In The Footsteps Of Fairy Tales And Mythical Creatures

Where I live & work, in the archipelago of Pellinki (in Southern Finland), several authors and artists have been inspired by the local environment, and one above all,  Tove Jansson (1914-2001) , the creator of the popular fairy tale figures, The Moomins (Moomintrolls). I’ve been inspired by many others as well, but I think the Moomins had the biggest influence, with a philosophy that felt comfortable. Fairy tales never seem to stop fascinate adults, although one once in a while seem to think that it is only kids stuff.  The world of escapism plays a big role for many artists. All artist are inspired by somebody else, we all need somebody to look up to, but might not always confess it… Not to forget the comics, I’m a huge fan of old Disney cartoons, and also comics created by Carl Barks, his stories still capture me with their wittiness & humor, so I end up laughing out loud while reading them.

The shadow of a Centaur in Pellinki, true or just a tale?

Snow White And The Three Gnomes (reluctantly cleaning the secret cave)

Most of the fairy tale books I know of are written by adults and even for adults – there must live a little imagination within an adult mind after all…  Trolls, gnomes and all kinds of mythical creatures still live on thanks to creative adults, let’s not forget the Brothers Grimm who tirelessly collected folk tales to something that we all heard of by know all our lives, Little Red riding Hood, Rumpelstiltskin, and Cinderella to mention a few. What I’ve heard it’s common in Iceland that there are some mythical creatures living under rocks and a little everywhere.  I’m convinced it is healthy to think that there are these “little people” around – as long as we can keep it under control.. 😉  It is said that it takes special skills to see them, and they don’t show them selves to just anybody. Maybe that’s why you haven’t spotted any?  The real Moomins are difficult to see, as they are not much bigger than a matchbox…  I could swear I catch some glimpses of them on a daily basis – or maybe it was an albino mouse – or maybe not..? Besides the Moomins another significant fairy tale series for me  was the “Bland Tomtar och troll” series (Among gnomes and trolls) with the fantasticly enchanting illustrations by John Bauer…

Nordiska Väsen a book with a wonderful feel to the cover and beautful illustrations to the descriptions

Recently, to continue my journey through the fairy tales and myths,  Johan Egerkrans released (in Swedish) the book “Nordiska Väsen” (Nordic Mythical creatures), inspired and dedicated to John Bauer, with clearly John Bauer inspired & peculiar illustrations. I’m in mythical fairy tale heaven…

A Midsummer Nights Dream….

..is what life in the archipelago is all about.. . Almost.
Of course it’s a lot of hard work, and since the peak season is in July, there’s not much time for rest for the local entrepreneurs that work day and night in order to get by during the slow season in January-may…
Never the less, when Finnish schools start, the cottage people withdraw back to the cities and visit us occasionally on weekends. Up ahead this saturday is the Night Of Ancient Bonfires, a kind of celebration to end the summer season.  Some close their cottages for the year and return next spring, others continue to visit once in a while.
This past summer was weather-wise  just awesome, warm soft days, occasional rain showers (no need to water the garden), and August has been just beautiful.  August and September are my favorite months-during weekdays is so quiet at sea, plenty of bird & mammal-life to take pictures of and the air is velvety soft -but not too hot.

Dark evenings call for sitting outside with cozy lanterns and watching the moon and the stars…

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Looking forward to the White Nights…

The days have gotten longer and it’s quite nice to have more time for working outside…

May is the best time of the year for treating wooden objects with pine tar, and the wonderful smoky scent is my favorite perfume!

I love all the seasons of the year, but those white nights are actually quite magical. I do enjoy going out cayaking, and if the moon happens to rise it’s even more magical…

Despite that the summer is the busiest time of the season (besides Christmas) the long days with plenty of daylight gives one energy to endure until fall when it all calms down…

 

Getting organized…

As the days grow longer one realizes spring is on it”s way! If you ask somebody living in Northern Finland, they say Spring is here as soon the days grow longer. They do enjoy a little more snow & cold weather than we in the south do.. 😉
Once Christmas season is over I catch my breath, and the craft-teaching semester continues. And I realize it’s time to dig into everything that has been postponed for some while… Getting organized is not a problem in it self, I used to work as an interior designer and a major part of that job was of course organizing things, solving storage problems etc. It’s just the lack of time as I travel with work quite frequently, and hectic schedules with having to pack an unpack all the time…

