Treasury List "Vegetation" featureing Osampo bag on Etsy

I'm so excited of this treasury on Etsy so that I wanted to share with you! It's so cute, isnt it? Enjoy!

Co-design project - Getting Used to the Materials

A Happy New Year!

After collecting materials for this Co-design project to make original laptop cases, today I want to share my process of getting used to the materials – the leather and zippers.

Here is one of the collected materials, elk leather.

It’s … heavy. And grain is quite rough.

I had forgotten that leather was heavy. How heavy the leather is comparing with light weight of wool felt in the same square measure!  Especially this elk leather is thick, and the thickness is probably 2,5 mm. 

I was a bit intimidated by seeing the whole shape of the skin, which reminded me the lifetime of the animal, by smelling it as well. I knew it’s just leather, but still I was shocked to face the massiveness of the material. Wow…!

My first impression of the elk leather was that it would be difficult to work with, but I thought I must get used to the material first of all, because this was my first challenge to make product combining zippers, leather and wool felt.

I had some ideas for design, but in my head it’s still unclear about actual process such as how I could handle details, what kind of sewing order I should take.

So I decided to make some models imitating existing products to learn the characteristics of the materials. By this way I shall understand some designer’s design process, including possibilities and limitation of materials at least partly, like “why that form has been created, why that detail had to be like that”.

Then, what I referred was hard graft.

It’s cool!

They say that they have been producing bags with combination of felt and leather already since 2007. 

I was discouraged because I thought there was no need of making new design in addition to their super cool bags! 

But they don’t have any product using leather INSIDE, as back lining to prevent producing static electricity (which is my main theme in this project).  So there is one reason to keep going. I started working.

I took note of 2 kinds of bag among others. One was ALL IN ONE LAPTOP FOLIO in which you can put not only your PC but also books and AC adapter etc from the top, and the other was DOPP KIT which had double zipper opening like a camera and lens bag.

I started cutting the leather with referring these bags timidly.

Zippers that I used here for making models were found materials in my work room so the color and design of zippers will be replaced by original ones from Japan for the final designs.

Photos below are the process of making models. Jump to see more details from the link.

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!