the start of my year 2015

Hi!

It has been a really long time! I have been concentrating on my freelance work, (lettering/bokstavsillustration), and my family for the past months. I am working on two big lettering projects and some custom orders and it takes up most of my day time plus most of my free time as well (except for the time I spend working in the shoe shop and with my family). I am not a very social person right now, but if you want to achieve goals and get better at your craft you need to invest time and hard work. I can see that I am getting better, and I really love doing what I am investing my time in.

I am bursting with joy and honour on the big projects I am working on, but they are still secret, so I cannot brag about my great collaborations. But it will be sweet when the collaborations are being reveiled later this year!

I am continuously a member of the Andetag team and blogging at Hufvudstadsbladet (a collaboration with the Finnish Lutheran Church) about everyday life, faith, joys and fears.

A really, really fun part of my freelance work is that I get to hold Lettering Workshops and meet other type enthusiasts. So far this year I've held an longer one week course at Novia for students and four short one day workshops, together with Nykarleby Arbis, Kronoby MI and Inpress and Personlig Almanacka in Uppsala. Someone i Uppsala had found my Instagram profile and wanted to arrange a workshops, so they gathered a bunch of friends from work and we had a great day of lettering! I love it when people arrange workshops at their work or with their friends! And I love being invited to hold Lettering Workshops, the courses are really inspiring for me as well, there is so much creativity in one person, and to meet groups of creative people is fantastic. I am always surprised at what people create during a workshop and at the same time I know that when a person is saying "I cannot draw or write well with a pencil" there will come great things out of that hand holding the pencil. That is the magic of these workshops, everybody will create new and good looking letterings, whether they have done it before or not. And everybody seems happy after a workshop, it is intense so you get tired but everybody has been giving me positive feedback. That they CAN draw, that they WERE ABLE to make lovely letterings, something they never thought they would make. Makes me very happy!

Below is the first part of my 2015 in pictures:

I dressed up in monochrome (just like most of my letterings :) for my Lettering Workshop.

Flying over the north of Ostrobothnia where I grew up.

 

(This black and white photo is by Johanna Högväg, she attended my Lettering Workshop in Kronoby.)

You can follow workshop participant's work on #letteringworkshopfljd (fljd as in Fia Lotta Jansson Design)!

A group of type enthusiasts in Uppsala.


I wish you all a great April!

calligraphy for the Jakobsson family

This fall I got to design my biggest lettering to date. Two prints measuring 70 cm x 100 cm each of calligraphy letters and words. I really enjoyed this commission work. I got to deliever the prints in person and they hung them up right away. Both customer and designer were very happy with the result. It was a perfect match of style and meaning behind the design.

The calligraphy letter is the first letter in the word written inside the letter (click on the pic and zoom in all you can!). The words have special meaning to the members of the family.

I painted the letters with a foam brush and because the prints are so large scale you can see the details of the strokes really well and I think it is very beautiful.

Here are some pictures from the livingroom where the prints are residing (thank you Jakobsson family for the pictures!).

This was a great project! I hope I get to do more of this kind.

All the best!

loppisrace i purmo

This is how happy I was was selling my out all my vintage stuff at Loppisrace in Purmo in early July. More pictures can be found at Loppisrace.fi.

Aja Lund is the photographer of the photos in this post and also the coordinator for the whole Loppisrace (Flea Market Race). Aja is also running the fabulous Lundagård together with her husband and two companions. We are both night owls so when we meet we mostly chat the night away. She is an inspiring woman and entrepreneur.

Thank you for another great Loppisrace, I got really burnt from standing in the summer sun all day, but I had so much fun! And a big thank you to Elina who shared the space with me!

Aja is shooting us from the second floor. Some of my favourite persons are on this picture, my pregnant sister-in-law (yes, I am gonna be an aunt!!!), her sister and my brave and beautiful friend Lina. Me and Lina are cooking up something sweet. More to come!

