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.

Cottage bag was featured on the Etsy Storque

Cottage Bag was featured on the Etsy Storque on June 17, 2010 by marymary. Etsy is a large social commerce website focused on handmade or vintage items as well as art and craft supplies. Aika Felt Works has a shop on Etsy since September 2009. I'm still new to Etsy, but it has very nice features like Treasury, lists of curated items by Etsy members, that show up on the top page. It's so enjoyable just too see it. Etsy has brought me new customers mainly from the USA, and I enjoy conversations with them also. I feel it's not just a dream but becoming a reality that handicraft can supply most of our commodities if we want.. when I see Etsy and prosperity of the social web media like Blogs. Don't you think our lifstyle is now changing..??

Felt meets the world! Communication with customers in the world

It's about 10 moths since I have opened Aika Felt Works Webshop last year. It took some time to be noticed, but gradually I am getting orders worldwide. The map shows where and which product I have shipped. It's always exciting to see where my customers are from, in the ordering e-mails. You may think that internet shopping is tasteless compared with face-to-face service in conventional stores. I use automatic confirmation e-mailing system, but otherwise everything is manually operated. As one-woman company, each customer is memorable, because I often start making products after getting orders thinking about who are buying the goods and where my works are going.

Direct communication between customers is a great thing that I appreciate so much. There were 2 customers who bought Felt Slippers for the second time. They bought the first ones some years ago in Finland when they were traveling. They loved and used the slippers until they were worn-out, and still remembered my company name and came back to my webshop to get new ones..! There is nothing happier than this as a designer. I was really glad that they kindly wrote about the stories in the answering e-mails about their purchases. I am amazed how much personal the communication in the internet shop is, and how one customer's voice can influence on my motivation.

Customer's voice is precious, both happy ones and hard ones. I have been reflecting customers' suggestions for improving products as much as possible. Give me just one sentence of your message, to enrich our communication and shopping experience!

Frankfurt Ambiente 2010 has been finished! Thank you for coming!

Aika Felt Works, Mieland, and MAARI have exhibited in Frankfurt Ambiente fair in 12.-16.2.2010 under the name of Arctic Pears, at the joint stand of Finnish Design.

Three of us are all small companies from Lapland, and this was the first time to exhibit in the international fair. We shared the small stand together, so our space was probably the smallest in this hall, but being small wasn't a problem. We've got a lot of attention and contacts!

Aika Felt Works showed mostly industrial felt products. Many people asked pointing at Osampo bag, "What is that?". I realised that people don't recognise it's a bag!! It's good to get straight feedback sometimes;))

Many of Japanese buyers were interested in Osampo bag. Folding bag, Slippers were very popular among European buyers. I must follow up with the contacts now.. Thank you very, very much for visiting us!!

...

I was quite nervous before the fair, when I arrived at the Frankfurt airport, and was terrified to see the huge fair buildings, then wanted to go home immediately when I stepped in our exhibition hall, because all other stands looked so nice!! I couldn't believe that I was going to exhibit my products there.

But this time, I wasn't alone. I had reliable Finnish fellows, ladies of other 2 companies, construction men, a leader of the Finnish stand... we helped each other and everybody spoke Finnish there in Germany, which made me so relaxed.


I have learnt a lot of important things from exhibitors. Normally I work alone, and I don't see almost anybody in my craft business. I was hungry to talk about our businesses, about money, production process, financial supports, etc. Now I've got cooperators, and I can plan my future activities more clearly. This was another big thing there. I want to say big thanks to Maarit, Marjo, Jonna, and Jaana! Kiitos paljon!!

Felt Slippers on VIINI 1/2010 (wine magazine)

Felt Slippers are introduced on Finnish wine magazine, "VIINI 1/2010". The article is about a relationship between good wine and comfortable slippers.

Felt Slippers are available at Okra (Helsinki), 69.00 Eur. Sizes are L, M and S.
tel: +358 (0)9 624 250.

Slippers are available also from Aika Felt Works Webshop. By ordering the slippers from the webshop, you can get them with exact size of your foot at the same price of 69.00 Eur + shipping cost.

I heard from Okra that there had been men customers asking the slippers but they were out of stock. I shipped them to the shop last week. I hope they are now available!