Tiina Taivainen sketching with ink

Tiina Taivainen’s family has a cottage in Utsjoki, the northernmost place in Finland. It took her almost 30 years to visit the cottage and the village after her childhood. It was magical for her to meet the childhood memories and see the unchanged views over the river and the arctic hills. This pattern family called ‘Utsjoki’ is inspired by the bare nature of Lapland and Tiina’s childhood memories. Tiina Taivainen has been sketching with ink and black watercolor all patterns for the ‘Utsjoki’ pattern family.

Lapinvuokko (lat.Dryas octopetala) is a small plant that grows in the arctic area. It is typically only less than 10 cm high and has small white flowers. These flowers also grow in the yard of Tiina’s family cottage.

While spending her time in the North, Tiina photographed this small arctic flower for future use. As the flower seems to grow always in one direction, Tiina decided to give diagonal direction for the pattern ‘Vuokot’ that she later on designed.

Tiina wanted to capture the spirit of this small flower by sketching with ink with as few strokes as possible. The outcome was the base for the ‘Kukat’ pattern. When sketching she often thinks what is the main thing that visually describes the object and with what she can capture its feel.

The ‘Tunturit’ pattern is inspired by the landscape of Lapland. The mountains of Lapland have a special roundish shape in peaks because they are so old and the ice age formed them as such.