Spring works are coming! :)

Hello there! I thought that I should say something in English too :) I have posted only in Finnish lately, I have a Finnish blog here. So..I feel so lucky because I have a studio AND my own little shop now. Old buildings are somehow just so relaxing, and it's a great pleasure to go to work every day. Christmas time in the shop was very busy, and great fun! :) I am surprised and grateful that so many people have found my shop already, and many of them have visited many times already :)


I have been very busy with my spring collection. I have some works ready already, like these:

This is "Candy Day" (Karkkipäivä):) I don't if you have ever heard of candy day, but it is common in Finland that children have candy day once a week, usually it's saturday. Then you can eat (huge amounts of) candy! :) This little fox has such a huge lollipop, that he can share it with friends :) Candy day is, or was, recomended because it is not so good for you teeth, or for your health in general, to eat candy every day. I think that it's a fun and sort of nostalgic tradition, and we have also candy day with our girls :)

This one is "Guardian Angel of The Frog Prince" (Sammakkoprinssin suojelusenkeli). Many people have asked for a frog card, and here it is! :) You can tell that this frog has some kind of a secret, he smiles like he has one! :) The little guardian angel is a little uppset, because she couldn't protect him, and now he is a frog. But the frog prince doesn't mind, because he knows that although he may seem like a frog, inside of him are the most beautiful things!

I will be posting the new works in Flickr, here, when I get them ready (and when I have the courage to do so! :) New works will be available as postcards and prints in about two months.

I try to write more often in here also from now on! I hope that we see again soon! :)

News!

I have finally decided the opening date of my store! It's going to be Monday, October 26,2009.So five weeks to go and a million things to do! I was at the local Aura Street Market on weekend and I gave these flyers to everybody. Yeah, it's in Finnish but you might find someone familiar from the list of artists and artisans whose work I will carry :)The market was a succesfull one and now I am really tired but extremly happy for all the wonderful feedback and comments my customers gave me! It's so great and so important to hear that the works that are important to you can be special for others too. Thank you so much! :)

Me and one of my little helpers :)

I have started a blog in Finnish too, called joutomaassa. It's dedicated to things that happen in and around my shop :)Tervetuloa!

Doing summer things

I think that in summer you have to do at least this: Be near water as often you can, eat so much strawberries you possibly can, and see as much art you possibly can . And do all that together with your family. We did all that on our small vacation, here are some pictures

Being together :)

Seeing art :) Upper pictures piece is by Eero Hiironen, lower Pekka Parviainen

Eating strawberries and relaxing

Being near water, and feeding ducks that's a must too :)

Now I am back to work again, winter collection has been printed, and I should get the cards today, yay!

My first christmas elf :)

I have done several christmas/winter card illustrations before these new, but never real elfs. Just lots of animals with red hats :) Now I found these sweet faces, and elfs came alive :) These elfs are of a very small variaty, I think. This little one is helping with christmas decorating :)

I hope you like him!

Being mermaid... :)

This one I really enjoyed doing! It's, quite simply, called ' The Mermaid' .I really like the kitschy souvenir -look it has..it is so tacky it starts to be adorable :D This came somehow straight from my heart, so I don't want to explain it too much..usually I really enjoy writing about my thoughts about my works, but this one is too close to me I think :) It is from the new series I have started, called self-images.

New postcards from these illustrations will be available in my Etsy shop in August-September.

Also a better picture of 'The Queen of Snow' :)

My work in NY, Yay! :)

I have great news! My prints are now available in New York! At the very cool Urban Alchemist! How cool is that!! :) More information here: http://nymag.com/listings/stores/urban-alchemist/ So if you are anywhere near Brooklyn, please go and check it out :) I have many retailers in Finland and a few in Japan but NY...never really thought that this could happen :D

I have been busy here, working and visiting family. New works are coming together. Here is one of them called 'The Snow Queen' from the new series called 'Self-images'. This is a detail, and a not so good picture of it :) I like the branch-like-thing border, which is done with doily :)

I can feel a new series coming :)

I have been very busy working with new illustrations. And in the middle of christmas cards I found a new path I can follow, a new series of works that feels like an unexpected gift. The works that will be coming... I have made them more to myself than the recent works I have done, and they might not be as 'commercial' as my more cute stuf :) but at the moment they feel very important, something I HAVE to do. And I do think that other people might find themselves from these pictures too, so I have decided to make postcards out of them. Prints may follow too :) I will keep the pictures to myself for a while stil, but I can give you a glimps of my working table and of one work in progress. As you can see it involves doily, among other things :)

I think that there will be two cards from this series available in fall, I have to leave some room for the Christmas cards too :) but this subject needs much more work, so I am sure that the series will be growing :) I am so happy for this great working drive I have at the moment, knock on wood :) It feels so good after a VERY difficult spring. Have you ever had a time when everything you try, fails? I felt like that, and it was terrible!! Luckily I managed to get over that somehow and managed to believe in myself again. I think that this series came from those experiences. The name of the series is 'Self-images' ('Minäkuvia)