Browsing by discipline "Slöjdvetenskap"

Hemp was once the most widely used textile fiber, as it can be grown in a large part of the world, including Finland. It is an ecological textile plant, because it doesn't require much irrigation or pesticides. Hemp fiber is very durable, breathable and moisture-absorbing and doesn't mold easily. The aim of the study is to explore the weaving methods of the hemp yarn, find the functional product applications and produce weaving patterns for amateur weavers. The goal is to make it easier for hand weavers to start using hemp fiber in their projects. The research method was qualitative design-based research. The data consisted of prototypes produced by the researcher, prototyping process journal and interview with an expert in the field. The prototypes were woven with various weaves and setts with Java-hemp yarn. 39 samples were woven from two warps. The properties of the samples were evaluated independently and in the interview with the expert. The properties were examined with haptic and visual perception. The evaluation of the samples emphasized the applicability of the patterns to the weaving amateurs. Couple of the samples were washed in order to find out how the textiles change after washing them. The data was analyzed by using content analysis. The results were applied by producing five weaving patterns using different weaves and setts. The products of the weaving patterns were bathroom rug, decorative acoustic board, garden apron, drawstring backpack and grocery bag. The weaves utilized were warp-faced corkscrew, honeycomb, m's and o's, undulating twill and double fabric. The yarn used in the study was inelastic, got easily broken and produced lint, so it is suitable for experienced weavers and should be handled with care during the weaving process. Due to the washing properties, the most suitable weave patterns for this yarn have short floats and tight setts. The yarn was rough, thick and stiff, so it is not suitable for products that need to drape well or are worn next to skin. The best applications are easy-care home decor textiles and bag fabrics. The advantages of the yarn are its expressive appearance and fast weaving process due to the thickness of the yarn.

Finnish fashion house tradition involves a great deal of technical expertise and craftsmanship. Embroidery can be seen as the crown in the ornamentation of Finnish couture dresses. The aim of this study is to discover and analyze the embroideries made by the Finnish fashion houses in the 1940s-1970s. What materials and techniques were used? What kinds of composition and designs were established? The second aim is to compare the findings with haute couture and couture embroideries. The research data consists of 25 Finnish couture dresses and accessories produced in the1940s–1970s. The study is conducted by using the object-based research method. The research data is explored as material objects to find out the particularity of the embroideries. The dresses and accessories were photographed during this process. The data was analyzed using a qualitative data analysis and research software Atlas.ti. Photographs taken from the research data were used as primary documents in the analysis. An analysis framework was used to create codes, code families and nets to organize the research data. Magazine pictures and literature were used as secondary data. The secondary data consists of the Finnish craft magazine Omin käsin and its articles on beading. The dresses and accessories were decorated by mainly using bead embroidery. Bead embroidery was also mixed with passementerie. Different sizes and styles of beads and ribbons were used. Different stitches were a way to accomplish the desired design. Finnish fashion house tradition allowed embroiderers to find their own technical ways. Embroiderers skills and workmanship were valued and trusted. White and light colors were mainly used in embroidery beads. In passementerie gold and silver were the most common colors. Embroideries never covered the whole dress as in the haute couture dresses. The embroidery was usually placed on the neckline or some other structural line of the dress. Geometrical shapes and nature topics were popular in the embroideries. Each designer and embroiderer developed their own recognizable style. While haute couture embroideries were much richer and bolder, Finnish fashion house embroideries can be described as simple and precious. As such they were suitable for Finnish occasions, style and personality.

The purpose of this research is to deepen the understanding of the culture of the veil among Somali women in Finland. The research deals with ethnicity, identity, easing the immigrant's readjustment with the help of one's own culture, and the connection between the religion of Islam and the veil. The veil will be studied from both the historical and religious point of view. The research will also familiarize the reader with the dress code for women in the Koran. The empirical part of the research is carried out as a qualitative study with the help of content analysis, with emphasis in phenomenology. The aim of the phenomenological research method is to reach a person's experience world, and to search for common contents from individual experiences. The material for this study has been collected by interviewing ten Somali women. Some of the women wear veils, some do not. It can be said, on the ground of this research, that the decision about taking on the veil is made by the women themselves. The main cause for wearing the veil is to indicate religiousness. As other motives we can see a search for security, enhancing of solidarity, individual interpretation of the instructions of the religion, covering the ethnic dress while outside, protecting men from the beauty of women, and wearing the veil in the mosque or while praying. As a latent motive we can point out the resisting of Western culture. Not wearing the veil can be justified by the women's need for independence, the veil being unpractical, the want of modernity, the alternation of different ways of dressing, the adaptation of the new culture, abandoning one's own culture, and abandoning the external emphasizing of the religion. Also the veil is not part of the Somali culture; it is a habit adapted from elsewhere.

