Merry Chirstmas!

Co-design Project - Collecting materials!!

There was a break after the last post about co-design project; in the meantime, I was busily collecting materials for making prototypes.

What a surprise, my industrial wool felt supplier in Germany told me that they were not going to produce the felt in the rest of this year, which I use mainly. So I had to look for other companies.

That German company was the only one among other companies that started business with me even though I could order small amount of materials at one time, in early time of my business in 2006. So I had been purchasing their products since then nevertheless there were some troubles with them, for appreciating their attitude. But without materials I can’t work. I needed to search for other suppliers in a hurry.

Luckily, one company out of four produces the same felt in thickness, color and quality, being able to ship immediately. Oh dear, their prices are even cheaper - turning misfortune into a blessing.

And then, collecting materials continues.

The next is leather.

Because I am unlearned in leather craft, I asked two of my Finnish friend to introduce leather companies and asked to show me samples. Meanwhile I was searching for leather suppliers which could sell small amount of leather.

Then what kind of leather can be good?

Where I live in is an area called Lapland in the north Finland. Talking of leather that we can get here is … the leather of that animal … yes, it’s reindeer, attendants of Santa Claus.

You may say that you feel bad to use leather of reindeer that works for Santa;), who is giving dreams to children, but for us, the locals, reindeer meat is one kind of the delicious meat. Reindeer leather is produced along with meat, not like mink or fox fur, which are produced only for garments. Do you know how smooth reindeer leather is? Reindeer leather is very fine and excellent.

And we have another kind of leather, elk skin.

In Finland, elk-hunting season opens in autumn. Elk meat is not sold in market places commonly, but it’s still possible to get it and we eat once in a while. The taste is gamy and a little bit different from reindeer. Elk is big deer like a horse.

Because reindeer leather is expensive, I looked for a company which sells elk leather first, but as I thought, they said that they were not able to sell small quantity of leather. But they have 2nd-quality leather which has small scars or even holes that they can sell several pieces at a time to me.

Well, 2nd quality…. This time, I’m going to use leather for back lining of wool felt laptop cases. Can't it be more reasonable to use 2nd-quality leather than expensive, high-quality one? Although it’s 2nd quality and can be seen, it must play an important role of preventing static electricity. I asked the company to send the leather with worst condition as a sample for my evaluation. What kind of leather is coming …?

The next is a zipper.

There was a comment from a customer that a zipper should be installed to the laptop case because it’s the most durable fitting among other fastening fittings.

I’m thinking that selecting zippers is a very important design point. I’m thinking to make such a simple laptop case that what you see are only materials of wool felt and leather in design itself. So fittings like zippers become conclusive factors of product impression. I can’t compromise on that.

Thinking about convenient use of a zipper, there should be two zipper sliders facing each other (when it closes). And sliders should be without paint so that they will not be worn off, and I want to make original pull-tab using wool felt or leather. A type of zipper called coil zipper is good because it fits flexibly on corners. I want to integrate the design of long zipper for a body part and short zippers for pockets.

I luckily found one company in Asakusa, Japan, which can make such lots of my wishes come true, even though I want to buy just a few zippers for making prototypes first - the company can make original zippers from 1 piece! This company pushed me forward in this project, contrary to my negative expectation that getting zippers would be difficult task.

Since the biggest difficulty in my business in Rovaniemi is collecting materials. By contrast in my home country Japan, in Rovaniemi it’s difficult to get things with reasonable prices and amount needed for my small production. So I had been avoiding using zippers for my products especially. But I may use zippers in my design willingly in the future thanks to this company.

Did you notice that there was no product which was using zippers at all in the collection of handmade, industrial felt laptop cases sold online that I posted in this blog? I wonder that a zipper is such a material for small craft businesses that if you look for exactly what you want, you would be in trouble.

And and…

I was taught that there was a thread called a conductive thread by the comment in my Japanese blog. It’s a thread being able to conduct electricity, which can discharge static electricity if you touch with condition of being electrified. Isn’t it possible that I can make a case or bag that can prevent producing static electricity by stitching the conductive thread on a pull-tab of a zipper or handles of a case? I could find the thread in an online shop in Japan, too!

A couple of days ago, I got the elk leather. I want to try making a prototype by it first. I will post the working process next time!

