Spring feelings from Japan!

The new summer catalog from our Japanese long term partner Belle Maison has been published! Here´s some pics of the delicacies, find the lovely cushions with floral patterns and cute slippers with tiny birds! We are definitely waiting for the designer samples to arrive! All photos by Belle Maison.

                                                                       Cute slippers with pattern with a tiny bird. Photo: Belle Maison, Japan 2015.

                                                                      A cushion cover with a floral heart pattern. Photo: Belle Maison, Japan 2015.

                                                                                                     A multipatterned bed set. Photo: Belle Maison, Japan 2015.

Festive Atmosphere

"It's not the calendar date that makes a celebration, it's the people. Sometimes even preparing for a party can turn the everyday into a small celebration; adding decorations and setting the table, small but immensely enjoyable things. Being together is more important than having clean floors.The darkening nights are an invitation to decorate the home, make it cosy and ask friends over for some mulled wine. A Christmas atmosphere can easily be created using soft, warm and welcoming textiles, which this year feature reds in apple and cranberry shades accompanied by metallic tones." 

The Melba table textiles by Miia create a holiday atmosphere at home. Find your own from Finlayson. 

Melba kitchen and interior textiles, Finlayson 2014 / Photo: Suomen Kerta

Paper Birds flying to Berlin

Pattern Bakery is taking part in the Helsinki Fresh exhibition showcasing 25 most interesting fashion designers, accessory designers, illustrators and photographers from Helsinki.  The exhibition takes place in Direktorenhaus, Berlin, from June 15th to July 8th.  We are happy to present these wonderful origami birds featuring our joyful patterns. Here's a taste of what's coming!

React-able ReacTable

I have to admit that I'm a bit of a nerd when it comes to cool-looking technology - especially when it has something to do with music. Here's what's gotten my attention lately : the ReacTable. I would love to have the opportunity to try this live!

Simply put, here's how it works: the apparatus is basically a table with an interactive surface interface. The surface reacts with cubes and other modules placed on the table. Some manipulate frequency, some rhythm, some work as metronomes, and so forth. You can twist and turn the modules to manipulate the sounds in different ways: make it faster, slower, higher, lower... Take a look at the videos at their website for a better idea.


The project originated on 2003 at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona and it was presented for the first time two years after at the International Computer Music Conference in Barcelona. Since the launch, probably the widest popularity was gained during Björk's Volta-tour where the apparatus was played live throughout the string of concerts. The ReacTable has also won several prestigious awards.


What's also great about the ReacTable, is that it works not only as a mixing table of sorts, but also as a great tool for education for kids and why not adults too. It visualizes for example structures, wavelengths, rhythms in comprehensive ways and makes it all easy to handle. The table can also be played by several people at the same time! So far it has been produced mainly for museums, science centers and galleries, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a lighter, commercial version.

The instrument seems to excite a great variety of people from hard core musicians to kids and random experimenters. And no wonder.
It looks like a blast.

(Photos courtesy of ReacTable.)

The Bestest of Stockholm

... or should I say my personal favorites? Anyway, here's my pick of the nicest places I found on my recent trip to Stockholm, Sweden, and I would recommend them worth the visit when you're in town.

The rug above is from a shop called Herr Judit who sell vintage fashion, accessory and furniture. We went to their shop situated in an old fire station. They also had lovely, old ladders, but I thought that would have been too much to be carrying back to Finland. Anyway, the rug will be perfect next to my book shelf.


Went to a bookstore, and bought socks. Right. Konst-ig, an art bookstore happened to have an exhibition by Yurio Seki, a Japanese Graphic Designer. She has a brand called "Salvia" and had few items and books on sale. Fell in love with the socks straight away, plus they're super comfy.

Had a lovely lunch in Urban Deli, but had to buy salt & vinegar chips too to take home, something that is quite hard to find in Helsinki. Also got some lavender, I've started to try and learn the art of baking, and so far the results have been quite promising. My favorite book at the moment is the Ottolenghi, and they had a recipe for lavender and honey muffins, which turned out really good!

White on white

Winter in Finland is always white in some way, but this year it has been an exceptionally bright one. It is like living within the frosty world of Narnia, snow everywhere, white light even during the darkest night, all sounds muffled by the piles of white.
After a few failed attempts to capture the most breathtaking moments, I came accross these images by a fellow designer, Tia.
I hope you enjoy.

More dream houses

Come new year and new design challenges. I decided it was time to make a life long dream come true and bought myself an old wooden house. Lots and lots of layers of cardboard and wallpaper to be removed and nails to be pulled out. She will need a fair bit of TLC to begin with, but I think we'll get along fine. This is what home looks like now, but I'm hoping by the end of spring I will actually be able to move in. You wouldn't be wrong in guessing there might be few more posts about the progress...

