MOSA interiors: Welcome to the Winter Wonderland!

If you are a Christmas person, now is definetly the right time to visit MOSA interiors shop in Tapanila. The store is full of Christmas spirit and ideas for decorations in different styles. The over-all look in the store is a bit vintage-spirited I think, but you can also find traditional Finnish Christmas decorations as well as products that are in more modern style. Besides Christmas decorations, the store also sells e.g. furniture, candles, rugs, lamps, lanterns, pillows, soaps and much more.

The Store Layout and Displays

The store is situated in an old industrial building made of red bricks. The building has a unique atmosphere itself, and for the store it offers a very good environment. The space has enough height and the big windows with panes offer not only light but also nice home-like look the the store. Also the findow sills offer a good place for product displays.

The displays in the store are logic and attracting. The products in the midfloor are divided according to themes, styles and colours. In the midfloor I believe the products change more often and it's a place where season products are been sold. Every table display was like a new adventure: "What can I find here?". The only problem appeared to be that there was not always quite enough space on the tables for all the products, and some of the products were displayed on the floor.

On the left wall there are separate displays for candles, pillows and a shop for Watt&Veke lamps (http://www.wattveke.se/). These products are propably in the stock all year round, so they can have a more steady place. The products are easy to find from the wall, but the best selling areas are for seasonal products. I especially liked the candle display as the fixture was clearly designed for the products and the display was executed accordingly, by colours and by size.

In the back of the store is a cosy lounge in far east style, with seats full of different kinds of pillows. There were also Moroccan tea tables and lanterns on display in the lounge. In my opinion the lounge is a brilliant idea, it's a very experimental place for a customer and a good place to display products at the same time!

The Blogger Was Inspired by These:

This was definetly my favourite lantern in the whole store! I love the old-fashioned look it has, for some reason it reminds me of sea and storm.

I was really impressed with these Watt&VEKE's lamps! Aren't they adorable?

These black Christmas decorations would suit perfectly in my black bedroom.

I think I'll pack all the christmas presents in newspapers this year!

About MOSA interiors

MOSA interiors (http://www.mosainteriors.fi/) is an interior design store in the heart of Tapanila in north-east Helsinki. The main part of their income comes from stock sales, but they also have this retail store in the same estate. MOSA interiors is situated very close to the Tapanila railway station, so you can easily get there by train, by bus or by car. The address is Viertolantie 2-4 B. The store is open under the Christmas on Tue-Fri from 4 pm to 8 pm, on Sat from 10 am to 3 pm and on Sun from 12 to 5 pm. I warmly recommend a visit!

On the same house there are also many studios of different kinds of artists, and a Pierre Cavallo knitwear store. I find the possibilities of this whole estate interesting: I think that it could work as a department store that sells the products of different kinds of small or medium sized craftsmen/women and designers! In my opinion this kind of store complex would suit just perfectly to Tapanila area, which is profiled as a living environment of creative people.

Knitted Graffiti Workshop in Design Museum

Yesterday I attended a knitted graffiti workshop, which was hosted by the Design Museum Helsinki and the Museum of Finnish Architecture. The worshop took place in a tent on a yard between the museums.The yarn bombing workshop was part of a collaboration called Välipala (Sandwich in English), and the tent has been put up to state that the museums need more space for their activities. The museums organize together events in the tent and bring the museum activities out to the street.

Knitted graffiti is a phenomena, which started in Texas. A shop keeper had knitted a warmer for a doorhandle. She got lots of positive feedback from it, so she started to do knitted graffiti to other subjects as well. The idea was taken with great enthusiasm and spread fast all over the world.

The idea in the knitted graffiti is to beautificate the surrounding environment with knitted or crocheted graffiti. But the phenomena can also be seen as a larger social contention. It's a way for people to express themselfs and to bring their productions to public space for everyone to enjoy. It's a way for the town inhabitants to form the town visually to the way they want it to be. To soften the cold surfaces and bring something surprising to the city view. It's about making the town more livable and cosy.

I personally also see this as one part of the crafts trend, that can be seen as a huge inspiration in fashion and design field today. The ready-to-wear clothes are made so that they look like they're been made by hand. Knitting has became a new trend hobby. It's a counter movement for the busy world. When you do crafts, you have to take time and concentrate on what you're doing and creating. It should not be rushed. And it's very rewarding to see what you've accomplished. Even to bring your accomplishment out to the public.

The concept of knitted graffiti is also close to DIY-culture. It's about doing (and designing) things by yourself, instead of paying the professionals for doing the same. Sometimes the cost may be bigger when doing things by yourself. Take fashion, for example. It might be more cheap to buy a dress from the store than to buy the fabric and other accessories, making the pattern and sewing it. But when you do it yourself, you can get exactly what you want. And again, the freedom to express yourself freely, to create your own style. A fine example of self-taught fashion can me found here: http://www.helsinkidesignweek.com/designmarket/event/7/101---diy-fashion-show. And as DIY-fashion can be done from cehap materials like recycled fabric or waste cutting pieces etc, knitted graffiti can alsobe done from left-over yarn pieces. A great way to use the yarns that were left from your knitted sweater!