Spring cleaning is here in other words, and I go through all my stash & leftovers, of course throwing out everything that’snot needed. Since I have no time for selling stuff at flea-markets (besides, since I travel with my products here and there to events-it would feel just like working..) I donated all unneccesary things to a good will flea market, where I shop once in a while too…

Color coded books

I have quite a few of books about art and crafting. I use them when teaching, so they travel around and don’t always end up where they’re supposed to at once, due to tight schedules with unpacking & packing.  I got fed up with them not staying organized according to subject, and it looked messy even if they did, so I decided to color-code my books. Easy! Next time I return a book to the shelf I just stick it where the right color is!  And it looks nicer! 😀

Pink Lady: Haute Couture in the 1990’s

As I was going through stuff  I also bumped in to several pages of inspirational cut-outs from different fashion magazines, that I carefully organized in folders sometimes 15 years ago… Yes, I’m maybe not so neat on the surface, but my folders and closets are impeccable!  Messy storage drives me nuts… Some of the cut-outs are still useful – but I did get a laugh too and the biggest laugh got this Pink Lady, giant shoulders and with earrings that look like something you tie up your curtains with. 😀  It was “Haute Couture” in those days…  Some om my favorite pictures on the wall are actually cut outs from fashion magazines in the 90’s, but they’re more ethnic/vintage-styled  & timeless, some with a twist of humor if you look real close…

Such a stylish lady, but check out the fabric pattern on the hat! 😀

Les Girls resting with Snowy (from Tintin) &  2 x the little mole, accompanied by Mickey & Flat Eric on the wall. Wall clock made from Disney’s “The Black Hole” soundtrack. It sounded better on the wall.

I’m some sort of a comic freak since I’ve always loved to read some specific comics & cartoons, and occasionally  I’ve been involved in drawing some too. Tintin is one of my favorites, and his dog Snowy aquired a honorary seat on my top shelf as well the two Little moles from the Checkoslovakian cartoon, and where “Les Girls” take a break from the hectic market seasons. I take no responsibility for the wall paper – it came with the house  and imagine how freaky – they matched the vintage lamp that I have since the 1970’s  (it’s a lot older though…)…  One day when I have nothing better to do I will paint the walls to something neutral. I’ve never been much of a wall paper fan…

Vintage lampshade accidentally matches wall paper ….

Ystad- In Kurt Wallander’s footsteps

Kurt Wallander’s beach house in Svarte, Sweden

In May a group of people in our area gathered and left for an educational journey to Ystad. The Main theme for the trip was ofcourse the famous character from Henning Mankell’s books, Kurt Wallander, but at the same time we were about to learn how an area can profit and thrive from something like a book character as well. Of course Ystad has had tourists who’ve been a little confused and dropped by the local police station in order to meet him, forgetting that he is only a fictional figure. How well haven’t the books & movies been made then if he seems so real?

The area around Ystad was to die for, despite a rather cold and extremely windy weather.  But once we saw all the perfect gardens, the beach, “Ale stenar”

Ale Stenar, Kåseberga, Sweden. There’s something magical about this (extremely windy) place…

(ancient rocks) , the beautiful windmills, one forgot quickly how cold it was.

windmill park between Denmark & Sweden (Copenhagen-Malmö, from the Öresundsbridge)

The programme during the 4 day trip was intense – I think it was a two week trip crammed in to these few days-we had no time to waste-and if there was any time of our own, it was one morning, approx 2 hrs before our bus took off on our daily educational journey. I ended up renting a bicycle from the hotel (where parts of one of the Wallander movies had been made as well). I pedaled around like crazy, checked out shops I was interrested in, took photos and collected some treasures from the local beach. Oh, and I managed to squeese in a visit to the local flea market as well. We made many visits to local entreprenours, gardens, farms, crafters and other worth-while to visit places…. We also visited Cineteket/Ystad studios and got to see some of the sets for Kurt Wallander and some other movies made there.

Angry Bird a.k.a. felted goose trophy at one flea market. Must’ve been a fierce one to catch!