This study aims to increase knowledge about benefits of hobby crafts. In previous studies, hobby crafts have been described e.g. as an empowering element in an unsure modern society, a developer of thinking skills, a way to express belonging to a community or a culture, or a therapy tool. The goal of this research was to measure how much people experience different benefits described in literature from hobby crafts. The goal was also to form larger benefit groups of single benefits and find out differences in experiencing them between people of different ages, of different lengths of experience, who use different craft techniques or craft process, and who evaluate their skills level different. The research method chosen was online questionnaire survey, and the link to the questionnaire was shared in social media. There were 1754 respondents. Nine benefit components combining different single benefits were identified using principal component analysis. The principal component analysis was followed by analysis of variance to find out which groups differed from each other in experiencing each benefit component. Nine benefit components were found in the study: Developing process and creative skills, Independence and empowerment, Health and therapeutic benefits, Learning craft skills, Experientiality, creative expression and joy, Social benefits, Practical product benefits, Developing perseverance and Pride and joy of the product. Statistically significant small or medium size differences between different groups were found in all benefit components. Among others, the following conclusions were presented. The results support using holistic craft process in school crafts: more process and creative skills development was experienced from holistic craft process than from partial one. Guiding students to become aware of learning these skills is recommended. The results highlight health and therapeutic benefits, and benefits of independence and empowerment, as additions to the classifications of meanings of craft presented in previous literature. In experiencing health and therapy benefits, people using other techniques but sewing were highlighted, as was age group 35–49 and ones following instructions in their craft process. Benefits of independence and empowerment were especially experienced on the contrary by people sewing, aged between 50–64 and the ones who designed their crafts themselves. The differences are good to be noted when planning courses or therapy for different needs. Experiencing social benefits was strongly highlighted among people aged 50 or more. Gathering together doing crafts can be a good way to prevent loneliness among the aging people.

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate what kind of meanings charity craft makers associate in their craft making processes. The research problem was formed through reading up on theoretical studies about craft making processes. In earlier studies meanings attached to craft making that have emerged are the planning and making process of crafts, communality of crafts and the joy produced by crafts. According to researchers, motives behind taking part in charity are the will to help and desire to participate in sociological activity. The object of this study is to analyze how these meanings attached to crafts and charity are connected to the making processes of makers of charity crafts and how the objects of charity are selected. Method: I collected my data by using qualitative and quantitative approaches, yet qualitative was my study's main method of approach. My data was collected by a questionnaire, which was published on the internet. The questionnaire had structured statements and one open question, which were used to gather information on the meanings attached to charity crafts. The questionnaire got 488 answers. From the statements I gathered quantitative data concerning the typicality of meanings and from the open answers I gathered qualitative data on the thoughts of individual respondents. The research methods complemented each other and I got diverse information on the subject. The analysis of the statements was descriptive and the analysis of the open answers was theoretical. Results and conclusions: The meanings attached to crafts received many characteristics in the making process of the respondents. The object of charity was chosen according to the respondent's ideologies and views. Some felt that they made a sociological difference by taking part in charity crafts. The feeling of making a difference depended on the charity object and project. Helping was viewed as important, which stood out in the results. Helping via crafts was natural for craft hobbyists and its tangibility was viewed as important. In the designing process respondents emphasized the planning of colors, which gave way to creativity. Most of the products were made according to ready instructions, which suited the ready products. Although most respondents made crafts alone, communality was felt by participating in shared projects. On the internet following projects and joining discussions brought up communal feelings. Making crafts was greatly enjoyed and it was viewed as relaxing and joy bringing. The respondents made lots of crafts frequently.