Knitted graffiti making, or yarn bombing, is still a relatively small phenomena here in Helsinki. Personally I have not seen very many knitted gfaffiti, only a few. The ones I've seen have also been relatively small in size. However, lovely Helena Björk, who arranged the workshop, told me that she had done a knitted graffiti exhibition to a bus that rode between Helsinki and Espoo, as a part of her final thesis for the Aalto University School of Arts and Crafts. And abroad there are great exaples of colourful, creative knitted graffitis. Like these:

Source: http://www.abstractgraffiti.net/2009/08/yarn-bombing.html

Here are some pictures from the Yarn Bombing workshop:

The colours I chose

The final product...

You can find out more from the events held in the tent here: http://valipala.net/sv-en/. As a tip: There's a Design sale with Design District coming up next weekend!

House of Eco's Autumn Event in Cable Factory

House of Eco is a joint venture of Finnish companies that sell ecological products via internet. The mission of House of Eco is to make it easier for us customers to make ecological choises. House of Eco operates mainly in the internet (http://www.houseofeco.fi/), but it also arranges events occasionally. Tonight (Sept 15) they arranged an autumn event in the Cable Factory in Helsinki. The event was about giving the customers a chance to get to know the products and meet the designers as well as to buy the products. 5 % of the sales made during the evening were donated for charity. Here are my pickings from the event.

Sanna Rinne

Sanna Rinne was a special quest in the event, presenting her fashion designs mostly made of cutting waste materials. All of the products are made of strips of fabric sewn together as a garment. Sanna told me that she sews all the products by herself! She has an education for textile design as well as fashion design, which makes the materials specially important to her. I personally found the products very impressive.Take a look at the shirt Sanna is wearing in the image below, isn't it gourgeous! You can find out more about Sanna's designs in address http://www.sannarinne.com/.

Beibamboo

Another guest in the event was Beibamboo, a company that has brought a whole new children's wear concept to the Finnish fashion market. Beibamboo does not only sell, but it also rents baby clothing for ecologically councious parents! The idea is to recycle clothing, instead of buying a product you can rent it and return it after the use. I can imagine it's a great consept for families with children as they don't have to worry about re-selling the used clothing that children have grown out of. As the name implies, the products are made of bamboo, a very ecological material that is well suitable to baby wear due to it's good qualities such as softness and good washing abilities (it can be washed in 60 degrees). It's also antibacterical and transfers moisture from the skin. The products are designed to be comfortable to wear and easy to put on a baby. All the rented products are washed in a professional cleaner and all the stains are removed before delivery. Nina Ignatius, the founder of the concept (see picture below), told me that all the products are designed and sewn in Finland. And the cost of renting? 1 € per one week. As the slogan of Beibamboo says: You can rent happiness...

Punainen Norsu

Another interesting ecological design brand is Punainen Norsu (http://www.punainennorsu.com/index.php), who's products has been seen on this blog before in the Turku Design Now -posting. Punainen Norsu's products are adorable retro-styled clothing mainly for chldren. Some of the products are made of genuine old retro fabrics, and they are sewn in Finland, except for the Hedgehog -series which is sewn in Estonia. Punainen Norsu is designed by Helena Opas, and she told me that as a novelty she had designed a border lining for the cartboard package of Finnish maternity aid packing, which can be used as a baby's first bed. Just take a look at these super-cute patterns:

Enne

Enne Design (http://www.enne.fi/) is also a company that designs ecological children's wear. Enne's products are made of organically grown cotton and printed and sewn in Finland. Enne Design's products look soft, sensitive and child-like.

Boutique Minne

Boutique Minne (http://www.boutiqueminne.com/) is a vintage boutique situated in Turku. They sell genuine vintage clothing, but they also sew new products and fix products to be made-to-measure. I loved the dresses and jewellery they had on display. Thake a look at the beige dress below, it had details e.g. from an old watch!

Humbugi

Humbugi has also been presented in this blog befor (see Lasipalatsi Design Markets -posting), but let's see what wonderful and new they had to offre this time:

These cute silver leather bags are made of material that has been used as an upholstery in an elevator of a hotel in Moscow!

A Speciality Product:

Ipanajamit is a children's wear boutique that sells many ecological brands on address www.ipanajamit.com. I payed attention to these colourful bags by Coll.part. I found out that they are made of recycled materials and produced according to Fair Trade's standards. The products are made of plastic bags used by fishermen all over Cambodia! The plastic bags find a new life as hats, bags, purses, baskets etc. All the products are made by Fair Trade organisations in Cambodia. The aim of the company is to support social development projects and to produce first quality products. On of the projects supports women in need of help ofering them professional education and a possibility to their children to go to school, too. The other project helps the victims of mine fields and polio patients. The artistic manager of the colourful world of Coll.part is Nina Raeber. A purhase for a good cause, I would say!

 

About the event

The event was a very warm-spirited, and I enjoyed very much learning about new ecological design brands. What I liked about the display in the event was that all the companies had equal fixtures for display. The desks were made of used cartboard boxes, and the racks were made of birch branches painted white. The ecological philosophy was present in the fixtures as well! I also liked the fact that the companies had carefully selected the products they wanted to present, and the displays were OK because they were not too full.

The event was not only about selling the products, there was also an espresso bar and photo shootings that people were able to watch in a "behind the scenes" -kind of way (see the picture above).

About the assortment of House of Eco, I payed attention that many of the companies sold products for children, but hopefully in the future there will be more ecological products for fashionable women as well. I also hope that the event was a success for the companies that attented it. I didn't see any advertisements about the event anywhere, so I do hope that the crowds foud their way to the world of ecological design products!