PHOENIX

A while ago there was a "scandal" in Finland. MTV3 is dubbing the classic Moomin animations again to update them to the modern language. People are against this because there is nothing wrong with the old ones. I agree. Following this conversation I also bumped into the three Moomin episodes that were never published in Finland. I watched them and I agree that it was good that they didn´t released those. Anyway I got really exited watching also the old Moomins. I have been sick again so I have had a lot of time to watch them. Moomins are my absolutely favorite animations of all times!

Moodboard

In the past I have watched all Moomin episodes over and over again so I know them thoroughly. We had all of them recorded on VHS:s when I was a kid. However one of the Moomin VHS stayed untouched. That one included episode about phoenix bird and somehow my brother was shit scared of the phoenix. Thats why the whole VHS was forbidden.

Now years after I watched it and it was good!
Moomins have always inspired me. Especially the animated Moomins. Inspired by the phoenix episode I made a Phoenix -print and it is dedicated to my little brother :)

Sketching process 

I started to sketch birds and by cutting and combining different bird parts I ended up to the final sketch. I draw it clear with black ink pen and I finished the print with Photoshop and Illustrator. I created the repeat in Illustrator with pattern swatch and I used hex by row tiling to build it.

More sketches

Final Phoenix

Colors are sunset pink and shades of gold and yellow.  To make a lively surface I have used water colors.

PARADISE

In the beginning of time there was just darkness. Then god created something furry and spotty and named it Leopard. God planted seeds and they grow into a jungle. Leopard was really lonely in the jungle so one day god decided to create a friend for him. While Leopard was sleeping god used leopards tail and transformed it into an other living creature; a Snake. Something went terribly wrong. The leopard woke up and freaked out because he had someone attached into his butt. The leopard and the snake didn´t like each other but they just had to get along for the rest of their lives. End of the story.

Here is how I created the Paradise in four days:

The animation is not the most professional one but it is my first! I tried to impress my dad who makes animations for living but in the end my dad had to combine the pictures into the animation. Thanks dad!!! My video making failed a bit because I couldn´t download the animation program to my computer.

First steps

This was my extended weekend project few weeks ago. My boyfriend was "thrilled" when he came to visit me from Finland and I was just glueing pieces of paper to the wall. It turned out just fine and I named him as a studio responsible. (I can make him feel important if I give him fancy nominations )  And he was a great help in taking pictures. Thanks my dear Sasu for your endless understanding and support 😘

Kitchen studio

I really like this kindergarden technique; cutting colorful papers and glueing them into different shapes. I also like the contrast of the childish technique with dark and a bit scary theme. I have had this idea of the dark jungle and a big cat a long time and I´m now so relieved when I was finally able to execute it out. The photographs don´t represent the real print. In reality the colors look more fresh and you probably can´t even notice the gold paper I have used? Nordic winter is not the best time to take pictures because there is so little daylight in a day. I´m so happy that the days are gradually turning more sunny and light.

Nice afternoon brake. A long sunny walk around the lake and hot chocolate on top of the rock with Sasu.

Paradise. This is the whole repeat. I made it in half drop.

  The Paradise was a lot of work but it was worth it. I´m super happy for the final result and I can now have a nice self made poster on my wall. I just need to find frames that are big enough.

BFF

My childhood friend Jemina was visiting me last weekend. We don´t see each other too often but every time we do it´s just like always; easy and fun. We did´n do much, but doing not much is the best. That´s true friendship when you can just be quiet and fart once in a while. We did do some shopping for Jemina´s future baby and we ate some healthy raw food because that´s Jemina´s passion. After that we compared Jemina´s baby stomach to mine food baby.

One food baby and one real baby

On sunday we visited art museum Artipelag, witch is not far from where I live. There was an exhibition about Lars Wallin´s fashion stories. He is a well known Swedish fashion designer who has tailored exclusive evening dresses for private clients into different evenings, galas, banquets and even to the stage of Royal Opera. The exhibition was a peek into Lars´ sketches, process, samples and inspiration. It was a perfect agenda for me and Jemina because our history together was the starting point into my fashion/textile career. When we were kids, maybe twelve years old we started our own business, dressmakers shop called Pakitus. Pakitus means sewing backward. I think the name symbolized that we were not that good dressmakers in the beginning. It was a game in the first place, but little by little we got better and we grew our business. We were running Pakitus through junior high school and high school so all together six years. We made all kind of custom made clothes in a small room in Jemina´s parents house and listened Electric Light Orchestra all day long while sewing. We also made three fashion shows that we presented at schools spring and christmas festivals.

Pakitus fashion in 2004

For a moment we were local celebrities at Nokia after this article

After high school Jemina started to study mathematics and I started my fashion studies. Pakitus times were over and ever since our lives has became quite different. Jemina became a math teacher, wife and soon mum and I´m eternal dreamer and wanderer. In spite of all we are still best friends. It meant a lot when Jemina now asked me to be her little boys godmother. I promised to teach him all the naughty and wicked stuff :D Saturday evening we memorized our happy childhood and Pakitus times by the fire and I sketched our childhood environment and Jemina´s parent´s house of that time. Our Pakitus was located to the second floor, left window. I finished the sketch into a print and I made a small print family around it. I placed the print to baby body´s because it was definitely our theme last weekend.

Ateljee Pakitus was in second floor, left window

Simple prints for baby clothes

Mini baby collection