10 reasons why I’m a bad consumer

A word of warning, this post includes text that could be interpreted as anti-consumerism or even anti-capitalism. Proceed with caution.

1 I like to buy durable stuff. If I were to buy cheap and easily breaking things, they would wear out more quickly, and then I would have to buy new things to replace them. I think that not owning a laptop fits right in this category. I think I have had my PC for at least 4 years now, works just fine. How many people with a 4-year-old laptop can say the same?

2 I am cautious and even painfully slow with my purchases (it shouldn´t come as a surprise since it took me like 6 months to buy a new camera..) I like to wait for a good offer on the thing I want, and sometimes I do find good deals by accident. Because I don’t usually get excited about spiked rugs or sodastream machines, unused appliances don´t gather dust in my cupboards.

3 I like to fix stuff, and that extends the life of the products I buy.  Because I am naturally curious, I like to find out how things work, and fix them myself, rather than letting someone else do it.

4 I like to make my own stuff. I’ve decorated my home with inherited furniture and many things that I’ve made myself. Doing that, I’ve skipped buying on many occasions.

5 I buy almost all my clothes from second-hand shops. Those poor people in India would be left without a careless employer if it wasn’t for all the other people in the world to buy the clothes they make.

6 I use the library and don’t have any magazine subscriptions. I’ve even tried to refuse my workers union newsletter as well as Amnesty’s but I guess that is not possible. I only own books that have significant sentimental value to me, or are otherwise practical to have at hand, like some pilates books. I know that I could have electronic magazines, that would be better for me.

7 I buy food from our organic circle or even worse: GROW IT MYSELF. And then I pick berries and mushrooms, instead of just buying them.  I know what you are thinking: I am a hopeless anarchist.

8 I mostly cook at home, I don´t eat out that often, maybe once a week at most. I like to know what is in my own food and I get strange kind of satisfaction when I think of a course that will finish all my remaining left-overs. I think of it like it is a puzzle in the shape of food. ( Strangely enough chopping is my favourite part of cooking, but let us not explore that topic any further)

Flowers in my hair, photographed by Kurmitsa

9 I don´t have a car. If I were to have a car, I would pay more taxes, buy gasoline (with tax of course), buy all kinds of car-related stuff, pay for repairs and check-ups etc. Now I just pay for public transportation occasionally but mostly I ride my bike.

10 I enjoy simple things: cycling, running, reading, photographing, gardening, drawing, cooking, baking, writing a blog. I don´t require very expensive gear for most of these hobbies, I´m very low-key(the camera makes an exception that proves the rule).

Judging by these 10 things, I am basically an enemy of the state, not keeping those wheels of economy rolling steadily towards eternal growth. The good thing about these 10 reasons why I´m a bad consumer, is that I haven’t actually become “bad” or reduced my spending because of the so-called depression, no no, I´ve been like this for a good while now.   Just keep in mind that I am the way I am for many reasons, one of them being that I had gotten used to being poor as a student and another that I like to think of myself as a sustainable development kind of person. Right now I might have the strength to go through all this trouble with reasons 1-10, but in a few years the situation might change, if it does, you are welcome to approach me and slap me out of my craziness. Sorry if this post was too rebellious, I guess I was feeling like that today!

On vacation

Being as lazy as I am, it’s sometimes difficult to find motivation to write my blog, as you might have skillfully deducted from my posting rhythm. I´ve decided that Sunday is my blogging day but I always seem to find something better to do. Then of course after writing I´m always glad I took the trouble. Well, enough of my laziness, today’s topic is of course the only thing that has been on every Finns mind since they saw the first dandelion on the side of the road: summer holiday!

Even tough I love my job, going 4 months without a single holiday was a bit too much for me. Luckily I got two long weekends after. Being on vacation makes you see things differently, like the bra on the branch in front of the statue of the king of Sweden or the shadows of people on the ground. On holiday you actually look at the world, instead of just seeing. At least for me it’s too easy to keep my eyes on the road and my mind elsewhere when I’m going about my everyday business. While on holiday, I still find quite obvious things that I have completely missed on  the routes that I travel almost everyday. I had for example totally missed the fact, that there was a small park on the other side of the road from where I ride my bike to work almost daily.