Osampo bag was featured in an Etsy treasury list

Osampo bag was featured in the Etsy treasury list by aynikki from Turkey. I was happy to see this colorful collection because our sky in Lapland is so gray and dark these days.. I hope you enjoy the collection too!

Felt slippers of Aika Felt Works was featured in Treasury List on Etsy

Felt slippers are featured by Nihama-Jana Ladizenska's treasury list on Etsy!

Research on Wool and Static Electricity - How Can I Solve This Problem??

After I got this comment,
“Wool produces static electricity by friction with plastic, which may cause defects in a PC”,
I started to research about it.

How is static electricity produced?
〇There is electricity on any substance on the earth.
〇The electricity is composed of positive electricity and negative electricity.
〇These two are stable by keeping balance.
〇When a substance gets friction or strong power, negative electricity that is weaker in stability is peeled from it, and only positive electricity remains.
〇This condition is being electrified.
〇The positive electricity which lost negative electricity wants to bond with negative one that remains on a metal part etc. again, by using dry air where electricity can conduct more easily.
〇At the moment of bonding, an electric discharge happens. ←this is static electricity.

The static electricity that is caused by friction with two substances
〇The friction between substances with positive or negative electricity that are far from each other in the Triboelectric series (the diagram below) produces bigger static electricity.
〇The friction between wool products and acrylic products produces the biggest static electricity.

Substances that conduct, or don’t conduct electricity
〇Substance that conducts electricity too much, producing electric shock: metal
〇Substances conduct electricity, being able to discharge electricity slowly, and don’t cause electric shock: wood, paper, concrete, bricks, tires
*Although most of leather and stones conduct static electricity, they become difficult to conduct electricity when the air is very dry.
〇substances which don't conduct static electricity neither causing electric shock, nor discharging electricity : plastic, glass, rubber

....So,

You can see that wool is the representative material that produces static electricity by friction with plastic products.

Then, how can I solve this problem?

What came to my mind first was:

●To avoid contact with PC and wool by using cotton or linen linings

And then...

●Utilizing fabric softeners and antistatic agents
It’s possible to avoid producing static electricity by utilizing fabric softener or antistatic agents when you wash or use cloths, because they contain ingredients that make fabric’s surfaces smooth, and discharge static electricity.

●Using antistatic fiber
There is fabric called carbon impregnated conductive fiber which discharges static electricity and able to avoid being electrified, and there is also natural fiber, bamboo fabric which is difficult to be electrified more than silk or cotton.


... It doesn’t matter if it’s cotton or linen, or antistatic fabric, using any fabrics would make me feel disappointed as a design, because there come overlying edges to prevent raveling, side by side with beautiful section of thick wool felt.

... I’m not sure how long fabric softeners and antistatic agents are effective, and I have a sense of resistance to apply chemicals on the natural material.


So my choice could be...


genuine leather!?

Yes, genuine leather!

Leather is the material that can discharge static electricity slowly and hard to be electrified. And it goes well with felt because its edge can be left just being cut. Although it’s luxury, I want to go on using leather as a lining of wool felt!

It would be very expensive if I wholesale the product…

I shall sell it exclusively through Aika Felt Works webshop as a made-to-order craft work … !!

Aika Urata of Aika Felt Works on a Japanese TV program

I will appear on a Japanese traveling program, "Otona no Europe Machiatuki", on Nippon Corporation on 28th November 2011, 19:00- 20:00. I will be guiding you in city of Rovaniemi including my studio. I can't watch it because I'm in Finland, but if you are happen to be in Japan, please check it!

Co-design Project - Wool and Static Electricity

I've gotten answers for the Q1: Which item(s) do you want for carrying your laptop?, and some people shared their stories about laptop cases as well. Thank you so much!

And one of them said that:

I'd prefer ONLY interesting, fine design of your style messenger bag with one or two pockets (for adapter, external HD, USB memory sticks and etc), which is comfortable and can fit in a computer in a synthetic pocket (sleeve). The pocket I have is made of an antistatic material.

Long time ago, I was carrying a CD-player in a felt bag. Fibers were falling off and filling in mechanical parts of that CD-player. I had to clean internal parts from time to time.
 
I mentioned antistatic material because one of the most damaging factor, which is not so known among users, for computers/TV and some other electric devices, is static electricity. As far as I remember, wool is one of the materials which in contact with plastics produces (if I may say so) statics.

