I've followed Jonna's work for quite a while now - there's something about her exuberant use of colour and loose, over-printed splashy designs that feels so fresh against the tide of restrained Scandinavian minimalism.
Her patterns are inspired by her idyllic sounding childhood. Growing up in South West Finland, she explains:
"My main inspiration will always be my late grandmother and growing up by the sea in Finland with her. Back then summers used to be endless, the sun was always shining and running in the forest wearing no shoes and swimming with your clothes on was totally normal. She had a fantastic style of hand knitted cardigans, crazy patterned aprons and woolly socks, which I hope I have also inherited. It was these long summers that gave me my imagination and love of nature, which is where I get all the colours for my work from."
(excerpt from an interview with Patternbooth)
Now this is where I wish I lived nearer to London - next week she is running a series of screen printing workshops as part of the Etsy Market Place at the Dock event which ties in with the London Design Festival. You can register for tickets to the workshops here - they're free!
And on top of being a rising star, she's also dead nice and drives around in a Marimekko-curtained VW campervan. Take a peek into her lovely life here.
Oh wow, this stuff is lovely :-) Everything happens in London, it totally sucks. I used to live there but moved three years ago and now with a little one it's not so easy to get in for things... I do a similar feature to this on my blog, but just featuring UK crafters at the moment :-) http://caveofcraftedwonders.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/uk-crafter-of-week-4.html
ReplyDeleteSuch lovely colours! Thanks for introducing me to her work, I'm following her on Instagram now. I'm feeling wistful for London cultural life too, today there was an amazing event at the V&A Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green, where I used to live...Donna Wilson and Ketchup on Everything were there doing monster making and t-shirt printing workshops...I would have loved to be there! There are loads of great exhibitions coming up, including a major Paul Klee at Tate Modern...I feel a need for a jaunt in the capital! xx
ReplyDeleteOh I know, the Museum of Childhood event sounded fantastic, gutted! There's good stuff going on here of course, but still...
Deletehey flo, another coincidence, i might meet her today. going to the etsy thing at the dock where she has a stand (i was meant to do it but it was all too much with gus starting school etc). i was looking at her website just yesterday :-)
ReplyDeleteSay hi from me! Shame you couldn't fit in the etsy thing - would probably have been fun, but it's hectic when they first start school innit.
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