Once we got home I was happy but on the verge of a burn out… ;o)

As I look through the photos I seriously feel a longing of going there again, such a contrast to our archipelago, but still the closeness to the sea and old ports leading to other mystical places… Definitely a worth while place to visit! Down below a slideshow, the pictures will speak for themselves…
I found so many things to take photos of that I just might post them later to my flickr account… And HERE they are..

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Getting through tragedies whilst crafting…

At some point in our lives there’s always some tragedies or other hardships that pop up, whether we like it or not. It takes a lot to cope with situations like that, and some times it can take quite some time too. A crafting person like me, is no more spared than anybody else, even though there might be an appearance of that all is well and life & bussiness is all sunshine from day to day. As a neighbour of mine said several times: ” There’s no use in being envious of somebody else’s life – we all get a good share of hardships and devastating experiences.”  And that is so true. And by feeding envy – we never get to know those valuable people out there. Instead there might be more harm caused instead through gossiping and other actions.

Tar treated hearts

Some months ago I faced a tragedy involving a childhood friend of mine. I was devastated and fortunately it wasn’t the busiest time of my season, so there was some time for being a little on the down side… Still I was relieved to bump in to an article about that being sad isn’t an illness, it’s a normal way of reaction and a part of the process towards healing & being able to continue with life. Good, I thought, because that’s how I’ve always felt, there are times when one must be allowed to be really sad for some time, even several weeks is normal.
This is nothing I long for ofcourse, but some years ago when I faced an other obstacle in my life, I focused on whittling hearts out of pine tree bark. I whittled quite a few, and once my hands were sore from whitling I moved to making hearts from twigs. Now when I look back on photos of these items, I get a positive feeling of getting over something, but in the same time I was capable of focusing on something positive. At first the whittling didn’t feel so good, but it keept me focused on the knife and not cutting myself. The more I whittled, the more I managed to process the sorrow, and move over to more positive feelings as watching what I had accomplished.

My recent crafting therapy was focusing on flowers. Due to a disc hernia that made my life a little more complicated at that point, I had to work on something that could be made lying down, or half -sitting. Sitting was out of the question. So I crocheted roses. In all the colours I could find suitable fluffy yarns in my yarn stash. I ended up buying more inspirational fluffy yarns, and crocheting more flowers.

I don’t own anymore many of the oroiginal sorrow-crafted items, I actually managed to sell most of them, but I enjoy watching photos of them. And watching the photos make me feel better about how I was able to process all the feelings out of me and at the same time produce something that could bring some sort of income later on-although I felt quite paralyzed while they were made.

Cayaking season is up a head...

I still whittle hearts, and today I also treat them with tar-& linseed oil mixture, for that sea-bitten scent & beautiful shade. Thanks to an ex co-worker from a previous job, I got a good recipe on this tar-mixture. I have also moved to painting the hearts with egg-oil tempera, but that procedure takes a little longer than the tar treatment. But at the same time it builds up my patience… And the few that are already done – the egg oil tempera colours are breathtaking…

With everything bad something good always seems to come along as well, but that’s something one has to realize later – not be told while your world is falling a part…

I’m so looking forward to the spring season and sitting outside in my Outdoor Office, but there’s still ice on the sea in front of me and it chills our frontyard quite effectively…  I can’t wait to tar treat some whittled hearts and hang them in the sun to dry!  And finishing the egg oil tempera painting project of my Yellow Basket… 🙂  And what’s yet best to come, the cayaking season (I’m no hardcore cayaker yet, with neopren equipment..) is up ahead!  There’s nothing more peaceful than silently gliding across the sea, seeing birdlife and others that have no idea that I’m out there due to this silent vessel…

Christmas and the stormy weathers

Bruno on one of his sick-leaves

Christmas arrrived faster than I could’ve imagined, time flew and I was kept busy by one of my Office assistants being ill most of the fall. Nothing fatal, but enough to keep me busy, mess upp my schedules and make me worry a lot…
And all of the sudden it was time for the local Christmas market! And there, there was Santa and his Christmassy seagull! There were plenty of visitors despite the rainy & windy weather, and everybody seemed happy despite the windy wetness…

Look, here's Santa & his Seagull!

Christmas dinner was dominated by a divine piece of smoked leg of mutton – I demand some sort of a rerun for Easter!