!!

Yes, that's right! First I thought it's actually a bad idea to make laptop cases by wool felt after reading her comment, but then I noticed that both problems can be solved if I use cotton or linen lining on wool felt, or probably there must be other solutions as well. Moreover, if I can solve these problems then these aspects will turn into good reasons to produce new products, not offering just new styles of design.

After quick research about wool and damaging PCs by static electricity, I got to know that friction with wool and plastics causes static electricity, and it is recommended to touch some metal parts to discharge electricity from surface of your body before you install / uninstall inner parts of your PCs to protect from damaging by static electricity, and even gloves with metal wire woven are sold for that reason.

Oh, no, without her comment, I would have made laptop cases which might destroy your PCs by static electricity far from protecting your PCs..!!

I will make the research more about wool and static electricity, and hopefully find unique solutions. Let's see how it goes. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts, again! So much fun!

Interim Results of the Q1 and Exploring Felt Laptop Sleeves

I am asking this question:
  
Which item(s) do you want for carrying your laptop?
on AikaFeltWorks fan page on Facebook and on this blog for developing felt laptop cases.

And Answers can be one of these:
- Messenger bag, just normal one is fine
- Messenger bag + inner, attachable sleeve
- Only sleeve that I can use with my bag
- Small case for mouse, etc.
- Messenger bag + inner, attachable sleeve + small case

I'm asking the same question in Japanese, too, and there is a difference in the answers between Westerners and Japanese. Japanese want "Only sleeves that I can use with my existing bag" the most. They don't need the messenger bag at all. Some mentioned that they need small case for AC adapter, USB memory sticks, external HD, and SD cards.

Then Westerners want "Messenger bag + inner, attachable sleeve" the most. Less interest for the small case than Japanese. Interesting results. How about you? Your answers help me deepen my understanding toward your needs of laptop cases. Vote if you haven't here!

While I'm waiting for getting your votes, I'm exploring on Etsy what kind of felt sleeves are sold there. My products will be competing with them because they are all handmade and sold online. Ups, there are already cool ones;). How can I make better one than them for you.. I must think!!

Co-design project - When Do You Need Laptop Case, and How?

Now it’s time to start the project. Let me begin by recalling my situations to my mind when I was carrying my laptop.

When I got requests of developing a felt laptop case from my customers, what came in my mind was not “a laptop bag with some pockets”, but “a laptop SLEEVE which I can put in my bag”.

Usually I go to my workroom by bicycle, with my backpack putting my laptop, materials and papers in.

I have been wondering it would be nice if I have a laptop sleeve and small case for a power adapter, memory sticks and so on, to protect them from shock and coldness.

And one more occasion that I want to have a laptop case is when I go through hand-carrying baggage check in an airport.

I use my backpack when I take an airplane also. It’s not so nice to be in a hurry to take out my laptop from my bag and put it back in front of people. I have been wondering it would be nice if I can pass by there quickly and smartly.

To minimize this action, “opening a bag and taking it out, then putting it back and closing the bag”, it’s not wise to use a laptop sleeve in a backpack. Because you have to take out your laptop from the sleeve opening fastener or bottom by both hands with your back pack being held in your arm.

In this case, the coolest way is to take out your laptop directly from a shoulder or hand bag. Then I can make “a bag especially with a partition for a laptop”, or I can make “a laptop sleeve which is possible to open and close inside a bag without taking out the sleeve”.

So, can I say that I can make all of them, [shoulder bag / messenger bag] + [sleeve] + [small case], and make them possible to be used both by combination or individual use??

What kind of experiences do you have about your laptop? Please leave your comment!

And here comes a question.
Which item(s) do you want for carrying your laptop, if I make it/them by wool felt for you?

If you have your Facebook account, click here, and click "question" on the left, then answer the question!
If you don’t have the account, check one of the choices below and submit! Thank you for your cooperation!

Co-design project Question1 日本語

Co-design project begins!

Thanks to the IT technology, my life became so much easier to catch information and to exchange e-mails form the other side of the earth, and moreover, nowadays by social network services, I have been able to connect with my friends whom I haven’t seen for a long time.

By Facebook I could reunite with old school friends whom I haven’t heard for more than 20 years, and by Twitter I can follow big names’ words. I’m sure that it’s not just me who is not able to be away from the internet once being connected.