Objectives: This thesis is about interior designer and interior design. In this thesis, I interviewed seven people who had had their home designed by an interior designer. My main goal was to find out if the interior design or the interior designer had any influence on dwelling or how the inhabitants felt about their home or if they even called their apartment as home. The terms "apartment" and "home" are often used as a synonym for each other but in my mind, there is a clear difference between those concepts. My goal was also to find out if the interior design had an influence on how the people define those two concepts. Methods: My method in this thesis was theme interview. Of the seven people interviewed, four were women and three were men. Five of the interviewees lived in the Helsinki metropolitan area and two in the inner Finland. The interviews have been transcribed and the answers have been categorized into themes. I also requested my interviewees to take pictures from their homes and those pictures have also been analyzed in this thesis. Results and conclusions: The interior designer had a little influence on how well the inhabitants dwelled in their homes but the apartments had been called homes without the designer, as well. The interior designer did not either have any influence on the inhabitants' favorite places. However, the co-operation between the interior designer and the inhabitants had been successful excluding some minor exceptions. The inhabitants trusted especially in the designers' expertise in the major changes such as bringing down a wall etc. and in the color choices. Based on the interviews, the functionality of the apartment is essential for the inhabitants in their everyday life.

Research of natural dyes and more ecofriendly textile materials has been of common interest for years. Research of natural dyes has mostly focused on the dyeing of wool, cotton, silk and regenerated cellulosic fibers. This study expands on this topic by combining natural dyes with the latest regenerated cellulosic fiber Ioncell®. When starting this study there was no previous research about the dyeing of Ioncell® and the most recently published research had only fo-cused on industrial dyes. By varying mordant type, acidity and colorant type, their respective effect on the fiber dye up-take could be studied. The data consisted of color measurements of the dyed samples, which were used to analyze the fiber dye uptake. The mordants used were alum, ferrous sulfate and tannic acid with unmordanted reference samples. Acidities used for the dye baths were pH 4 and pH 8. The colorants were dried skins of yellow onions [Allium cepa] and Cortinarius semisanguineus. Wool was used as a reference material for Ioncell® due to its color taking properties being well known and therefore, the dyeing process could be easily verified by it. A spectrophotometer was used for the color measurements. The color uptaking was evaluated by observing the color of the dyed samples and the differences in color between the undyed and dyed fibers. The color fastness to laundering as well as to artificial light were evaluated according to the standards SFS-ENG ISO-B02 and SFS-ENG ISO-C06 by assessing the col-or change, and fastness to laundering was also assessed by the staining of the multifiber ad-jacent fabrics. For a cellulosic fiber, Ioncell's® color uptake was low in alkaline dye baths. With Cortinarius semisanguineus as the colorant, the color take was low regardless of the acidity and the mor-dant type. With Allium cepa as the colorant, in the acid dye bath the color take was quite good. The color varied depending on the mordant used. However, these strong colors had lower color fastness to laundering than the pale colored samples. During staining differences occurred on the behalf of Allium cepa. Acidity or mordant only had an effect on the staining with alum mordanted samples dyed with Cortinarius semisanguineus. The best color fastness to light had alum and iron mordanted samples dyed with Allium cepa. With the tannin and iron mordants the acidity correlated with the color fastness to light, higher pH giving better results. During staining acidity or mordant only had an effect on alum mordanted samples dyed with Cortinarius semisanguineus. For further studies it would be interesting to see if the surprising results between flavonoid and anthraquinoine could be repeated with other dye source mate-rial and would the color uptake improve with the sodium pretreatment of Ioncell® fibers.

