-key, in nice shades of lila and mauve, and old rose – I felt, that coloured background would be distracting from them instead of supporting, and just too much for these delicate and yet opulent creatures. I‘d like to have it painted on canvases, watercoloured of course, but primed with gesso to add some texture and being lightly tinted with some hints of diluted colours here and there – just to break the planeness of white paper . Well, it sounds like a next project.

Work on commission - smartphone pouch

Yesterday I had my first  commission work!

It‘s a smartphone pouch and I was pretty free as for design and fabrics, except that it had to be from corduroy and padded, and I knew, the recipient likes colour orange. Well, I‘ve picked some fabrics that are not right now in my working stash – creative initiation came from a piece of Marimekko Unikko cotton, in fact from a couple of yellow and orange poppy flowers that were printed on that fabric among the others in rose and red. And I wanted to use more shades of blue, because that pouch didn‘t have to be girly. Guess what is the main flower? Right, carnation! Well, I‘m pleased how it turned out and the recipient is pleased as well, so that now I can publish the photos.

It‘s made of brownish corduroy, with appliqué in variety of cottons (see photos), with free motion stitching. It has a zipper, is fully lined and padded to ensure stability and sturdiness. There is a little pendant with two wooden beads at one side.

It has been interesting and inspiring - I'm gonna make some more to explore another appliqué patterns and with another background fabric. I'll keep you posted!