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!

Comments

[Kajsa Wikman]

Thanks for your comments Claire! You didnt miss the post about my trip, I wrote it earlier today, I surprised myself (and I guess everyone else) by delivering to blog posts in a day :) xKajsa

[Claire Smith]

Don't know how I missed this post but what a wonderful trip and that craft bus looks amazing.......
Sounds like you had a great time and found lots of inspiration along the way.

Claire :}

[Jacqueline]

Loving this inspiring post so much! Such a wonderful trip and thanks so much for sharing it with us. I am loving Dora Jung's and Hanna Hirvonen's work. Have a lovely merry happy day and love to you!