Eco Furs 7in1 coat won the renowned Golden A' Design Award 2014!

 

My convertible coat has been honoured with the famed Golden A' Design Award in Fashion, Apparel and Garment Design Category chosen as one of the winners by the transnational judging committee of the A' Design Awards & Competitions among a great number of submissions.

"The Golden A' Design Award is a prestigious award given to top 3% percentile designs that has exhibited an exemplary level of excellence in design. The designs are judged by a panel of three different jury which is composed of Academic, Professional and Focus Group Members. The designs are evaluated with score normalization to remove any biases and are voted on aspects such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, fun details, technology, and any other specific points that could be considered, each of these points are further weighted for different jury groups.

A' Design Award and Competitions aims to highlight the excellent qualifications of best designs, design concepts and design oriented products. A' Design Award and Competitions are organized and awarded annually and internationally in multiple categories to reach a wide, design-oriented audience." 

Please learn more about the A' Design Award by clicking here and about my winning project by clicking here.
 

Something New for Spring - by Incident!

Styling a collection of 'furs' is not easy job towards the spring season, especially in a short notice.  The only option really was to head on hunting at the high street stores when there was just 2 days to go to an emergency studio photo shoot. 

Being quite hot trend at the moment, I had my hopes high on finding a timeless, super elegant Bond girl style jumpsuit* to combine with my classic & f/w 13-14 capes & stoles but had to return to my workshop empty handed. 24 hours before the scheduled shoot I realised the game was not lost; I can make one myself - and without compromises, such as 'it's great BUT I don't like the straps', or '...the fabric is too shiny', or '...the legs are too short'.  I found a perfect piece of lovely, about 95% wool blend fabric in my box of treasuries and threw it with a little piece of silk lining, and myself in the project.

In the late hours of that day I was delighted to notice that my pattern drafting skills were not that rusty after all as the project resulted in actually a really nice garment which also fitted perfectly the next day's model Katie B!

 

Photo: Absolute Studios Dublin, Model: Katie B/ Distinct Model Management, Makeup & hair: Julie Caulfield

Lots of people have along the past couple of months enquired if I include other garments than tufted pieces in my collections as it would be easier to buy a full outfit from one seller instead of going looking for the matching gown etc. somewhere else. That makes sense, however the answer is 'not really', but after careful thinking I've come to decision I add 1-2 elegant basics made from top quality materials,  like my shoot sample, to all collections.

    

Having been a target of lots of positive feed back since the shoot may the jumpsuit be one of those 'basics'. It is available to order (wholesale and individual commissions) straight away. It can be made from fine wool blend fabric with silk lining for all-year-around piece. Or it also makes an elegant wedding/evening 'gown' made from thick, heavily falling matte satin. Colours are classic black and off white. RRP €319-338.

 

*The inspiration

- Hope you like it!

Heli MG at Habitare 2012 with DesignShopOutlet.com

Heli MG Home range grew with 5 new products this year. The child minded additions were launched for sale to Finnish & international trade and public at Habitare 2012 Interior Decoration, Furniture and Design Fair by DesignShopOutlet.com 2 weeks ago.  

Photo: DesignShopOutlet.com

The tufted stick animals George, Sammy, Danny and Hector - made with mixed recyclables; woollen socks, waste pieces of fleece, buttons inherited from my Granny, to mention a few - enjoyed being in the flash lights of Finnish press - especially George the Goat who Avotakka, a well established Finnish interior decoration magazine selected as one of the top 100 products of the show. To find more info on these delightful fellas and adopt one or all of them please click yourself to DSO's shop.

       

Photos: DesignShopOutlet.com

Other members of the Heli MG 'fauna', a bright and lightweight pair of rocking ducks, being introduced at the show and also being available at DSO afterwards, particularly attracted the attention of the smallest fair visitors. Those who were brave enough to test run the soft little rockers fell helplessly in love, confirms a trustworthy source of information.

Photo: DesignShopOutlet.com

Photo: Heli

What also makes this pair interesting is the frame material used - polystyrene foam i.e. amazingly durable building & insulation material that according to my carpenter Dad, among others, was used and loved lots especially in furniture pieces ordered for public spaces in 1970's & 80's.

