Event: handicrafts from Finland at kirpputori, Japan

kirpputori is a small and lovely select shop selling commodities from Scandinavian countries from antiques to modern handcrafts, located in Nishi-Gotanda, Tokyo. The area where the shop is an office town, and the shop is found suddenly like an oasis in the middle of grey and busy urban landscape.

"kirpputori" means flea market in Finnish. The shop owner, Kaori travels to Finland and other Scandinavian countries a couple of times a year, visiting real flea markets to find acquisitions, and also meets craft manufacturers to see their workshops for better understanding of their creations. Her way is slow but so much congenial that I feel very nice to work with her. She came to visit my studio in Rovaniemi the last year as well.

kirpputori is having an event, being titled "Käsitöitä Suomesta" (handcrafts from Finland), from November 9th till 23rd (Sunday closed). She collects birch baskets, felt goods, wooden jewelry, pottery, hand-prints and so on for this event. All the works are made by hands slowly and carefully with love. Aika Felt Works' one-off bags and original goods are also there. This time I made a new felt work for this event; a kettle-holder. This is like a sister product of my Coasters made of merino wool and knitted wool lace felted together. There are olive green and purple colors.

One of the one-off bags, the photo up is the Winter Bag. I made this bag making fur patterns of reindeer which is one of the common animals here in Lapland. So this is a kind of fake fur of reindeer made of 100% wool;)). This bag is to men's liking as well so this could be as a Christmas present for your partner.

Feel free to visit kirpputori because the shop owner is a good speaker of English! She can suggest unique gift ideas to you with plenty of stories of her collection.

kirpputori
2-26-9
Nishigotanda
Shinagawa-ku
Tokyo, JAPAN
open 11:00 - 20:00
Sundays closed
Tel&Fax +81 (0)3 3491 1300