syko

Recycling factory 2012

This weekend me and my friends from Kimara attended the Recycling Factory market, a sustainable lifestyle event. The event attracts loads of people and it makes you happy to see how many people that are thinking about how they consume today. Everything that is sold in the market can be bought with a good conscious! We built our booth on Friday night, it took hours as usually! I love "before" shots and remembered to snap one!

And this is how our cosy home looked a few hours later, nearly finished...

This is our "candy table". With brooches by me and lace accessories by loru and rings by karuski.

I made a huge pile of word cushions and I still have most left and will soon have them up for sale on Etsy. The pretty white pillows are from tuuni.

It always feels a bit sad when a fun event comes to an end, I began to feel at home in this place!

Do ask if you would like to know anything about what you see in the pictures! If you are curious to see more, please visit us on Facebook!

Thanks to everyone who came this weekend! And to you who were too far away to come - I hope you have enjoyed looking at the pictures!

 

Kimara pop-up shop at Kinuskilla

Image credit karuski

Last Sunday I was very happy to spend the day with my friends from kimara. We had been asked to build a pop-up shop at Kinuskilla (page in Finnish), which is a charming café and shop in a converted old mill. I am the one climbing the ladder, I made a bunting from old, embroidered napkins that we are mounting to the roof :)

The owner of the café had lots of old doors, ladders and other props that we could use. It was very inspiring! I am so happy with how my cards look against the old door with the fading paint and my birds look so pretty flying on the wreath in the old window!

I also made a little bird bunting. And I finished my dream cushion.

Pretty lace earrings in candy colours from loru, vintage earrings from karuski and chalkboard plates from tuuni.

Rosa Viola, the fairy-angel, came along and was very excited to climb this ladder!

Prettyness from tuuni.

Jewellry from repurposed spoons from beloved.

Image credit Kinuskilla

And there's the whole gang: me, Päivi, Susanna, Tuija and Minna! Do like us on Facebook if you want to make sure to know where we pop-up the next time!

All pictures by tuuni/flickr, unless otherwise noted.

Going back

Last week I spent a very nice day in my old home town Turku, it was so fun to meet friends and former colleagues! And I finally made it to Joutomaa, my friend Reettas little shop! She is a mixed media/collage artist and offers a lovely collection of cards and prints. This cute, adventurous fox is one of my favourites! I have borrowed the picture from her Etsy shop.

 

 

This very special lamp made by Reetta is a fantastic eye catcher in the shop!

 

 

I loved to walk in my old quarters at the univeristy. The colours and shapes of the old buildings are so inspiring! That grey door is perfect!

 

 

This rusty rose recorates a fence next to the recently renovated library, very pretty!

 

 

Now you have to excuse me, because I think the battery for my brand new Canon EOS is fully charged so I need to go and play! Look forward to some stunning pictures in my coming posts ;)

 

 

Merry workshop

Last Friday and Saturday I held a workshop in a town nearby for kids and families. Most of the girls were ages 7-8 years and had just a little sewing experience. I don't really bother about details like that when I have my classes for children and I find that  my approach works well :) I just take it for granted that everyone knows how to design and sew and children do! I did help them with the machine stitching, but everyone who wanted to could have a go on the machine!

First I asked everyone to draw a tomte (= Santa's little helper, elf), a gingerbread man or an angel. And then we turned the drawings into sewing patterns, I helped to add some seam allowances and then we started sewing!

The girl who made this anime-inspired tomte was 14 year old, she came with her two little sisters and was a big help! Two hands isn't enough when 10 little people need help at the same time!

The kids where eager to see the result of their efforts and kept asking me for the time, they were afraid we were running out of it and wanted to finish their stuffies in time. "This is so fun, I'm going to do this at home!" "Can I take this home with me today?" "This is going to be a gift for my mummy!"

Aren't they just so charming!! Such talent! (The weather outside is so poor, we barely get any daylight at all and haven't got any snow yet).

I have been saving up my scraps in Christmas colours all Autumn. We used them to make Christmas balls and wreaths in decoupage technique. I came up with the idea last Christmas when I was asked to have a workshop at a Kindergarten. I remember a little boy who had only just turned three who made such a pretty wreath to take home! I really recommend this for children all age and grown-ups alike! Perhaps I should make a tutorial?

 The kids also made holiday cards, these are my models :) Happy Christmas crafting everyone! I have a bunch of last minute tomte stuffies to make for two of my resellers today.

Blogging on TV

I am sitting in my sofa surrounded by a TV crew when I start to write this post. The first and last blog post I will write in this manner, that's for sure. Yle TV2, which is one of the national TV channels here in Finland is doing a TV lifestyle programme about creative female bloggers called Blogistania. I am one of them! The program will be broad casted beginning in March 2012. Of course I hesitated about inviting a TV crew in our small crowded home, but then again this could be a once in a lifetime experience and our living situation is no secret. I am much more convenient behind the camera than in front of it and have never ever dreamt of a career as a film star or model so this was very much outside of my comfort zone. But, I really like the theme of this programme series and I do think there should be more real people on TV, so here I am! Here are some "behind the scenes" pictures from the two days I spent with the TV team. All pictures taken by lovely Viivi Lehtonen (YLE 2011). 

A big thanks to my gorgeous friends Tuija and Päivi who dared to come to my somewhat unusual party! And to my big girl Elsa, of course, who rather did some guest-starring than went to the movies with her dad! Now I'm going to my last weekend event for the season, a Christmas craft workshop for kids and families. It has been an Autumn filled with events and new experiences and I am looking forward to the (I think) slower pace of January and to get some more time for blogging, I do not want to feel ashamed to call myself a blogger. Happy weekend!