I discovered polystyrene and got inspired by it whilst doing a custom sewing project for a cool Irish company Made In Hollywood. They create amazing things with polystyrene foam; not only for architectural & insulation purposes but they also make unique props & signs for marketing. For better idea of their fantastic production please click yourself to their portfolio here. They also cut the figures for my duck rockers.

Polystyrene inspires me because it's lightweight, durable and non-water-absorbent material. It feels warm when being sat or leant on. Not being a good ground for mold to land and stick to, it makes a fantastic base for example for the balcony furniture that generally are also quite heavy to handle and cold to sit on. Also, polystyrene doesn't burn unless it is in an immediate contact with a flame. And the best of all its features in a woman's point of view is that it can be shaped easily at home too, with a simple saw, without heavy power tools!

Solid wood has always been my personal favourite of the furniture materials. BUT I'd be very happy to pick polystyrene as a the material for small home accessories and children's room furniture to make them lighter to lift  - and less easily bruising for us adults and the little ones as even the sharp corners of polystyrene items are soft - what do you think?

As this year's novelty DSO also introduced a few other Irish Designers and a handful of young Finnish Design talents at their stand. The fabulous work of Irish The Printing Rooms, Jennifer Slattery Textiles and Klickity were very warmly welcomed by the show visitors and members of press - very exciting! Check out the show highlights here.

Traditional Scandinavian Rya Rug Sewing Technique

All Eco Furs products are tufted by using Scandinavian Rya Rug Sewing Technique. The technique is a very simple yarn knot created into fabric with a needle. The knot is repeated - one by one -  to cover the base cloth with rows of them.

I'm going to show you very shortly how the knot is made. You can then test it yourself during a lazy day in the sun and see if you get bitten by a  Rya sewing bug - like the Habitare 2011 visitors did at my Traditional Scandinavian Rya Rug Sewing Technique Workshop last September. 

At the workshop I taught to five 10-student-groups - including among others 3 Finnish Politicians and their assistants, a glam rock band Flinch, Michelin Star Chef Jouni Törmänen, Textile Designer Sari Syväluoma, Fashion Designer & Finnish Project Runway Finalist 2010 Maria Jokela, Finnish Association for Mental Health staff members and many, many other expo visitors - how to sew the knot and then all had a chance to take part in tufting one of my new designs back then, a birch trunk inspired neck cushion that was launched at DesignShopOutlet.com during the expo.

Photo: Juha Pohtio 

Lads from Flinch did excellent job!

Photo: Juha Pohtio

Finnexpo and Finnish Association for Mental Health staff were so excited about their new tufting skill that it was really difficult to kick them out of the class at the end of the hour that was allowed for each group.

Photo: Juha Pohtio 

Finnish MEPs Anneli Jäättenmäki and Riikka Manner and Member of Finnish Parliament Elsi Katainen were listening carefully my demonstration before throwing themselves in to sewing.

Photo: Juha Pohtio 

And here Elsi is proudly presenting her first completed row - beautiful work, well done!

Photo: Ellen Tuomaala/ Finnish Association for Mental Health

The day's work resulted in a 90cm long log cushion that was sold to Tapiola Group in the same evening for fabulous €5000 price. The money in full was donated to the Finnish Association for Mental Health to help young people with mental health problems. Below the Tapiola Group's Markus Savolainen, who was among the seriously bitten ones - in a good way though. He also got an honor to bring the cushion to its new home at the Tapiola Group HQ.

From left Markus Savolainen, Sinikka Kaakkuriniemi and Tarja Heiskanen (Finnish Association for Mental Health) with myself.

Photo: Ellen Tuomaala/ Finnish Association for Mental Health

The event was hosted by DesignShopOutlet.com and generously sponsored by Fiskars (scissors), Pirkanmaan Kotityo Oy (yarns) and Heli (other cushion materials) and it was organized in collaboration with Finnish Association for Mental Health.

- Now it's your turn to dive in the fascinating world of Rya sewing! You need a piece of loosely woven canvas fabric. For example sack fabric is excellent for this purpose. Start sewing from the left bottom edge and proceed to the right. Next row will be sewn above the first one. Leave 1cm-gap between the rows (about 4-5 weft threads' up counted from the first row). To achieve straight don't fall of the track between the 2 weft threads.

 

- What do you think? ;-)