Handmade Spaces: Oprikka

Today I'm so delighted to bring you the handmade space of one of the sweetest ladies I've ever (virtually) met, Mirka from Oprikka!  Mirka creates wonderful goods from traditional Finnish techniques and fabrics, updating them with a little modern style under the Oprikka label- you can read my write up about Oprikka here, and let's take a peek at where she creates all these wonderful items!
What do you create in this space?
In this room I make handbags, accessories and home decoration items under my Oprikka label. But this is also a good space to do other creative things like silk screen printing, card making, Christmas decoration etc. either for friends & family or for myself.  Sometimes I just sit there and read a book or a magazine or then I´m doing something with computer.  Sketching I do mostly elsewhere, because I have to put ideas right away on paper when something comes up. I have pens and pencils everywhere in house and when I get an idea, I draw it on any piece of paper I can find!
Can you describe what we see in the pictures a bit?
My studio is an old class room (we live in an old school building). There is this big chalk board on one wall of my studio. The children of my brother just love to draw on it when visiting us.
You can also see a wall hanging by Finnish artist Anna-Maija Lahti (bottom picture)- it was one of our wedding gifts & it's called "Happy Animals".  I think it´s so nice to have work from other artists around me as well.  You see the sun shining in the studio and my Marimekko ironing board (in Finland we have a million things with marimekko patterns.... ;)  I also have some of my own art hanging- a silk screen print I made ages ago when I lived in Holland. It´s called "At five o´clock in the underground".

How do you feel when you enter your "handmade space?"
I think one of the best things in this space are the big windows that allow lots of light to pour in. The room is oriented to south/ south-east, and especially in the summer it is very light there. The yellow walls also add vibrancy. On the other hand, every time I enter that space I feel like going back in time, because the yellow + strange brown colors are so typically from the 60-70´s. We have not done any re-painting or renovation there yet, but when that happens, I will surely choose other colors.  I´ve understood that this class room was used for handicrafts lessons before, so that gives a kind of nice feeling to be continuing something that many children have done there for decades before me.
How awesome that she works in an old school room!  And it's even more cool that it was used for crafting by the children who came before her!  Thanks for sharing your space, Mirka!

Be sure to take a closer look at all her lovely Finnish creations at Oprikka!

Comments

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Wow! Some years ago the Portuguese State sold some primary schools... how I would have loved to buy one... I really enjoy looking at other people's studios and Mirks's is great!!