Even if you think that being at home for your holiday gives you an equal amount of rest as being away from home, hear me out. At home at least I tend to drift to doing something meaningful and something I´ve neglected for a while. When you are away from home, you simply can´t do any of those things, you can just walk around, meet people, take photos (yes, I took lots of them) and get new experiences. And that is what holidays are all about.

I like to visit second-hand shops abroad, because they always give insight on how people there are actually living. I know that it is only a glimpse to their culture, but I like it. The best souvenirs on the other hand then are the simple, often small things, that you can´t find in your home country, like tea, or spices, at least for me. This time, from Sweden, we bought jam, candy and tea, that could all be found at a regular supermarket. Even being in the supermarket was fun, because most of the products were different, and that made them exciting.  Sometimes I’ve also thought about buying a common household object abroad, like a nail file etc, so that when ever I used it, I would remember my holiday.

It is needless to say (yet I still say it) that I simply hate all kinds of made-in-china useless plastic  souvenirs that they sell in every tourist shop. If you went to Lapland, what good does it do to have a plastic key chain (of course made in China) that says Lapland or the Arctic circle. There are interesting local goods that you can buy: handicrafts, art, reindeer meat, reindeer skin etc. I know they cost more money, but later on you will be glad you didn´t waste it on disposable crap. So that is all for today, responsible holidays everyone, make sure you enjoy every second of them!

Colourful Wonders of Spring

Spring has brought colour back in my life with a splash! I had a 5 day break from work starting the 1st of May and enjoyed every bit of it, as you might interpret from the photos. When my normal day routine starts to get mixed up and I feel like I don’t have time for the things I like the most, it’s certainly time to get a break from work. I guess I’m such an organized person that unfinished house chores and even craft projects tend to bother me (don’t  tell anyone but even unused gift cards bother me, I know that they are supposed to make me happy but I just can’t help it!). It´s like I said to my sister, that small things are the pieces that hold the structure of my mental, as well as my physical, health together. It’s not that I’m crazy or anything, not admittedly at least, but details do matter to me.

Spring is also the time to get excited about clothes again. I have been “safe dressing” in black for a while now, but today I can finally say my wardrobe is ready for summer. I know that many designers like to wear black as they feel it is the right colour for them or they might say that they’ve tried all the other colours and always return to black. I think that is just BORING and an excuse to be lazy. Sometimes I´m on a mood that could only be described as “happiness explosion”, and for that reason I dress colorfully.

I celebrated 1st of May with my sister and we had a lovely brunch on the shore. In the picture you can see our tasty picnic foods: Pickled herring, eggs, potato salad, small pickles and tomatoes etc. I guess for us Finns potato salad is always an option. No matter if it is new year’s eve, midsummer’s eve or the 1st of May. I never understood why that is. Not complaining though, I like home-made potato salad as much as the girl next door, it’s just that at some point of every single holiday there is potato salad..

After getting a new camera I realized that I needed to get myself a camera bag. My mom had an old bag, that was way too large for her own camera, so she offered it to me. To be honest I had loved that bag since I first laid my eyes on it. Some of you might know that black and red is combination I rarely refuse. I had recently formatted my camera’s memory card with a clear thought in my head that I had FOR SURE uploaded the photos on to my PC. Just guess, if that was the case! But luckily there was only a 10 day gap between uploads so I tried a free file recovery software, and got almost all of my pictures back. The software is called iCare data recovery software and it is free up to 2 GB of recovered files.

Spring has dramatically altered the light here in the North and it forces me to see everything differently, more clearly.  Everything seems so interesting and fresh, even the small particles in the steam of a boiling kettle are revealed. I guess that the change is mostly in my attitude and my energy level.  I hope Spring makes you all feel the same way! Have fun, Summer is coming! (Unlike in the Game of Thrones, where winter is ALWAYS coming)

Please excuse my random topic changes in this post, I know I might be hard to follow. Promise that next post will have more cohesion!