Stitching it all together

I am going to be honest with you today and talk a bit about the person behind this blog. She has been feeling off spirit and has contemplated the option of spending the rest of the dark season under a blanket. I'm not sure if it was my fast approaching 35th birthday that made me feel uneasy or my crazy long to-do-list. Instead of hiding under a blanket I started stitching one together, a far better medicin!

I am definitely over the honey-moon with my little business and getting quite tired of making all the decisions and having all the responsibility myself. Although I love my job so much I have been feeling like a lousy jongleur lately, trying to get it all to work. I have been waking up feeling stressed by all have-to's and feeling bad about all the unfinished projects, the unanswered e-mails and so on. Now this is no good! I want to wake up with a smile feeling happy about things and take the time to be proud about things I have already achived, instead of stressing away and freaking out about the next note on the to-do-list. 

So, this won't do! I told myself. Things always tend to work out, so try to enjoy things, it's so much more fun than stressing out about things. Ok, I said and took a pic of the beautiful Aronia leaves outside the kid's school building. AND I got the best birthday gift ever! We are going for a vacation over Christmas! Our first real vacation since I started my business. We are  so looking forward to going away to see my sister and her family in Switzerland over Christmas and New Year!!!

I will soon be back to announce the winner of the Bigfish give away!

Inspiration trip

Two weeks ago a minibus with crafty ladies went away for a four day long inspiration trip around Finland. I enjoyed the trip immensely, the company, the hotel breakfasts and the sites! I will show you a few highlights. At Kenkävero they had an exhibition of textile artist Dora Jung's (click on the link for a short presentation) work. I especially appreciated this sketch, would look great on my wall :)

Beautiful bird.

And the rose, one of Dora's most famous patterns.

The woven fishermen appealed to me too.

In Joensuu, in the Eastern part of Finland, we visited the beautiful Taitokortteli (the 'Craft district'), there are lots of information on the home page, do check it out if you have a little time and if you are interested in seeing some traditional Finnish crafts. 

I love attention to detail so I had to catch the Karelian embroidery pattern on the napkins and the traditional Finnish sour rye bread that we got for lunch.

 

This craft bus takes the crafts to the people on the country-side, isn't it pretty?

Creative studios are so inspiring and during the trip we got to see three different crafters in their work environment. This is lovely Hanna Hirvonen from Hañhi design (site in Finnish).

I was very impressed by how she has used her heritage to make something fresh and new. She comes from Outokumpu, which is a mining community, most people in the town have some connection to the mines, this is where Hanna finds many of her motifs. Here are a group of miners on a pillow (media: calico printing).

I will show you some more pictures from my trip in my next post! See you tomorrow!

Kajsa's happy stitches

I feel bad for being absent for so long, but I'm back now finally on a brand new little laptop! The last weeks have been very busy. Friday night I had a 5 hour long promotion session for the Finnish edition of my book at the Academic bookstore, which is the biggest book shop here in Helsinki. It was very exciting and exhausting, I talked, ironed and sewed for five hours! I need to finish the piece of art I created in collaboration with the audience, but I will show it here later. The book is called Kajsan iloiset tilkut, which translates to Kajsa's happy stitches :) I have ordered a bunch of books so if anyone is interested in a signed copy, let me know!

Sadly I didn't get a picture of my workshop, I was too busy! I took this picture when I came, the authors of the new Marimekko book Surrur gave a workshop before me. It felt really cool to see piles of my book in the store and to have a snack in the lounch with best-selling authors...

Saturday morning I got up early to drive to the Regatta in Turku where my friends from Kimara had set up a tent the previous night, they had arranged everyhting beautifully. Take a look at the pictures at the Tuuni and karuski blogs! I made a bunch of these boat keyrings for the event and came back home with most of them so when I open my shop again a little boat like this might sail in!

And... it's tomte time again in Sykoland! 

Opening day pictures

 
We're back to everyday life, well nearly, school begins next week and I've had my first full-time work day after the holidays. It feels fantastic! I've started making tomte stuffies for Christmas :) Above is a little quilt I made for our kimara container shop. Here are some more pictures from our opening night a week ago!

Minna looking pretty with lovely balloons.

My house keyrings and badges...

We had some lovely homemade cookies! Love the look of the geranium with the crocheted table cloth (which is actually an old bedspread)!

Cushions I made for the Peonies and weeds exhibition in June and some mobile bags...

My quilt and lace pillows from tuuni.

Another optimistic little quilt, all fabrics are reused, except for the violet flap :)

A little Syko goodness...

I will be in the shop on Thursday, if you're in Helsinki -- do come and see me! If you're not, thanks so much for visiting me here on the blog! Once I get my new computer I promisepromisepromise to blog more frequently!

x

Kajsa

Pop-up shop in Helsinki!

I am very excited to show you the first pictures of the KimaraCRAFTS pop-up shop! Me and 4 other textile artists/crafters have joined forces and created a lovely little shop inside a shipping cointainer at Hernesaari, a harbour area in Helsinki with rough contrasts where concrete meets the beautiful open sea. These pictures were taken by Tuija of Tuuni. For opening hours and such, please visit our Facebook event page!

If you are in Helsinki during the month of August, do come and see us! I would love to meet you! Grand opening on Wednesday from 12 a.m. to 8 p.m. Welcome!

♥

Kajsa