Forty years living among reindeer antler

In the early 1980´s I did my apprenticipeship training at the Atelier Veikko Piipponen. Resently deceased Piipponen started his antler carving career in the 1949 at Johannes Lauri Atelier in Rovaniemi. In this way continues the generational knowledge of antler work.

I have always been fascinated the beauty of natural materials of Lapland nature and the silent stories of the objects. Lapland is filled by stories of how people, animals and plants cope with circle of seasons. 

I like to bring together hint of Philosophy of Lapland to the items I create: "Good comes quietly". In this way the result is not only a piece of substance, it´s now part of Lapland and its magic. 

Irene Kangasniemi

Handicraft from traditional materials of Lapland´s nature

 I have raised in the middle of skill- and handicraft culture in Inari. In the 1960´s and 1970´s making handicraft wasn´t only a profession, it was the way of life. Many tools were selfmade.

Today, there´s only a few handicraft workers around reindeer antler, including Norway, Sweden and Russian Lapland. During the time the culture of reindeer hearding has change. It has effected for its one part fading away the craftsmans of reindeer antler.

The captivate thing of natural handicraft material is the timeless and ecological aspect in it. For example, I see reindeer antler as beautiful and warm material. I desire to respect the feature of the antler, its natural tones when I design and make different kind of items from it.

Ari Kangasniemi

Visiting our workshop

We love to welcome guests in our workshop. Our philosophy is to serve visitor with heart and without any feeling of hurry. For this reason is important that you order your time to visit before arriving.

You can send email to us or give us a call. Please, notice that we are not able to answer the phone during clients visit, but we sure will get back to you  as soon as possible!