Saturday 22 February 2014

Hooked on Lace

The Craft Museum of Finland is currently having a lace exhibition in its foyer gallery. Hooked on Lace presents an array of lace doilies crocheted by Silja Eränen from Pieksämäki.
Photo: Craft Museum of Finland / Mikko Oikari
In the exhibition film, she tells it all started when she inherited a huge lot of her mother's crocheting threads. Here you can see her working. She finds doily models from magazines, friends and the internet. She isn't using an actual crocheting pattern, but a photograph of a finished piece as her guideline.
All her doilies are unique, as she likes to explore new models. During the last 6 years, she has crocheted over 350 different lace doilies!
All these elaborate white doilies look so good on the purple wall, don't you think? (What a great idea for your home - if you don't mind them getting dusty, of course!)
Love all these shapes.
The exhibition area isn't very large, but there are LOTS of them. You really don't know where to fix your eyes. They are all so beautiful!
Photo: Craft Museum of Finland / Anneli Hemmilä-Nurmi
If you became interested and you are around, you better hurry, as the exhibition will end on the 2nd of March. Still a week to go! Don't forget the entrace is free on each Friday. I also found the blog of Silja Eränen. If she continues updating it, you might see more of her work online too.

Friday 14 February 2014

Trees in Love - Happy Valentine!

During our recent inspiration trip to the snowy Tourujoenlaakso, we encountered these trees in love. They greeted us by the lake Tuomiojärvi (literally The Doom Lake). This is truly love until death, as those red marks are most likely execution plans for these poor birches, lightened up by a romantic passer-by. I immediately thought I would like to share this view with you and saved it to until this special day.
Red Rhinestone Earrings by Arx Rosarum (Finland); Red Heart Brooches by Sweetkeetle (Russia); Valentine's Day Card by Avenir Cards (Sweden); Amigurumi Bunny by Sobeide Creatures (Finland).
But of course I couldn't stay with just that. Those hearts got me so inspired I wanted to share more. So in the memory of our late Friday game, I gathered here a collection of red hearts, all from the hands of Northern European artisans.
The Prey by Hidden Eloise (United Kingdom).
As a cherry on the cake, enjoy this charming picture by one of my favorite fairy tale artists, Hidden Eloise. Happy Valentine!