Hello dear fans of Lillemantel!
First of all I would like to thank You all for this kindness and support! The amount of positive energy what I`ll get is spetacular!
My name is Janika Saar
I am from Southern-North Estonian countryside. My home area could be described as place with small hills, forest and river. First years of my live I grew up with my grandparents in their little farm. My grandfather was the headmaster of local school and also he was giving handicraft lessons to girls in that time. My grandmother was also painting.
For school I moved to Estonian capital Tallinn. I graduated from University as agronomist because my biggest wish was to return to the countryside. After that I was working as agronomist in Collective Farm of Soviet Union. My responsibility was 1000 ha of arable land. Later I moved to work in our oldest and largest National Park of Lahemaa as environmental specialist where I met my husband and where I live now.
At the moment I am living at the heart of Lahemaa (translation would be : Land of coasts or Coastland) in small village called Võsu. We are living in Jaanioja`s handicraft farm what used to be little manor in the past. At Jaanioja there are blacksmith house, 11 meters high tippie and lots of buildings what are all built or restored by my gold-handed husband Janno. Around the year we organize fairytale stories and activities to the groups from kindergarten and schools. This summer will be the 17th summer of organizing art camps for children. For adults who are interested in arts and handicraft I offer courses where is possible to see and learn how I do and what I do.
My favorite toy used to be a bag of textile leftovers, scissors, needle and thread. I learned very early how to sew with old Singer machine, crochet and knit. At the age of 11 I sew my first green skirt with white dots and used to wear it a lot. Later most of my clothes were selfmade, because at the Soviet time it was almost impossible to get something nice from the store. I was knitting in classical way, later I used to knit from patches and then I started to cut old cardigans and connect them in a new way. With improving my technique on connecting patches I found my way to the needle felting and fulling.
I am in business since the year of 1997, it was the time when living standards of city and countryside where really different. Many people moved to the city and I still wanted to live countryside. I started to make clothing for children and selling them in small store. My kids were small and for that reason I cooperated with local school to help them with costumes and then I started with art camps to organize something fun for my daughters. Since kids grew up I had more time to to handicraft and as tradition to make clothes for myself I decided to make myself national styled coat from knitted patches in 2008 with decorative embroidery, with that I won the first prize of “Estonian traditional Coat” contest by Estonian National Art and Handicraft Union. After that I bought my first needle for felting and that was the highlight of experimenting. I discovered completely new world of connecting materials with changing this technique into “painting”. After decorating my first coat with needle-felting I was amazed how beautifully it came out. Since that moment I started to make Floral Coats.
With combining my different skills of making handicraft including needle felting and machine fulling(wooling felt with waching machine) I discovered new technology for myself. Felting and woolling techniques made my work more similar to modelling and painting and this is the point where nothing goes wrong. There is always possible to add or remove something if needed. For me there is nothing secret because everything lies on experience, skills and perception of composition and seeing colors.
We had lot of wool and yarns because we kept sheep. I used to knit and crochet a lot from this plastic and easy modelling material. I like that wool is recyclable material without loosing good appearance. This is the main reason why I use wool materials to create fresh looking and shiny Floral coats.
I prefer to use Estonian local products for creating my works from sheep wool. With combining recycled materials I never know how they react for wooling, this is a little surprise moment and needs testing. With a time experience I now know how different wools react together and how to prevent results what are not fitting with my ideas.
As told I use needle felting and machine woolling. Floral coats are made from old wool cardigans what are embroidered and needle felted together, added some knitted or crocheted parts and finished with needle felting and decorations. Depends on need, all coats are machine wooled more than one time in different level of process. With woolling the structure of materials are changing completely to new material.
For creating Floral coats I search my materials from recycle centers and second hands, wool and yarn are coming from local wool fabrics or small businesses.
Ability of doing handicraft makes possible to realize your dreams and it is also really practical skill what never lets you down. For me it is a lifestyle. It needs a lot of practise and patience.
All Floral coats have some piece of new ideas and technology inside. Discovering new materials always gives me inspiration to create new projects.
My home is my studio. I have working room where I keep my materials and tools. I often crochet laces and decorations while watching television or listening to radio.
I like to wake up early, read news and emails while drinking morning coffee. Perfect working day should start like the way that project has been already started. I like to continue work where there is no material missing, colors are balanced, tools are in order and sun is shining in from my window. I hear the sound of songbirds.The perfect end of my working is a nice forest walk to the seaside in fresh air. It is the best way to gather new ideas for future projects.