11 Images

This time I´ve decided to leave the babbling out ( for the most part) and just post images from this spring. I have 3 themes:  Light in Helsinki – 3 first pictures, then a little older wintery images from Kuopio, and finally (naturally) first signs of life in our garden.  The first 3 are the most premeditated, and the last 4 are the newest and least premeditated. Once you notice it is spring you just can´t stop photographing anything that moves or appears green/ is doing something other than being dead. I´ve left all the image files much bigger than I usually do, so you can see the details if you are interested.( and no there is was nothing wrong with my lens in that first picture, it is a plane). ´Til next week, enjoy the images and remember to enjoy spring!

 

Stories through my grandmother´s legacy

The dazzling stars in the pictures in this post are a few objects that I´ve inherited from my late grandmother. Her love of beautiful things and her way of decorating home, her style, still affects my decisions today. More  than the concrete inheritance, the actual things, her aesthetics is her legacy to me. I hope that one day when I´m gone, somebody could say the same about me. (And then of course there is the “must” picture of our tomato seedlings toughing it out in the paper pots.)

This weekend I´ve had to think about what makes a good photograph, since my brother is applying to study photography.  For me a good photograph means an interesting one. Whether a  photo is interesting depends on many things, composition, light, colour, texture, contrasts. Somebody once told me that if the composition works in matchbox size, it will work in any size. Sometimes I find it easier to look at my photos straight from the small screen on the camera and decide which one I´m going to use (rather than to see them on a computer).

I think that a good photograph, like a good product, suits it´s purpose. For me a photo always has a purpose, whether it be capturing the moment when you were having SO MUCH FUN or then informing the world of climate change. Even if the photo has no obvious or stated purpose, the human mind interprets images, and tends to make up a purpose, a story. The story in the picture might change over with time and context: First you use a photo to show your friends how cool(but ugly) you are, later on you look at the photo understanding how uncool you actually were the whole time, and finally you look at it thinking “my God, I was so beautiful when I was younger”. Perspective is the key here. I guess what I´m trying to say is that we don´t see with our eyes, we see with our mind. ( I´ve made up a nice story about the two pictures at the end of the post, if you can, try to look at the photos first, without reading the captations.)

The glass owl is bathing in the sun, not a care in the world, sun in his eyes, luxurious bed under him. But beware my friend, the shadows are closing in…

A great photograph on the other hand then amazes you, changes the way you think and perceive the world. And no, I´m not talking about that picture from last summer where you look like you weigh 220 lbs / 100 kgs. Although I did use a VERY unflattering image of myself as a desktop background for a long time to remind myself of the way I look like while munching candy. For me that has been a useful photo indeed, nothing like a picture of yourself  looking like a walrus to stop you from eating too much in front of the computer. But to return to the topic, I could say that a great picture catches the very essence of something.

The glass owl is hiding in the shadows, looks almost like he is afraid, being hunted. Little did he know that sunbathing on a stolen bag might have cost him his LIFE!

Ok, people, here´s the thing, I guess I´ve been on a ranting mood today, so if you´ve stuck around til the end of this post, congrats are in order! And do tell me if you think that the pictures tell a different story, and whether or not I should do this kind of comparisons in the future. Remember folks, not a picture in the media is carelessly planted or thoughtlessly constructed, so look at them through a critics eyes!

Black and Yellow

My Vibram Fivefingers, model Bikila LS

My this summer´s theme colours seem to be black and yellow, as far as my shoes are concerned. I´ve bought two pairs of shoes in the past few months, that being a record-breaking achievement for me, since I find it so hard to find good shoes. I just simply got tired looking for ergonomically designed shoes, that wouldn´t make my feet flat. So I went and bought a pair of Fivefingers, they are pretty funny looking contraptions with a separate slot for each toe. They are really light and thin, so that it feels almost as if you´re bare foot. I intend to use my Vibram Fivefingers shoes for running and cycling, I´ll let you know how it turns out. My toes aren´t exactly standard issue ( as it turned out in the shop), but they do fit very comfortably in the shoes.

