Armi Teva is a Finnish ceramist, visual artist, designer and illustrator who has captured the hearts of the public with her cheerful and compelling ceramic face reliefs. Now her light-hearted and free-spirited imagery can be found adorning Lapuan Kankurit’s textiles.
“I think my style is a mix of my own personality, as well as different influences life has brought my way. I’ve always loved a soaring touch which, I feel, represents who I am as a person. I both enjoy and value when things are done with a certain self-confidence and exuberance – when life is approached with a playful mindset.”
Armi Teva
It’s often said that art imitates life. In Armi’s case, the art imitates the artist’s life, in particular. Her expressive style is very true to her, reflecting who she is at her core yet always evolving with her.
Armi works intuitively, with little premeditation. Drawing and painting are both the way of finding inspiration for her art as well as making it. And if something isn’t working, the direction can be changed on the fly.
“I never decide beforehand that now I’m going to sit down to draw a particular looking flower. I get my ideas by making things.”
Working with textiles was new territory to Armi.
“I enjoyed the experience. It was fascinating to learn about the craft, to be a newcomer who comes up with the imagery and witnessing the true masters of the material fit it on the textile. I learned a lot about colour work with warps, how in textiles colour is a concrete thing – for instance, grey being created by mixing black and white yarn.
It was also a refreshing change of pace to have a test piece woven first to see if the ideas worked well, or if anything needed to be changed – with ceramics, it’s all very final. I’d really love to keep learning about weaving and work with textiles more.”
Armi’s collaboration with Lapuan Kankurit includes two designs, KAKSIN and RANNALLA.
“KAKSIN, in particular, is a true representation of how most of my work comes to life. I started by drawing different kinds of flowers and plant illustrations, and the shapes came about almost by accident – what if I drew this big flower with a swan’s neck as a stem? And then I tried some more things, and more ideas came forth. The design was quite literally born in front of my eyes. RANNALLA is a companion piece to the former, where elements were taken from KAKSIN to showcase the environment around the swans.”
The RANNALLA design is available as a washed linen towel, as well as a woollen hot water bottle and a cushion cover. KAKSIN is available as a woollen blanket and a washed linen towel. All products are woven in Lapuan Kankurit’s very own weaving mill in Lapua, Finland.
Photos @Henri Vogt