I have been thinking to develop felt products by using such IT technology asking opinions from you all. Realizing this idea is my challenge from now till the end of this year.

What I want to work on first is designing laptop cases. Although I have got requests from my customers to design cases for iPhone and iPod, I want to try to make laptop cases which I guess most of you already have.

I hope to get your opinions and wishes through this blog, AikaFeltWorks Japanese blog, Facebook and Twitter, by taking votes and getting comments. And showing developing process and monitoring prototypes, finally I want to complete products which I wouldn’t be able to produce by my own.

So please join my co-design project by voting, commenting, in any ways you can do. I’m already thrilled to get your voices!

Aika Felt Works on Finnish TAITO magazine

Finnish handicraft magagine TAITO 5/2011 introduces Aika Felt Works as this issue's "maker".

The article tells a story of me, Aika Urata, the founder and designer of Aika Felt Works, beginning from my childhood when I did handicraft for the first time in Japan. It continues to my immigration to Finnish Lapland, and then setting up the company, till now working as a mother.

I'm happy if you can have a look at this magazine, at bookstores or libraries in Finland! (Click to enlarge the article below)

KORUNDI museum shop starts selling products of Aika Felt Works

Korundi House of Culture was opened in June 2011, being renovated and expanded from former Rovaniemi Art Museum. Having new concert hall, museum shop and cafe & bar, Korundi became a much nicer spot to visit in Rovaniemi.

Art museum is now showing Finnish art widely from collection of Jenny and Antti Wihuri foundation. I think the show is really nice. There are some works of my husband, too! And Lapland Chamber Orchestra is starting their concert from August, which I am looking forward to going to listen.

The museum shop of KORUNDI is starting selling my felt products. Cottage bag, Felt slippers, Wine carrier bag, Osampo bag, and Coasters are available. Please drop in if you are nearby!

TOHOKU OUEN Charity Free Market at Shimokitazawa Tokyo

More than 3 months have past after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake in Japan. At first the mass media reported massively how the devastated areas were, but its information is now gradually becoming less and less. But the victims are still there, that many of them lost their homes and family members. You know, life goes on, and they need to recover, and need help.

Tavatabito and LIFE AND BOOKS are planning to hold a charity free market, "TOHOKU OUEN HOKUOH FREE MARKET" in Tokyo. They are calling for Scandinavian goods to be sold at the free market, and its sales will be all donated to the Red Cross. They called me to send some products for the event and Aika Felt Works also takes part in!

One of the organiser said to me, "It would be the best if you can collect and send Finnish design that are regarded as garbages there; packages of ice cream, newspaper, advertising letters, and so on that Finnish people throw away after their use. I believe that Japanese would buy them if they are 1 Euro or 5 Euros, because of the good design!".

I like the idea! It's funny to send such free things, Finnish garvages, to Japan paying expensive postage, but these things must raise some smiles and they would be used with idea and love, and moreover those sales will help the victims.

I've sent a package. These are some of the things that I thought they were good Finnish designs:

SUOMALAINEN shampoo & conditioner empty bottles

Salmiakki (salty liquorice) empty packages

Ice cream empty boxes. Forest berry flavors, one is cloudberry which grows in the Arctic, swamp area, and the other is probably vaccinium oxycoccos, which grows also in swamp. I think these tastes are very Finnish!

Egg package. This recycled paper packages are used in many countries, but not in Japan. We have noisy, plastic package there, and I was so impressed to see this paper version when I came to Finland.

And of course I included my felt product, OSAMPO BAG. I offer them with good price without customs and shipping cost!


The event information:
Date：Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd, July, 2011　/　12:00～18:00
Place：Natural Laundry at Shimokitazawa
　　　　　【MAP】
main organisers：Tavatabito × LIFE AND BOOKS
Donation to the Red Cross.

Come along!!

Exhibitions in Japan #2 NUOSKA exhibition

By the support of Rovaniemen Kehitys Oy, 4 design & craft companies from Lapland, Finland organized a shop-exhibition in Finland Cafe as a satellite exhibition of Hirameki Design x Finland (29. Oct. - 3. Nov. 2010).

4 design & craft companies were consisted of small-sized companies; Aika Felt Works, Paperivalo, Mieland and Maari working in Finnish Lapland, producing handmade products. We all exhibited in Ambiente in Feb. 2010, since then, this was the second cooperative international marketing event for us.