Pattern “Pirput Parput” by Vuokko Nurmesniemi

The other pair of shoes that I bought is there on the left.  I think that the collaboration between Marimekko and Converse is a great idea. I like Marimekko´s prints and I haven´t actually ever owned a pair of Chucks before, so I decided to give them a try. The interior of the shoes is violet, hence the extra pair of shoelaces.

Tomatoes called “moneymaker”

Me and my sister Kurmitsa have joined an organic-circle. The circle is a part of an association called Elävä Maa, that orders organic products straight from the producers or then from wholesale. We order things every two weeks from a list, pay by Internet banking, then retrieve and weigh our orders a few days later at a specific time of day. We get organic products cheaper than from normal shops but it does require some extra legwork and some time. So far it has worked really well, and all the products we have bought have been great.

Nether Wallop Paper Potter and some pots

Our tomato seedlings are already growing and soon they will be needing more space. Luckily a nice lady at the circle, (she is also our vegetable garden/plot neighbor) lent us a Paper potter, it is a simple tool for making planting pots from old newspapers. I was a bit sceptic about the whole thing at first but it works great. I do have some improvement suggestions, as product developement is my field, but it was relatively easy to make the pots anyhow.. It is just my tendency to find ways to improve stuff, it must be coded in my DNA or something.

Ok now that was enough rambling for this time, next week is Easter, I will be taking lost of photos but I´m not sure whether I´ll post or not. Have a joyful Easter everybody!

Long time no see folks!

So I finally bought a camera. I thought I needed Canon 7D, but after a comprehensive study on the matter it turned out 60D would better fit my purposes.( Googling usually does the trick) And of course 60D was a lot cheaper than 7D.  The facts that turned my head were these: I do not need 8 pics/sec shooting speed nor is it necessary for my camera to have a full frame sensor (60 D has 96 %), SD card works just fine for me (already got one from the previous camera) 60D has a turning screen, it is a  bit lighter, it has better colour depth and it is a newer model than 7D.  I know that 60D is a hobbyist model, but that is fine with me. After all this is just a hobby, I am really supposed to be a designer/ceramist.

The colours are remarkably better than in my old 450D, or at least it feels like they are. It is of course difficult to compare them, because colours are such a subjective thing, they are hard compare if they are not side by side. And even if they were side by side there are a few ways the human brain can be fooled when colours are concerned. (Not that the pictures in this post are anywhere nearly good enough to do that)

I bought myself a small and pretty old camera stand/tripod from a second-hand shop. It says “Bilora Stabilo, made in Germany” not sure how old it is, since it doesn´t say West or East Germany or anything for that matter, I estimate 1950-1960´s perhaps. People seem to be selling them for 60-110 USD on eBay, I bought if for 20 €. It could use some tightening and it doesn´t really work on slippery floors because of the material of the “feet” but is really compact and beautiful, not at all like those new plastic monstrosities ( that are really useful and yet so UGLY).

It is spring again, and I have more energy than I´ve had in months. I think that this proves my theory about humans being solar-powered.  Now that I have my camera I´ll be able to post more often! (yes I am going to totally overlook the fact that there was a brief 3 month break in my blogging) My fingers are already itching to start gardening but unfortunately I´ll still have to wait few months for the ground to unfreeze. But I´ll end this post with a picture of the chaos that is our (mine and Kurmitsa´s) pile of seeds for this summer. It is almost summer, right?

Gift is the Swedish word for poison

You know it´s been snowing a bit when snow gathers on 5th floor windows

Winter came with a big splash of snow this Friday. It messed up the traffic and made my day so much better. Snow makes winter seem almost tolerable because let´s face it, snow is so much fun! Snow is also one of the most versatile things, it provides insulation, offers many sports opportunities, reflects light so winter doesn´t seem so dark etc.

Colourful reality of our kitchen

Because I always like to tackle my own recent issues in the blog I´d like to blog about Christmas gifts and my tips for buying/ getting them. I think it´s ok if you decide not to get any, but for those of you that have decided to participate in this tradition, here are my tips to avoid them being “poisonous”:

Try to resist the urge to buy people things that you yourself would like to use/get. Sometimes people also buy things in the hopes of changing people. My tip: don´t try to change people (it doesn´t usually pan out), you can gently hint with gifts, but don´t buy someone a gym membership even if you wish they were more fit.

