Helsinki - new inspirations, new experiments

We‘ve been in Helsinki the two past half-days (substracted the eight-hour road round trip ). And I got back full of inspiration in my head and in my hands. Short overview:

1. Happily plundered in Eurokangas-store (fabric stores all over Finland with children play corner and kids‘ books). I never plan to buy any more fabric and somehow I leave every single time with bags full of, well, fabric piles. Sure, it's pretty typical for any textile crafter.
2. Found some vintage shops and bought a pile of vintage napkins, lace coasters and other beautiful stuff – stitched, woven, knitted, in nicely altered colours. Gone with‘em! Discovered ceramics of Stig Lindberg and fell in love with his designs.
3. Grabbed a couple of interesting books about childred illustration from fifties-sixties-seventies, hence got in touch with works of Stig Lindberg, Ulf Löfgren and Lasse Sandberg, just to name a few. Noted the names and searched them online to find TONS of inspiration about and cross over.
4. Put my hands on Cloth-Paper-Scissors magazine for the first time in my life – yes!!!! Gone with it!
5. Spent countless and priceless minutes in Menita wool store and gone with a couple of NORO-balls. God, was it expensive, that‘s the most expensive wool, I‘ve bought so far, but I‘m sure, any knitter out there can relate to my joy – the colour blends are just a-w-e-s-o-m-e!
6. Eaten a delicious tarte-au-citron – it has been a year, since I had it last time, in France.

And that‘s what I‘ve been doing this morning – playing around with my beautiful findings from Eurokangas, vintage pieces, arranging and photo-shooting them, and later re-constructing, re-thinking, experimenting. Result is a joyful digital patchwork – I‘m trying out new ways of patchwork. I like how it feels – less rigid, more spontaneous and more vibrant, with modern touch. It has been sort of digital pattern exploring and putting my own twist on patchwork principles so far.

New drawings - BINDWEED

Everything I‘ve been making recently is about shades of blue, shades of green, ochre. And there has been also that treasury, posted recently on Etsy with one of my products featured among the others under the theme of Northern Autumn, and it's all about these colours. So maybe the changes in the nature subtly influence what I‘m doing (and what do all the other crafters featured there). 

Here the bindweed drawings, encore et toujours in blue-green-ochre. I brought it recently from the farmer market. I'm still thinking how to paint them best, so I hope, there will be a couple more of them.

And I‘ve also listed today a couple of my new pouches on Etsy – go check them out here and here.

Kid's room deco - new pillow cases

And here they are – the pillow cases for my little girl. I've enjoyed making them – I‘ve just spent a bit more time searching for appropriate border, as I‘ve expected (simply because I haven‘t planned any border at all starting them) and chose finally that wonky triangle shapes. And I love them. And it was fun leaving for a couple of days more „arty“ projects, and just playing with simple shapes, recognisable figures, that children appreciate a lot. Doing something that does not have any flowers, though I have to admit, I've thought about putting a couple of them, at least on the backside. Backside is pure heavy linen, embellished with only three buttons, that are covered with fabric in matching colours to close the case. Now I have to get back to lino carving of all the card sketches I‘ve made recently and finish the affirmations. 

P.S. One of my products has got featured on the seasonal treasure list of Etsy-group Finland handcrafters team - go check't out, there are LOTS of cute items!

New projects and some random facts around

After I‘ve spent the last week printing and sketching, (well, also finishing some sewing projects) this week I‘m in the mood for sewing something new. Since a long time I‘ve been making sketches for pillows for my girl‘s room, but have never brought them to fabric. Of course I might not be that happy about the design or layout, but seriously one of the main reasons was, that I was never happy with having just one piece, I always started the design expansion: sketching  little bags, garment pieces and ended up wanting to make SOOOOO much, that I realised it will never happen, because I felt bored and wanted something new. At those moments the whole work ended up looking very trivial and over-exploited, and I was tired to pursuit. Yes, not very fruitful and I‘m actually working at changing that and try to start a piece every singe time I feel inspiration coming. Well, ALMOST every time, because I still love the concept of some Leitmotif and yes, I do start fast now, but the idea needs to have that kind of development potential to be applied in different sorts of things, I do not just take any and every  idea that comes along the way.

