Hei Hei,

I’ve had quite a busy life since my last post, I’ve been lucky to travel to Lapland (Ivalo), which was one of my biggest dreams (and I will go back, for sure!). I’ve also been to Tampere and Joensuu, that’s for my next posts 🙂 . Between those trips, I’ve worked quite a lot, mostly on editing some videos, which you can watch on the Youtube channel of the project 🙂 .

Before talking about the piece of jewelry, I want to say a few words about Lapland, where I’ve had a wonderful time! I’ve spent the night at Helsinki airport, as my flight was scheduled early the next morning. I stayed awake until 3 a.m but then I’ve decided to try the GoSleep capsules. It’s quite expensive and not really comfortable (you have to pay more to have a blanket or pillow) but you have peace inside, you can put all your stuff in it and I finally fell asleep (for 3hours) 🙂 .

Over there, I shared the life of a family and I loved it. It was kind of funny to try to have a conversation with their 7 year-old girl who had just started her English classes a few months ago. I did my best in Finnish and we managed to understand each other, mostly thanks to gestures, Google translate, and her mum when it got too complicated 😀 . I went one day to Inari, did a long walk in the woods, it was so beautiful, and I visited the SIIDA (The National Museum of the Finnish Sami). Sami handcraft is lovely!

 

I also went to Saariselkä and hugged Siberian husky puppies 🙂 . Unfortunately there wasn’t enough snow to do snowmobiling or sled dogs ride and it was too cloudy for auroras, but it’s ok, I’ll go back soon. Next winter I’m thinking about working over there 🙂 . I did many walks, did a snowman, went to check the ice depth on the river, went to sauna and walked in the snow just after, so many good memories! 🙂 And now, I have all my Christmas presents for my family 🙂 . Well, one is missing… I had bought a cloudberry jam jar at the SIIDA, made by locals, and I didn’t want it to break so I took it with me on my hand luggage. Big mistake, at the security check at the airport, they considered it as liquid, and as it was more than 100ml, they put it in the garbage 🙁 . So stupid, it’s such a waste… Now I know that jam is liquid, even if it doesn’t look like at all… But it’s ok, I’m over it now :p .

         

Then, I want to say a few things about the “Bound Together” necklace which won the Jewelry Design Competition organized by the Lights on! Project. The eight glass pendants represent the 8 sites and the two bronze parts represent Estonia and Finland.

It was one of my tasks to meet the winner, make a video about this meeting, and see how it could be produced and commercialized. So at the end of September, I met Salla Viitasalo in Helsinki and interviewed her. We had fun and I’ve learnt many things 🙂 . Then, it took quite a while to get the answers from Estonia (as the metal part of the jewel will be produced over there). Waiting answers to emails from different people takes time… 😀 I found some ideas for the box in which it will be sold, I hope it will look good! In the meantime, I’ve created a video of Salla where you can see her tools and learn more about the story behind the necklace. Here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7a2qdXF0PU 

 

Creating a video was totally new to me, and I’ve done it with the Mac computer (I had never used one), which was configured in Finnish… 😀 . Obviously, IMovie was also in Finnish… Nina found it pretty funny I think, she was even enthusiast about the situation. I was a bit more worried… But I’ve watched tutorials, had my own computer next to the Mac with Google translate to help me and I managed to do it 😀 . I admit I’m quite proud to have succeeded 🙂 .

I’m so happy Nina gave me those free days to go up North, I wanted it so much, and it was great to be in charge of the commercialization process of the jewel, even if, unfortunately, I won’t be able to finish it all, as my internship is almost over, but I’ll get a piece of it when it’s ready!

In my next post, I’ll talk about the mobile game of the Lights on! Project, for which I’ve spent hours searching for its characters! 🙂