Saami Culture

I found this old photograph of Saami and a display of head dresses at the Juhl's Silver gallery.

Outside the jewelry gallery, a local Saami woman was selling crafts.

I'm not sure if this is an official sign or an old discarded one.  The Sami are still fighting for their rights as an oppressed indigenous people.

"Tundra" jewelry line

These silver pieces are examples of the organic, crystallized stalagtite forms in much of the Juhl's jewelry.

These painted petroglyphs depict deer and 5 necklaces.  The need for adornment with objects of value is a timeless one.

Saami Wedding Jewelry & Juhl's Silver Gallery

In Kautekeino, Finland we learned the story of Frank & Regina Juhl who built a life in the wilderness.

Frank Juhl began his business by repairing broken jewelry for the Saami.

The current workshop employs many artisans.

 

The sprawling complex of buildings, built over the decades, is pearched on a hill overlooking the town of Kautekeino. 

Lapland

The Saami live in Lapland.  They used to be called "Laps", which is a derogatory term, meaning a small ragged cloth.

First Saami flag, Inaugurated in 1986 by the 13th Nordic Sami Conference in Sweden

There are many Saami (90,000) living in the northern regions of Scandinavia.

The Saami are recognized as an indigenous people in the constitutions of Finland (8,000), and Norway (65,000).  In Sweden (20,000) they are treated as ethnic minority and/or indegenous people, with no constitutional representation.  In the Constitution of the Russion Federation, they are termed one of the many indeigenous "small in number" people of the north. 

   

Click on the Saami Flag for information about the rights of indigenous people.

The tourism industry in Finland has been criticized for turning Sami culture into a marketing tool.

High & Low Culture

The Aalto glass dish has a surprising similarity to the shapes in the reindeer coasters. 

This cut tree stump resembles the Aalto glass dishes with their irregular curves.

Alvar Aalto designed this bent wood chair in 1929-1932, for a sanitorium.  He thought the rounded forms would be mentally and physically soothing, while exploring new manufacturing processes.

Levi, Ski Town off Season

We do our grocery shopping here. (Nokia was the biggest manufacturer of cell phones until last month, when Apple took over the #1 spot.)

The ski slopes must be very active in the winter.

Public art!  It is from the Duchamp ready made school of art:  Put cords of wood in a Plexiglas box and presto:  Found ART!

Reindeers are everywhere, even at the post office.

These little hexagonal barbeque shacks were sold everywhere.  What a blast it would be in the winter, cooking some reindeer kabobs!

A beautiful little chapel exhibits some scandinavian modernist design elements with a ski chalet sloping roof.