Differing from Hirameki exhibition, this NUOSKA exhibition was completely conducted by the participants' initiation. Our aims were to get new business contacts, sell our products to visitors during the show not only exhibiting, and introducing ourselves before-during-after the exhibition to Japanese market.

Because I'm Japanese and I had had some business partners already in Japan, I was expected to suggest some ideas for this project. My ideas were to have a shop-exhibition in Finland Cafe which organizes events frequently in their space having already a kind of fans of them, rather than renting a gallery space, and to publish free zines edited by ourselves, telling our stories instead of making mere catalogues, and give it away before-during-after the event in many places.

I had been quite interested in publishing a free zine. I had been sending press materials to magazines whenever I organized exhibitions in Japan, but it was up to magazines if they wrote about me or not, and I was feeling powerless to spread my information. And for this event, other companies needed to make catalogues in Japanese newly, which, I thought, can be included in the free zine, in addition to our stories. The stories - because we are making handmade products, we have own reasons that we have started our businesses, and our products have unique backgrounds and thoughts behind. Making things is, as it were, our way of living, and I wanted to share these stories with our customers through our products. So publishing free zines was the form to achive my wish.

So I wrote all the articles in Japanese and edited the zine with my Japanese friend who had been working in publishing company as a designer. It took a lot, lot of time .... even though it was a valuable experience for me, I couldn't produce my products during working on this for 3 weeks ;)), and I had just 2 weeks left to make products for taking to Japan (because my husband was going to have his exhibition in Osaka, we had to leave to Japan about a month earlier than the event). I had to forget about my pregnancy. Work, work, work!!

Then we made it! You can see the free zine here. I sent out the free zines to prospects inviting to our opening party, and Finland Cafe started delivering the zines in stations and their shop.

We organized opening party inviting shop owners, press people, and people from Finnish-related organizations. Each of us made a presentation and beautiful Finnish food was served.

I tend to undertake too much work that I can't really handle... this time, too. But I wanted:)), and because of the complacence after challenging unfamiliar experiences, I can still go on.

Exhibitions in Japan #1- HIRAMEKI DESIGN x FINLAND

I was in Japan from the end of Sep. till the middle of Nov. 2010, for having felt-making workshop in Osaka, and presenting the products of Aika Felt Works in Tokyo in 3 shows: Hirameki Design x Finland in Living Design Center OZONE, NUOSKA - Design Stories from Lapland, Finland in Finland Cafe,and Kirameki exhibition in Kirpputori (both were satellite exhibitions of Hirameki).

In this post, I write about Hirameki exhibition.

Hirameki Design Finland event (29. Oct. - 7.Nov. 2010) brought an authentic attitude of Finnish design and lifestyle to the Tokyo Designers Week in autumn 2010. It was a unique Finnish export platform comprising of series of activities that deliver key actors - the most talented designers, design-oriented companies and current phenomena of Finnish life - to the Japanese audience. The main event was an extensive exhibition in Living Design Center Ozone. Hirameki was curated by well-known Finnish designers Harri Koskinen and Ilkka Suppanen, both appreciated and noticed in the Japanese design market. Aika Felt Works was chosen to be a participant among other 63 designers / companies.

Hirameki had more than 36,000 visitors. I was in my booth as long as I could, and got business contacts and useful advices for improving new and existing products. I had an opprtunity to make a presentation in front of audience on 6th Nov. as well. I noticed that wool felt has the fascination as a raw material and people want to touch it, with stroking its surface unconsciously. Felt material is a part of a big drive that my products attract people's attention.

Hirameki exhibition was reported in media;
At Casa Corriere.it, "In Finlandia Passando da Tokyo"
Japanese TV show, "World Business Satellite"
Excite.ism, "10 days filled with Finnish design"
Asahi.com, "Finland, toward a design capital - the reasons to challenge to the world"
Japan Design Net, "Meeting the spark of Finnish design in Tokyo"

You can see the images of Hirameki exhibition here.

Thank you so much for visiting, and amazing support of staff!

Aika Felt Works Webshop is closed 13.Jan.- 17.May.2011

Aika Felt Works Webshop is closed 13. Jan. - 17. May. 2011. You can still reach me by e-mail: info(at)aikafeltworks.com.