The Finnish settlement has stayed in Ingria since the 17th Century. They formed two groups, Äyrämöinen and Savakko. These minorities were different from each other by their dialect, religion and dressing. The focus of this study is on Ingrian Finnish, especially the Savakko textile culture. Research material includes the textile collection of Ingrian Finnish Raija Pedak, her interviews, photographs, writings, newspaper cuttings, proofs and drawings. Comparison is based on objects found from the National Museums Finno-Ugric collections. Research is made by following the craft history in one family through four generations. This study examines textiles from Eastern Ingrian Järvisaari, especially the ritual cloth käspaikka, and the folk costume, their techniques and meanings. The aim of this study is to find out how the Pedak`s collection can reinforce studies of the Savakko textile culture in the early 1900s with new knowledge. After the groups of Savakko and Äyrämöinen assimilated, Ingrian Finnishness formed the primary ethnic identity. This study follows one family and the meanings given to crafts in changing historical contexts, from rural Ingria to the revolution and crises of the Soviet period and finally to the national awakening of the Ingrian Finns. The significance analysis method, created originally for museum objects, was applied in this study. The analysis follows different stages, starting with preparation. Then, research material is put in its broad historical context. After familiarization and data acquisition the research material is evaluated with seven criteria. These are representativeness, authenticity, historical and cultural significance, memorable significance, communal significance, ideal situation and usability. As a result, the study shows that the characteristic handcrafting can be understood as a key symbol of Ingrian Finnishness among with the Finnish language and Lutheranism. The folk costume and other textiles have significant position upholding the Ingrian Finnish culture. They played significant part especially during the perestroika and the national awakening of the Ingrian Finns. Notable in the Pedak`s research material are particularly the ritual cloth käspaikka in Lutheran home and the kitska-headdress as a part of the Savakko folk costume.

Aims. The aim of this study is to find out how Finnish schools’ teachers utilize crafts in their teaching. Previous research handling the aforementioned aim does not exist. Handcrafts as a tool of integration is approached by the six dimensions of teaching. Those dimensions are: teaching goals, teaching contents, teaching methods, teaching contexts, student and teacher. These dimensions are generally approved and widely used in educational research (Kansanen, 2014, 24). Methods. The thesis at hand represents qualitative survey research. The data was collected via an online questionnaire that was distributed to Finnish Schools’ teachers via email. The final amount of respondents was 33. The gathered written data reflects the personal impressions and experiences of Finnish Schools’ teachers. The data was analyzed using theory-guided content analysis. Results and conclusions. The writings of the teachers show that using crafts in teaching is one of the ways of integrating teaching in Finnish Schools. Teachers implement crafts in their teaching in multiple different ways. All in all, teaching Finnish language is seen as the primary responsibility of Finnish Schools. Majority of the respondents however considered crafts as an integrative method important in supporting the language learning of the students. A conclusion can be made that the role of the Finnish schools’ teachers in integrating teaching is significant. Crafts is being taught within the limits of the teachers’ capabilities and in their teaching the benefits of the students are taken into consideration.

The object of this study was the Finnish folk costumes used as work clothes at the Seurasaari Open-Air Museum. The museum's wardrobe had many shortcomings so there was a clear need for a study analyzing and enhancing the situation. The purpose of this study is to find out what kind of outfits should be designed for the staff of the open-air museum in order to meet requirements both for work clothes and folk dresses. Since the open-air museum is simultaneously a cultural history museum and a place of work, the dresses should be not only as historically authentic as possible but also practical as work clothes as far as comfort and maintenance are concerned. Due to the practical nature of the subject, the chosen method of study was design research, in which the design process moves forward in stages based on empirical knowledge. At the first stage of the study, the situation was outlined by making an inventory of museum's wardrobe and interviewing the keeper of the museum. At the second stage, the insights of the staff on their work clothes were reviewed through a survey. In the third stage the objective was to take into consideration both aesthetic and technical viewpoints of possible design solutions. Finally, a practical effort was made to combine these viewpoints regarding the folk dresses and work clothes by sewing the prototypes of two pieces of clothing that are a part of the work outfits. As a result of the study, the proposals for two outfits for two different museum houses were created. In addition to the results of the stages presented earlier, literature and pictures of folk dresses were used as support in the design process. Due to economical reasons, one of the outfits is also usable in two other museum houses. Since there is plenty of information available on both folk dresses and work clothes, it is possible to design outfits that meet the needs of the museum even though it sometimes requires compromises between authenticity and comfort. In addition, the results of this study can be used for rearranging and restocking the museum's wardrobe.