Following the continuous "screen swiping" of newborn gift boxes, basic education, "jingfen" and "social phobia" around the world, Finnish topics have once again appeared in foreign media: this time it is a close-up about the village of Fiskars in the weekend special issue of the British newspaper The Guardian.
Simply put, it was an English son-in-law who gave up the urban life in London and "married" to a small village in Finland (he really changed his wife's Finnish surname), and the family of four lived a fairytale country cottage life, which aroused all kinds of envy and jealousy, so much so that the Guardian was alarmed, and a reporter was sent to inquire.
Screenshot: The Guardian
The reporter described a summer morning when two children walked out of a 19th-century rustic wooden house and came to the garden, digging carrots straight out of the ground to eat. Then they went for a swim in the nearby lake. In the evening, the man took the reporter to the community sauna to take a sauna, drink beer and eat grilled sausages...
And before that, their lives weren't like this – Tom, who runs his own advertising agency in London, falls in love with Anne, a Nokia marketing representative from Finland (both names are true, not pseudonyms!). ）。 They lived together in London, nine to five. Until the birth of their first child, the two began to wonder whether they would continue to live like this for the rest of their lives: working so hard in the dark that even if they earned enough money, they did not have time to enjoy life. Besides, both people like to do something creative.
Eventually they came to the Fieskas village in Finland.
Photo: Elina Sirparanta / Finnish National Tourism Board
Photo: Julia Kivelä / Tourism Finland
Yes, this "Fiskas" is exactly the brand Fiskars that has sold 1,000,000,000 (billion) of orange handle scissors worldwide. The village of Fiskars has been known for its blacksmith craftsmanship since the Middle Ages, and the Fiskars brand was founded in 1649 and has been passed down to this day, making it one of the oldest "old brands" in Finland.
Photo: Fiskars
At the beginning of the 19th century, Fiskas bought the entire village of Fiskas, which had grown into a public company a hundred years later. In the mid-twentieth century, the company's most famous products, in addition to the orange scissors that amazed the world in the sixties, there are also single-soldier shovels for the UNITED States Marine Corps.
By the early 1990s, however, Fiskas' production base had all moved out of Fiskas Village, and the village's permanent population had decreased dramatically. Ingmar Lindberg, then vice president of the company, came up with the idea of inviting craftsmen and artists to stay in Fiskas Village. At first, celebrities were invited to come in with various preferential conditions, and soon the reputation of the new Fiskas village, which was dominated by arts and crafts, was gone. Today's village of Fiskas has become a complete community of art creators and craftsmen – sculptors, carpenters, designers, painters, potters, glass blow moldings, jewelers, leather craftsmen... And of course the traditional blacksmiths.
It is not difficult to imagine that the handicraft shop opened by Onoma, a collective organization of all the artists in the village, is probably the richest and densest place for tourist souvenirs in the world! Various other specialty shops, workshops, studios, etc., can not be visited for a few days...
Photo: Tourism Finland
In order to maintain its original appearance, the village has not been expanded. To get here now, you have to wait in line to apply for approval. There is nothing to get your hands on the CV, I'm afraid it's difficult! Anne and Tom founded their own wallpaper brand, Fater, in 2015, commissioning their favorite artists to design wallpapers and fabrics, the more ingenious the inspiration, the better, tattoos, graffiti and so on. Their application was successfully approved, importantly because they were able to create opportunities for more artists. This is what the village of Fiskas hopes to encourage. The development of digital printing technology, online retail, and network bandwidth in rural areas in recent years has made Tom and Anne's dream of escaping the big city and running their own creative industries in the idyllic place of their choice come true.
Photo: Eva Tordera-Nuno / Finnish National Tourism Board
Leaving everything about London for Finland and starting from scratch, Tom has no regrets at all (except for a little nostalgia for going to the theatre). Finland's public services and free education are the envy of the world. Not to mention that there is no need to worry about the "Brexit" file. More importantly, life is no longer divided into "working days" and "weekends". Work is enjoyment, and every day in the village is a weekend!
That's where Tom and Annie's story comes in, and then the point is: Fiskas Village has its own characteristics all year round and is a popular destination for tourism all year round. It's only an hour's drive from Helsinki and is ideal for day trips, and there are also converted apartments in the village, such as old barracks and old iron foundries.
Photo: Juho Kuva / Finnish National Tourism Board
In addition to handicraft workshops, artists' studios, museums and more, the village also has a lovely antique café ( Cafe Antique ) – which is also a bookstore and a second-hand furniture store. There are also craft breweries and gin breweries. Various art exhibitions are also available throughout the year, especially in summer.
In winter, you can also ski and skate on the frozen lake.
Four hundred years of idyllic villages, 600 artists and craftsmen await you!