 Some of my vintage fabrics that I said goodbye to.

vintage fair at Årsta Castle - part 1

This past weekend was fair weekend for me! I really enjoyed it! Malin of Fiffi's Vintage had organized a great antique and vintage fair at Årsta Castle.

First some pictures from the Fia Lotta Jansson Design corner on Saturday.

I was happy to share the company of Carolina of Marshmallow Electra during the weekend. We always have a lot of fun together. On Saturday morning we drove to the castle and had our breakfast there, complete with the nearness of a big chandelier, some swords and a stuffed moose head!

 

Below is the beautiful Zoe Durrant of Pete & the Rose Vintage. Go check her wardrobe out!

I was happy (and a quite starstruck) when I realized I was going to have Johanna of PILL jewelry as my neighbour the first day. I have been fascinated by her creations for a couple of years, but never had the chance to meet her until now. I really enjoyed her company, she is a great person!

 

Me and Johanna traded goods and I absolutely adore my new necklace!

Below is Carolina of Marshmallow Electra selling one of her vintage bathing suits to a happy customer. Here you can find Carolinas shop on the net!

 

 Coming up: part two of my weekend at Årsta Castle!

Have a great Monday y'all!

life update

Hello!

It's been a really long time since I greeted readers of this blog (are you still there?). Much has happened in the past months. Both happy things and really sad things. Life and death.

Two wonderful persons passed away only two weeks apart in early January, my father and my young godson. They are grieved by so many, families and friends, they were important in so many people's lives. All the bright and laughterfilled memories they gave me keep me warm, though sadness is a constant companion.

So much good has happened as well: a lot of lettering, print making, teaching of lettering workshops, family time, spending time with old friends, getting to know new friends, enjoying my dayjob, meaningsful conversations, and so on and so on!

Life takes its turns. I am hanging in there. How are you?

And now my life in pictures. 2014 so far:

I get to see my children grow and develop, exploring their creativity. I love that I get to be a part of their lives. I am a terrible and angry mother sometimes, quite often actually, but we are good togehter.

(Both kids write and read already. It is amazing! These are the scribbles of my daughter, she´s the younger one.)

Lina and me are planning goodness together. Graphic Design Lettering Combo!

The cat in my parent's home had a kitten. So adorable!

Boring and fantastic every day life: laundry time!

I was hooked on origami for a while there, and I will not let it go! Love it!

My father camping in the 70's. Miss him very much.

Trying to focus on these two: hope and gratitude...

...because life is not always easy.

Me and fellow vintage lovers Malin of Fiffi's Vintage and Carolina of Marshmallow Electra at Uppsala Vintage Festival last weekend.

And finally: the man of my life, in a band playing music that I love! The Heartbeat Band.

Thank you and good night!

Sofie

link love - typographic calendar

 (Pamela has styled my calender with her gorgeous art work. Me likes!)

I am grandly greatful that people appreciate and download my typographic calendar. Here are som persons blogging about it. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

(If you have blogged about the calendar I'd love to link to you too, just let me know!)

(Lovely Lina blogged this picture.)

 

 (My mother-in-law sent me this picture early 2013.)

(Talented crafter MalinJohanna took a picture from her work space.)

mesmerizing calligraphy (and a whole lot of link love)

I could sit and watch videos like these all day long and the whole night through. It is absolutely beautiful. So much inspiration.

If you are like me and love to dive into great inspiration, especially lettering and calligraphy, do visit Hand Lettering Tutorial. The keeper of the site, Emma Holmes, is collecting inspiring tutorials from great graphic writers.

And while you´re at it scheck out Studio Scratches, Emma's a hell of a scratcher! And she also the founder of Be Deliberate. Here are her own words about the site: "Be Deliberate is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging YOU to create the life you dream of. It features quotes, thoughts and images to give you a boost / gentle shove in the right direction".
She is a good friend of mine and she inspires med a great deal! You go, girl!

Wish you all a great Wednesday.

Oh dear! It's addictive...