My Christmas colours this year are red and gold, a self portrait, if you will

Gift cards are easy but also kinda boring. It´s a bit like giving money but more specific. Self-made gift cards like “night out with friends with all expenses paid” are much more fun.  And the best tip is, even if it is damn boring, buy USEFUL gifts, if you don´t know what to get. Even socks are better than stuff the receiver won´t use. Smart people might even ask the recipient what they want.. And at least I like to get useful yet luxurious stuff that I´d normally never buy, like expensive tea, drawing pens, good socks etc. Clothes, perfumes and music are difficult to buy, so I´d stay away from those.

When you don´t have decorations, get creative!

Honesty in crucial when buying gifts. Let people know that you don´t mind if they give the present to someone else, if they won´t use it. (Not when you´ve given them a gift card that says ” a back rub from me x 4″) I try to favor local products that employ people here in Finland. It´s of course easier to buy local now that I can actually afford to choose between products. My plan for this Christmas is to buy/make gifts that I hope people can either eat/consume almost immediately or to keep “forever”.

Try to listen to people before buying gifts, because the things they might want don´t really come to mind when you are in the middle of your shopping. If you can´t afford to buy stuff, you don´t need to. There are always things that you can make, like a CD of old photos, a song, a painting, a card. You could even give someone a piece of a plant you yourself have, plants can be shared and separated. Baking is also a great idea, that way you are basically giving our own time as a gift. If you get your gifts from second-hand shops, they are easier to recycle. And less money is wasted.

Mr. Owly the piggy bank in his Christmas nest

To address another issue: I know that I´ve been yammering on about ethical consumerism ( see previous posts). Turns out the americans are already redefining capitalism: This week I heard about B corps – B corporations. It´s a “better way to do business”. Basically the idea is that a B corp is certified to be a sustainable business considering the environment and the social surroundings. One of the key words is transparency, that´s exactly what I´ve been talking about. I really hope this spreads, so far it sounds promising.

My jewellery box with earrings

And in case you are wondering, I still haven´t bought the camera, but I took these pics with Canon 5 D with a fixed 50 mm objective ( as you could have guessed from the fuzziness). I hope next time I post I´ll have my own 7 D, I just wish there were B corps that sell camera equipment in Finland!

Things you are not supposed to do with a high intensity flashlight

Yes, you´ve got me there, I still haven´t bought the camera. Finland, or at least Helsinki is not that snowy yet, so might have guessed  from the photos that they´re not from this year. But I´m going to buy the camera, soon.  I know that it is probably not a good idea buying a camera before Christmas. I know the prices will probably go down after, but I just can´t wait any longer.

I promised to discuss some lighter topics in this post. Christmas, now there is a topic that is at the same time light as a snowflake and yet for some people as heavy as an iceberg. I have spent nearly all my Christmases in snowy Lapland, and it has always been my winter wonderland.

Christmas eve itself is always a bit anti-climatic for me, after all I´m not a child anymore. The best parts about Christmas for me are the preparations and the food: Getting the decorations out, planning gifts ( that you absolutely don´t have time to make), cooking, baking, watching snow fall, even the journey to Lapland is important. I´m a bit worried whether I´ll be able to get into my Christmas mood this year because I´m flying there, it´s just so fast and convenient, not at all like sitting 8-9 hours in a car.

Our Christmas traditions, we´ve started a few new ones in the past few years: Traditional Candy poker games, where my mother and my aunts always forget the rules ( it´s Texas Hold´em where you can eat your stakes, because there is just an abundance of candy during Christmas time) and of course my new favourite pantomime Alias (it´s like Charades for you British and American folks). Of course we just act out words or phrases in pantomime, and who ever guesses the word has to be the next one acting, and the person who has just acted gets to choose the next word. We don´t keep score because I think it´s more fun that way.  Skiing and being outside in general is also a key part of Christmas in Lapland, you must make most of the 4 precious hours that the sun is up. ( It´s not ever that up, it just comes out to check whether it´s spring yet, and then goes back.)