On Boxing day we were hit by a ruthless storm with 30m/s in the huffs & puffs, that did a lot of damage to trees and left plenty of homes without electricity. Some still are powerless…  We were fortunate enough to be without electricity for only 12hrs, and fortunately we had a fireplace and plenty of candles to keep us warm and cosy. Not to forget my irreplaceable Dynamo Radio, which I tend to keep fully charged for occasions like this… I bought it some years ago from the internet, it was quite valuable, around 100€, but I think it’s worth every penny. Brilliant to keep with you while working outdoors – and even better during power cuts…! Due to that we’re used to “hop around”  in the darkness walking the dogs, all the flashlights were in shape. The best information I received however from the neighbours daughter that drove by, she told that the area around the ferry was like hit by a hurricane, that explained that we’ll be without electricity for a bit longer… During the storm-even if our house was on the windbreak side- it was a little scary to go outside.  At one point when visiting outside I heard some trees cracking further up on our property – it felt better to go back inside… We ended up having approx. a dozen of trees blown down by the storm, fortunately none damaged people,dogs or buildings!

Near the ferry

The stormy weather isn’t over yet – yesterday Mr Wind decided to blow on our side of the hill – this time “only” something like 20m/s, but the house was shaking, the chimney was howling, it was snowing horisontally and there was some sort of wind chill factor even indoors!!! 😀 I ended up stuffing newspaper in the cracks in the bedroom wall logs, by the window… Fortunately it changed direction at som point of the evening. This time the electricity hung around all the way, and no trees gave up…

Experiencing frequent storms (one more on the way tonight again) makes you think & wonder about how dependant we have become of that frizzy stuff coming along the lines… And they still try to make us buy more electrically powered stuff, as well letting us understand that wood heated homes for instance aren’t enviromentally friendly. So may be – but if it’s a quiestion of surviving in the winter – there’s nothing beating a fireplace and a wood heated stove (which I miss by the way – heating the grill isn’t an option in 20m/s winds..). Fortunately some foods can be wrapped in aluminum foil & cooked in the fireplace. I’m still for windpower-an vertical wind turbine on the roof would’ve been plenty useful this fall and Christmas in so many homes! The problem is that nobody can own the wind – why it’s made as an unattractive option.. Silly! Once I win the lottery I’ll invest in one of those, or maybe I’ll just build one myself….! 😉 http://youtu.be/F2w9k3miNrs  Strangely enough – it’s when it’s windy we get in trouble with the electricity – and that’s when wind power would be so efficient…!

Wishing You a great year for 2012! Gotta go, time to get prepared for the next storm up ahead tonight!

Dressed for surviving at the windy & rainy christmas market

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas… & Pom Pom Tutorial for rainy days!

Planning of the upcoming event Saaristojoulu-Skärgårdsjul (Archipelago Christmas) is at large and I even went shopping for Christmas props (for my use) – only to come back home empty handed… You might not agree with me, when I say that they’re putting out the Christmas decorations in the shops way too late…  :-DD  But when Christmas is a part of your work it ought to start so much earlier… I have some candle making classes coming up and need to stock up with candle making materials very soon…

Hand made candles coming soon...

It means also that I have on my agenda making my own Christmassy candles for the Christmas market… Plenty of work, up ahead, the floors need to be covered (protected), making space for all the candles to cool etc… Messy but  a lot of fun too!

The weather has still been astoundingly beautiful, and every day I just stand with my mouth open admiring all the incredible colours the nature can produce…

Green House..?

The hunting season is going on, which means that it’s quite an cheap life insurance to wear something red or even better: NEON!

Bruno Posing with "The Hunters Beanie"

I discovered a yarn so bright and inspiring I just had to get it… Neon Pink & Orange is the new Black! ;-D My sweet Office Assistant Bruno helped posing with my prototype, with the mighty power of rice crackers… Otherwise these office assistants ofmine are way too busy to wear any hats, and they would if nnot bribed with treats, end up tearnig them apart… They have little orange vests on our forest walks instead, so they don’t get mistaken for the hunters prey if they get lost…

Once in a while I check out different crafting stores & recently I’ve been overwhelmed (in a non-positive way) by the increasing amount of plastic paraphernalia avalaible for making anything possible and impossible! It sort of makes me sick, thinking of the amount of plastic items surrounding us, that at some point end up in the garbage, and it’s not biodegradable… It’s not only the paraphernalias, it’s also the packaging that annoy me. Plastic only… To my surprise I notice that they even sell paraphernalia’s for making Pom Poms (as seen on Bruno’s beanie) – when all you need is two circular pieces of cardboard (cut from a cereal box or similar, just check out the kitchen!) with a larger hole in the middle, a darning needle and some yarn… So, here’s a little D.I.Y. for those rainy and stormy days: Pom Pom Tutorial by Anjie’s blog with some Halloween ideas as well. If many pom poms are stringed together you get quite an eyecatcher for a scarf..!
My  free picture tutorial enclosed – ENJOY & have fun!

