SámiBracelet No2

I made one more traditional style tin thread SámiBracelet. It is following the traditional style but my own design.

It is 2,5 cm wide and has a big moose horn button made by my father-in-law.

Connected

My own design tin thread embroidery belt Anttu's Life is now ready for the use. It has silver-golden snake tablet weave band. It is modern style Sámi design but it included a lot old and traditional strong symbolism for the protection. Still it reminds us all about the joy of life, but also asking for and providing the help.

Figures

I have been embroidering little samples for my upcoming tin thread embroidery course 24.5.2025 at my work Tornion kansalaisopisto community college. This is a traditional design. You can find it in Mona Callenberg's book Tennrådsbroderier.

This is my and my father-in-law design we've done together. This is a figure of a capercaillie (=wood grouse). It is one of the designs I have made for sale years ago when the digital photographing, not to mention smart phone photographing, was not discovered itself up here yet. But, if you have visit Lapland in late 1990's - early 2000 and bought a traditional style bag with a figure like this, it is designed by us and embroidered by me under the trademark E.I.S Design. The difference of this new wood grouse to the old one is that this new one has a glass bead eye, the vintage ones has tin thread embroidery eye. It is like a small line there where the eye is. No photographs to be published about those ones -sorry- but they are made of reindeer leather "sisna" handbags. I made about max 5 with wood grouse design. Can't remember exactly how many but for sure they are unique because this design was never before until now published anywhere else. I found it in my notes when seeking the designs to use for the upcoming course. I do have details about it where exactly these bags were sold, so from that you can recon the real vintage item. 😉

This is my own design from my new collection. It is not finished yet. I make these small samples on different fabrics with different tin threads so that the students will be able to see how different threads turn out in the figure.

Anttu'sLife

Isn't it amazing how life turns out sometimes? How you find the connection between the things/occasions/happenings at the end?

I designed this Sámi tin thread embroidery belt last autumn when we were waiting the autumn to frost the ground, cover the world by the snow and ice. It was a bit difficult to let it all come out for the design and decide which form this symbolic figure takes. Will there be starts, snow flakes or flowers? Will there be the snake or not. Will there be the holes between the worlds or not? 

It all progressed pretty slow during the winter, but suddenly when we turn to April I felt huge inner force to get it completed. I felt enormous inner force to complete this belt with powerful symbolic figures of noidi and travelling between the worlds successfully. 27.4.2025 I was just finishing the embroidery with the glass beads that drive the evil away and keep us all safe while they create the holes and make it possible for us to travel between the worlds. On that moment we received a phone call.

There was a dog in the ice in the bay. It means the waters have started to melt and get free from the ice cover. The ice cover is still there but it is weak and anyone can fall through. At the end there is a creature in the hole the broken ice has formed out. It is almost impossible to get out without help. So, now we got a phone call someone saw and heard there was a dog in the broken ice and asked us to go and see because it was on our side of the bay. I watched my spiritual belt and said "Keep us safe and let us travel between the worlds." Then I stood up and we hurried to the bay shore. We found the poor dog and got it up. Of course we called also 112 but had to act because it takes time to get help and we already had someone professional with us. 

The story has got its final happy end with one more scar in my body because of the sharp ice. This belt is Anttu's life. The praise for life and that spirit we all can find again even we had already given up. I saw from his eyes and cold stiffened body that he had given up already. I asked him: "I guess you are not going to give up yet, aren't you?" He kept on staring into the darkness and sigh: "There is no other way." I responded: "No, don't you give up yet, we do get you up if you just hang on one more moment, I promise, but you need to hang on, we will get you out." And that's how I was able to bring him back to the life. That's how we got up his body but also life & spirit.

For us all it is possible to try out again. Like Anttu, you can ask help. Receiving the help may feel eternity. Waiting for its arrival may feel horrible. But if you just cry out and ask for help, like Anttu did, someone will hear your miserable request and help you or get you help. Don't be afraid of to ask. And keep your eyes and heart open, there might be someone in the need of help. If you can't help, ask someone else. 

Love you all!

NamePlate

When planning our Erasmus+ journey to Dublin the students wanted to make/wear something similar which would show to the other people that we are a group. I suggested us to create hand made nameplates. Because especially foreign names are the ones you always forget and find difficult.

Everyone designed their own nameplates and used the technique they wanted. I waited until I knew what they all were making so that I use some other technique none had chosen. That's how I ended up to make mine by tin thread embroidery that is a form of Sámi crafts.

First I designed the pattern, then I transferred it to the iron on backing fabric. Then I did the tin thread embroidery by the 0,25mm tin thread (the finest available) on a piece of wool that was left over from my Sámi costume and FourWindsHat. Then I needed some reindeer leather to finish the nameplate itself.

First I sew the inner edges. I needed Marilla for this and we worked just fine together. Even I don't have the leather presser feet for her.

After sewing together the leather and wool I was able to cut off the extra wool fabric to make it all to the right size.

I needed also something to hang/fasten the nameplate. I had an idea ready for it but it needed a lot of work. If possible, we wanted to show that we are from Finland. That´s why I made these tiny flags of wool: Sámi flag and Finland flag.

The next step was the challenging one. I needed to make it all succeed by one stitching round because the sewing makes holes into the leather. The flag part is very thick so I need to pay a lot of attention when sewing it. Notice that the background leather is bigger at this point that the front side leather.

After sewing it around the outer edges I cut off the extra leather of the background leather. There are two "jump stitches" but I decided to do nothing to them because they are symmetrically on the both sides of the flags. Fixing them would also cause visible signs so I decided not to. In this way you don't notice it if you don't know. 😊

After finishing the nameplate and renewing my passport I was ready for my Erasmus+ journey with my students. 

Very special and very beautiful like all the nameplates the students made.

SámiBracelet No1

It's been a long time since I made tin thread embroidery. I made them for sale over 20 years ago. Now I am back in business and have started new projects. This Sámi tin thread bracelet is just a warm up and very 1st project after years. It is a gift for a very special friend.

It is quite interesting that at basic this is traditional Sámi design but it is actually made by macramé method. That proves something about fashion design and cultural mix via politics, trades, voyages and marriages. But it proves also that when we have 4 threads there is no millions of ways to tie it up together.