Last Christmas (sorry for putting that annoying song into your heads) my father a high intensity LED-flashlight, and you might guess that creative folks like me, my sister and brother tend to try out different things with such an interesting piece of equipment.  It turns out I have the thinnest skull bones of the three of us, because when I put the flashlight in my mouth, the light would come out from my eyes, but it was difficult to catch in a picture. We also tried shooting outside, on a stand so that my brother would run around in the snow pointing the light up towards the trees.

Be sure to let me know if you have any strange Christmas foods in your country! The last picture here is of something we Finns like call Rosolli. Rosolli sure as hell is one of them strange foods, I´m Finnish and I still can´t see the point in putting together a salad with eggs, pickled herring, beetroot, carrots, pickles, dill, whipped cream ( Ingredients may vary from household to household, but strangeness is guaranteed).

Now I really must get back to doing absolutely nothing, and by that I mean relaxing. So that´s all for today, thanks for reading, feel free to comment!

 

Transparent times ahead!

Ok, for you guys who opened this post thinking this was going to be one of my garden-baking-shopping kind of posts, be warned that this time I´ve stayed on topic, the topic being design / consumer ethics.

I´ve been having a dilemma. I need a new phone, a phone with a quite big screen and a relatively good camera. I want it to last AT LEAST the next 4 years, and I want the company that produced it to share my values. When I mean share, I mean that they should also act upon those values, instead of just writing them down and then doing the quite opposite. I feel like somewhere between 2005 and now, durability just really disappeared somewhere. I´ve always had a Nokia, but recently they´ve broken down at an alarming rate. Buying a Nokia at the time they´ve fired thousands of people in my country would be a bit weird. Besides their usability is at a scale of their own (engineer – horrible). I leave this issue still under consideration. I´ve become what they call a problem customer…

What I think we need in these troubled times is transparency, between the designer, the product, the manufacturing and the customer. It should be clear to whom your money is going, and where you are employing people with your choices. I know that companies don´t appreciate this thought as long as it can cause some cracks in the image they´ve worked so hard to build. But the fact that there even should be any cracks, if the people knew everything, is worrying.

In my opinion the consumer´s responsibility is to ask about products, to be aware. And it should not be that difficult to find out where and in which conditions products you´re buying are manufactured. You should favour small businesses where you can, those are less likely circle their money through tax havens. You should demand good quality and long guarantees. Product manufacturers have certain responsibilities after all. And when things don´t go the way they´re supposed to, remember to speak up. Social media and the Internet in general  give an awful lot of power to a single person. I always like to research the discussion forum comments for products I´m about to buy.

Designer´s responsibilities are much heavier than a consumer´s, at least in my mind. I think I won´t even approach the topic of “good design”, and what it means to me, not in this post. I´m not ready to open that door just quite yet. No matter what people think, designers do often have a say in the manufacturing process, as well as the manufacturing place. Small solutions can often be made to enable the manufacturing in safer working conditions and to increase the durability of products. All these should be considered in the product development phase.

Designers should also sometimes think if the problem they´re trying to solve with a product could be solved with a change in the way people think. What if people didn´t need another product, but rather a new way of using the things they already have. If the problem is that there is a river between two parts of town, you could design a nice bridge. Or you could invent an underwater tunnel, or you could move the other neighbourhood, or stop the river, or the other side could work from home. I´m just saying. The social implications of innovations are also important: You should think about what kind of future you want to build with your design.

To put my idealism to the test, I´ve been thinking about publishing some of my ideas in a new blog. I´m not saying that all my ideas are great. I just get ideas that are in no way related to my own medium (ceramics) that might be worth of taking a look at. It could be fun just to get something out there. I know that by now you must be thinking that complaining is what I do best. But I know that I should really also come up with some solutions / options for the things I´ve been complaining about. I´m not all words after all, mostly. So transparent times are in deed ahead people, only together we can make it happen!

And I solemnly swear that next weeks post shall not be this heavy.