The most difficult part is starting where I have to decide what materials and colors I will use. Ather that I cut old knittings and fit them together, they are all in different shapes and sizes. Sometimes I connect them and then wool in machine for the first time. Then I can see how they react. Then I will add laces and will do some needle felting. After that another round for woolling. I think it is really important to pay attention that while making final finishing that edges for the coats are straight because then coat will keep better form and they are much more easy to take care of.
My working process has been always changing and will do it also in the future. It is hard to tell specific details about those changes but I can tell that experiences are coming with time and this will make every artist more professional. At the moment I have time to make handicraft more than ever before. In the past I was making everything for practical needs, now I can do things what I want to do. I would like mention also the fact that Floral Coats are also very practical because you can wear them all year around. Good composition sense and wide range of professional skills of making different handicraft is my biggest strength. To be succeed as artist you have to be flexible and enterprising person. You always have to deal with new situations and notice even small possibilities for you and your work. The main thing is to trust yourself and I do.
Childhood memories, Estonian nature, local folk art and different seasons are giving me inspiration for different projects. I am inspired by surrounding environment and people.
It is special feeling when somebody finds your work fitting as perfect or I get next invitation for exhibition. Kind words and smiling faces, these things all together are motivating me.
I have many invitation for exhibitions and to take part of them I have to make new coats. My dream would be to take part of international exhibitions and fairs. I want to have nice gallery where to meet my visitors and organize courses. I have many ideas how to develope my felting projects and my dream is to test them. I enjoy working from home and I would like this to stay like this forever.
I make my work alone. When I have project from my client I hear what are client special wishes but still I am making my work as my own vision. For that reason ordering from me doesn`t mean purchase commitment from client.
I like to see how people are using my knowledge of felting and for that reason I share my skills with pleasure. We all have different results with using same technique and instructions and it is nice to see how happy it makes people to do something by themself. Organizing courses is fun and interesting for everybody including me!
For artists I would like to tell that You`ll have to be in a really good level with your skills and knowledge. You have to develope yourself all the time. Every creative artist will have its own script what is not learnable by the others, this comes from inside from the artist and that makes art special. If you dare to take responsibility and you can make fast decisions you are on the half way of being succeed. Believe in yourself!
Janika Saar,
The creator of Lillemantel
First of all I would like to thank You all for this kindness and support! The amount of positive energy what I`ll get is spetacular!
My name is Janika Saar
I am from Southern-North Estonian countryside. My home area could be described as place with small hills, forest and river. First years of my live I grew up with my grandparents in their little farm. My grandfather was the headmaster of local school and also he was giving handicraft lessons to girls in that time. My grandmother was also painting.
For school I moved to Estonian capital Tallinn. I graduated from University as agronomist because my biggest wish was to return to the countryside. After that I was working as agronomist in Collective Farm of Soviet Union. My responsibility was 1000 ha of arable land. Later I moved to work in our oldest and largest National Park of Lahemaa as environmental specialist where I met my husband and where I live now.
At the moment I am living at the heart of Lahemaa (translation would be : Land of coasts or Coastland) in small village called Võsu. We are living in Jaanioja`s handicraft farm what used to be little manor in the past. At Jaanioja there are blacksmith house, 11 meters high tippie and lots of buildings what are all built or restored by my gold-handed husband Janno. Around the year we organize fairytale stories and activities to the groups from kindergarten and schools. This summer will be the 17th summer of organizing art camps for children. For adults who are interested in arts and handicraft I offer courses where is possible to see and learn how I do and what I do.
My favorite toy used to be a bag of textile leftovers, scissors, needle and thread. I learned very early how to sew with old Singer machine, crochet and knit. At the age of 11 I sew my first green skirt with white dots and used to wear it a lot. Later most of my clothes were selfmade, because at the Soviet time it was almost impossible to get something nice from the store. I was knitting in classical way, later I used to knit from patches and then I started to cut old cardigans and connect them in a new way. With improving my technique on connecting patches I found my way to the needle felting and fulling.
I am in business since the year of 1997, it was the time when living standards of city and countryside where really different. Many people moved to the city and I still wanted to live countryside. I started to make clothing for children and selling them in small store. My kids were small and for that reason I cooperated with local school to help them with costumes and then I started with art camps to organize something fun for my daughters. Since kids grew up I had more time to to handicraft and as tradition to make clothes for myself I decided to make myself national styled coat from knitted patches in 2008 with decorative embroidery, with that I won the first prize of “Estonian traditional Coat” contest by Estonian National Art and Handicraft Union. After that I bought my first needle for felting and that was the highlight of experimenting. I discovered completely new world of connecting materials with changing this technique into “painting”. After decorating my first coat with needle-felting I was amazed how beautifully it came out. Since that moment I started to make Floral Coats.