Pom Pom Turorial

As The Leaves Turn…The last day of indian summer

Autumn foilage it is, as it’s best.  A beautiful explosion of colours, and I’m annoyed every time I go outside & forget to bring the camera…
I want to collect all the leaves, acorns e.t.c. and make something of them, as if I could stop time by just collecting and looking at them, but no, it doesn’t work that way… So I stick to taking pictures instead. They provide me with a great deal of inspiration for my products.

My favourite scenery

The turning of the leaves means that my Studio outdoors isn’t really available anymore…  Today, Friday, Sept 30th we had +20Celcius degrees, something quite unusual. It was the most beautiful day ever, including the sunset that turned everything purple…

I managed to take some photos of my products

A photo session in the magnificent weather

& finish another work project of mine, a felted bag

Felted bag, "Forget Me Not"

Since Autumn is here, it means that my teaching job has started again, I teach mostly felting, but also embroidery and candle making (up ahead). One of the places I work at used to be a school until the 1950’s, the cutest little cottage in a very bucolic environment!

Not a bad place to work at!

Selma, the last known teacher

For now I’ll just have to get used to the indoors when it comes to making my creations and enjoy candle light and the crackling fire place…Not a too bad option either! And once in awhile I’ll just enjoy the stormy weathers, they make me feel so – ALIVE!

Workwise I still have some custom ordered things to produce, once I’m done with them I shall dig in to the Christmassy items…

Those of you living in or visiting Helsinki in the near future, I recommend to go and see Per-Olov Jansson’s exhibition at Hanasaari until Oct 9,2011,  “Arkipelag”, photos from the area of my studio, the archipleago of Pellinge. By the way, he’s the brother of  Tove Jansson, and the Gallery is named after her…
I will try and make it to the exhibition too, I really,really want to see it…

The summer of ’11

The Folk Dance Ladies by my "Superstore" at the local market, with the coolest basket-handbag!

The market season is finally over. It lasted from june to end of september, every Saturday, and in July wednesday evenings. Some customers wished there would be a market day more often, but I don’t think I, or anybody else selling there would survive a more intense market life than it already is… And the peak season is very short – July only. After that the visitors decrease radically.

At the local market people meet, shop and exchange news

It’s been a wonderful summer, it was always fair weather more or less and wonderful people to collaborate with. We even managed to arrange two fashion shows of which you can find some more info about here and here  (sorry, in Swedish only, but the pics are international!), by one of my collaborators at the market. The fashion shows were arranged in July and September.

I’m also involved as a guide at the local museum “Hörbergsgården” as guide which require some guiding ofcourse…

Hörbergsgården Museum, the museum shop & gallery

And there was the little tiny event called “Vintage marknad-markkinat” that was supposed to be a very small scaled event but ended up with so many visitors we almost fainted! We’ll be arranging this event again next summer, but bigger and better. And plenty more sellers!

The Vintage market at Hörbergsgården, featuring my Grandmother's old crank phonograph

This summer season was packed with stuff on my to do-list, plenty are left for later, but I’m happy that I managed to wash a whole sack of local wool before it got too rainy & humid outside. The thing is-the wool needs a lot of space to dry, and indoors is NOT an option… Now I shall only wait for more wool, ordered from a sheep I call “Socks”, du to the white socks (quelle surprise…) on its hind legs… The shearing of the sheep is up next!

washed wool fleece drying by the sauna, and yes, tilted horizons are a part of my trademark! 😉

But now there will be a little less comotion for a few weeks, until I roll up my sleeves for the upcoming challenge – Looking for Santa! 😉 Yes, the Christmas season is closer than you might think!

Rudolph The Rednosed Housemouse