That‘s the reason why I still do not list this pencil case for sale, that I‘ve created lately, with the rainbow pencil pattern, on Etsy – because it will be sort of outsider among other projects that I‘m doing for sale and continuously presenting in the shop – it needs a couple of compagnons with similar style.

Today (actually yesterday, if the sketching counts) I‘ve just launched that pillow case project and gonna show up a couple of them tomorrow. If I match the colours/shapes of them, pencil cases and something else, it would be worth to list them in my shop.

It feels good to make something other than sketching/drawing on paper, and I‘m deeply in love with the free motion stitching – sort of drawing, again, but on fabric.

 

Seeing a zebra

A strange form, isn‘t it? Well, it‘s a zebra, and this is my little girl‘s work. And this is what I haven‘t had in my mind while giving her a couple of cards of recycled cardboard to embellish them with all the paper scraps she produces during a day, and she produces like tons of scraps to put or glue'em  later everywhere. She has made scraps of the cards (what else should I have expected actually?) and then there it was - the zebra. 

I‘ve spent that day elaborating my recent sketches and her drawing reminded me about some simple things– about discovering new perspectives, about using what I have, and not what I think I should have to use. About playfullness. About expressiveness and freshness with just a scrap of a cardboard and some pencils. It is interesting and insightful what a child can see and create  in something that would otherwise land itself in a wastepaper basket.

Preparing new items for sell

Now I‘m gonna share what I‘ve been making last week with my sewing machine – new pouches from the patchwork pieces, that I‘ve finished some days ago and put back because of print projects. I‘m done with the photo shoot and here's a peek with a couple of photos from it. I‘m going to sell them on Etsy the next week after I've finished processing the photos and descriptions.

And besides I‘m working on new affirmations (currently four (!) pieces) with lots of birds – now then what could that mean? Since quite a while I do not plan these drawings any more, as I've proceeded at the beginning of the blog, they just come out while I'm sitting, sipping my cup of tea and doodling with no idea at all in my head  -  I think this bird invasion is gonna be about take-off towards recognition of, well, dreams/wishes/fears/hopes/ourselves (first that comes to my mind) – I‘ll post them up soon.

Have  a nice weekend!

Katja Tukiainen at Lönnström Museum in Rauma

It‘s been a long time since I've been in an art show. I‘ve always loved-and-hated art fairs (last time Lille Art Fair this spring), because it‘s so easy to find TONS of inspiration and leave with overdose of ideas and never get to process it all. That's why a one-artist-show is welcome from time to time, though you never know, if there will be something interesting and appealing to you. 

Katja Tukiainen show at Lönnström Musem was definitely of that „never know“-category after I‘ve seen the short description of the event including words girly, love, pink - in my opinion not that ground-breaking. I‘m not that much into pink, or girly, and love in that context could be nothing else as profaned – so far as for expectations.

I was smitten. It took a bit to let all the candy-bonbon-coloured pictures unfold. There was LOTS of pink. Girly, yes. Love – well, may be, but these are so NOT the words I would have taken to speak about what I've seen at her solo-show.

It‘s subtle, and strong at the same time, it‘s sensible and tender, and quirky. It all has a very special sense of colour. It‘s skillful and expressive, yes, it‘s very expressive. And well-considered - consciously or not - but it feels strange and right. The pictures give insight in sort of parallel world filled with more or less imaginable constructs immerged in that surreal light with neon flashes here and there. Her works are authentic and plausible.

Internet searching does not bring it up (Google image search swarms with quirky doodles and really girly girls or tatoos ). And that‘s not what I‘m talking about here. So it's about taking time and going to see the real painted works: with gloss of oil paints, with all the nuances, that no photo can ever catch, with canvas texture and paint layers shining through, all the brush strokes smudged to create a hint of a shape that is just right in place. My favorite is „The white house“   and there is so much to see in it. In the real picture, not on the photo. 

Great work. Chapeau!

I‘m SO inspired and finally got a sence of research direction for another project that has been haunting in my mind since awhile.

In the meantime – my work in progress for new layout of greeting cards.