House of dreams

We hope you all had wonderful holidays!

In my family we have a tradition of building a gingerbread house for every Christmas. The years have seen all kinds of designs including an airport, a church, a Moomin-house, several cabins, a couple of reindeer herds and the ambitious 4-floor apartment building, which turned out to be inedible. The dough was too hard. Usually buildings have met their doom on New Years eve, when children have fought over the best parts - the ones with most icing and candy.

This year it was just me building the house. I decided on a miniature model of a new playhouse, which will be built at our summer cottage next summer. The house is my parents' and my pet-project for the their grandchildren in the family. Although it took a couple of days, the process is always fun all the way from designing and drawing the parts to the last sprinkle of powdered sugar on top. Though I have to admit I took a shortcut this time: ready-made, frozen dough.

We'll see whether, once built, the actual house will have as many fans as it's gingerbread version.

Have a great year 2010!

The "hideaway" ring

My new favorite idea: the hideaway ring by the Seattle based John Welden. Wanting to create something extra-special for his wife, the crafter came up with an idea of a plain band with a twist.

While closed, the ring seems a a plain titanium ring.


When opened, it reveals a single, bright diamond.

Photos by courtesy of John Welden.

Welden created the mechanism as well as some of the tools needed to create this ring himself. Read more on his webpage.
This piece is beautiful as well as ingenious.

Sauna Savu

All pictures and photos courtesy of Sauna Savu.

This beauty is my favorite of Habitare -fair last week. A sauna called Savu, one of the four finalists in competition for architects and designers under 35, this years theme was to design a sauna.

Made out of left-over or used, recycled timber, the surface on the inside and outside has been burned, an old but forgotten way to protect the wooden buildings from weather. Burning the surface has been used at least in Nordic countries and Japan, away burn also inpurities like dirt, mold or concrete otherwise maybe found in recycled timber.

This object to me is the epitome of what sauna should be. Pure, calm, almost like a nest, safe haven, place to relax and empty your mind. Both visually and in athmosphere, it was beautiful.


From 21st of September to 8th of October, Sauna Savu resides at Cable Factory, where these photos are from. Every evening from 18-21 it will be heated for public use, and during day time and weekends it can be viewed as an exhibition piece. More info here.

Habitare 09

For the past couple of weeks we've been privileged with an intern. Annika is studying for a BA in Textile Design, with a specific interest in free-lance pattern design, and she has been great help with assembling the new trend and colour charts for future seasons. Last week we sent her to Habitare -fair, and here's few things she found interesting at the fair.

Beautiful Käpy (cone) paper lamps by Anne-Mari Vierikko.


Designer Anu Penttinen of Nounou design had made a wall of perhaps trial pieces? The different colours and shapes created an interesting surface.


Lovi's products are for self-assembly. Made in Finland, mainly of birch plywood, they are easy to put together to make the final three-dimensional shape. At the fair they had for example different sized trees, birds and balls, their smallest items are postcard sizes.


Finlayson had an interesting, big, cube shaped fair booth, decorated with one of their Autumn patterns, also seen here on the left. It's called "Kuutio" (cube) and inspired by Rubik's cube.


Brainwood had made an interesting wall for their fair stall by combining different surfaces out of plywood. The company makes panels for interior design and acoustics for both public and private spaces.

Loviisa

These cute, pastel coloured houses are from Loviisa, about an hours to drive to east from Helsinki. They recently had their annual "Wanhassa Wara Parempi" exhibition, where you can tour the whole town and peek into old, renovated homes. This year they had also included an exhibition of modern art, and it was fascinating to see how the old houses and mostly vintage interiors accommodated the modern sculptures and paintings most of us are used to seeing in galleries. They didn't seem out of place, maybe because the homes were real homes of real people, who had built their interiors along the years anyway, they were not museums from hundred years back. A beautiful town, by the sea and well worth a visit.

And lovely vintage linen from Dora Jung at the local thrift store.

Autumn in Helsinki

Wish You were here

After all the hard work with the new collection, I decided I had earned a change of scenery, I treated myself for a weekend get-away. It was a last-minute deal, but I was lucky to find a real luxury resort on a bargain price. Here's few photos from the trip.


"The journey was comfortable and interesting, although a bit bumpy. Thankfully also the luggage arrived safely."




"Our room for the night was cosy and with good air conditioning. The best thing about it was the view from the balcony though."

"The dinner was prepared by the chef de cuisine himself, and I have to say that it was one of the best meals I've had for some time."


"Even the tea we had the next morning was carefully and skillfully prepared and presented."

"Would be happy to recommend this place."