With combining my different skills of making handicraft including needle felting and machine fulling(wooling felt with waching machine) I discovered new technology for myself. Felting and woolling techniques made my work more similar to modelling and painting and this is the point where nothing goes wrong. There is always possible to add or remove something if needed. For me there is nothing secret because everything lies on experience, skills and perception of composition and seeing colors.
We had lot of wool and yarns because we kept sheep. I used to knit and crochet a lot from this plastic and easy modelling material. I like that wool is recyclable material without loosing good appearance. This is the main reason why I use wool materials to create fresh looking and shiny Floral coats.
I prefer to use Estonian local products for creating my works from sheep wool. With combining recycled materials I never know how they react for wooling, this is a little surprise moment and needs testing. With a time experience I now know how different wools react together and how to prevent results what are not fitting with my ideas.
As told I use needle felting and machine woolling. Floral coats are made from old wool cardigans what are embroidered and needle felted together, added some knitted or crocheted parts and finished with needle felting and decorations. Depends on need, all coats are machine wooled more than one time in different level of process. With woolling the structure of materials are changing completely to new material.
For creating Floral coats I search my materials from recycle centers and second hands, wool and yarn are coming from local wool fabrics or small businesses.
Ability of doing handicraft makes possible to realize your dreams and it is also really practical skill what never lets you down. For me it is a lifestyle. It needs a lot of practise and patience.
All Floral coats have some piece of new ideas and technology inside. Discovering new materials always gives me inspiration to create new projects.
My home is my studio. I have working room where I keep my materials and tools. I often crochet laces and decorations while watching television or listening to radio.
I like to wake up early, read news and emails while drinking morning coffee. Perfect working day should start like the way that project has been already started. I like to continue work where there is no material missing, colors are balanced, tools are in order and sun is shining in from my window. I hear the sound of songbirds.The perfect end of my working is a nice forest walk to the seaside in fresh air. It is the best way to gather new ideas for future projects.
The most difficult part is starting where I have to decide what materials and colors I will use. Ather that I cut old knittings and fit them together, they are all in different shapes and sizes. Sometimes I connect them and then wool in machine for the first time. Then I can see how they react. Then I will add laces and will do some needle felting. After that another round for woolling. I think it is really important to pay attention that while making final finishing that edges for the coats are straight because then coat will keep better form and they are much more easy to take care of.
My working process has been always changing and will do it also in the future. It is hard to tell specific details about those changes but I can tell that experiences are coming with time and this will make every artist more professional. At the moment I have time to make handicraft more than ever before. In the past I was making everything for practical needs, now I can do things what I want to do. I would like mention also the fact that Floral Coats are also very practical because you can wear them all year around. Good composition sense and wide range of professional skills of making different handicraft is my biggest strength. To be succeed as artist you have to be flexible and enterprising person. You always have to deal with new situations and notice even small possibilities for you and your work. The main thing is to trust yourself and I do.
Childhood memories, Estonian nature, local folk art and different seasons are giving me inspiration for different projects. I am inspired by surrounding environment and people.
It is special feeling when somebody finds your work fitting as perfect or I get next invitation for exhibition. Kind words and smiling faces, these things all together are motivating me.
I have many invitation for exhibitions and to take part of them I have to make new coats. My dream would be to take part of international exhibitions and fairs. I want to have nice gallery where to meet my visitors and organize courses. I have many ideas how to develope my felting projects and my dream is to test them. I enjoy working from home and I would like this to stay like this forever.
I make my work alone. When I have project from my client I hear what are client special wishes but still I am making my work as my own vision. For that reason ordering from me doesn`t mean purchase commitment from client.
I like to see how people are using my knowledge of felting and for that reason I share my skills with pleasure. We all have different results with using same technique and instructions and it is nice to see how happy it makes people to do something by themself. Organizing courses is fun and interesting for everybody including me!
For artists I would like to tell that You`ll have to be in a really good level with your skills and knowledge. You have to develope yourself all the time. Every creative artist will have its own script what is not learnable by the others, this comes from inside from the artist and that makes art special. If you dare to take responsibility and you can make fast decisions you are on the half way of being succeed. Believe in yourself!
Janika Saar,
The creator of Lillemantel
Photo: Saara Mildeberg
Text by Meeri-Mall Aul (Janika`s daughter)
NB! Please notice that copying this text is prohibited.
All rights reserved by Lillemantel.
NB! Please notice that copying this text is prohibited.
All rights reserved by Lillemantel.
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