The creative process is the most important thing to me in my work. I also teach the creative process, and that has led me to where I am today. Traditionally, craft has been an area where professionals avoid failure. Lack of failure makes them good. Education of craft is also all about minimizing failure. I’m revolutionary in embracing failure in the craft process. I always find new techniques via failure. Failure is not the opposite of success; it’s a necessary part of it. When I find the flow of “not giving a shit” in my work, I find freedom and fun, and achieve the best work. Embracing failure shuts up the critical comments in my head, and I’m liberated. I´m inspired by everything and find influences all around me.

Most days I work with brass. We have two workshops with goldsmith tools, where I solder the parts together, polish them, try out different models, study the movement of the pieces, and make the sockets for the glass pieces. The hotshop days are very different. There is a team of 3-6 glass blowers and a lot of action and ideas flying around. Working with the process of improvisation is sometimes difficult in a team because creative work is so very vulnerable. I do my best to create a flow of acceptance and play to help the team work from excitement. My team is glassblowers Sani Lappalainen, Pauli Vähäsarja, Tommi Tikkinen, Otto Koivuranta, Penna Tornberg, Jonas Paajanen, Henni Eliala, Paula Pääkkönen & my mom, silversmith Kirsi Kokkonen.

I fell in love with glass when I first tried glass blowing. It chose me. When I found myself in the glass hot shop after working with many mediums, I started to learn the dos and don’ts of glass making with the gentle guidance from the glass blowers I collaborated with. I fell in love with the don’ts, the mistakes. The pieces where you could see the moment of melt in the final work are always my favorites.  And I felt that now I work in dialogue with glass. I learned to use improvisation in the moment to maintain the wild nature of glass. Glass is like me, spontaneous and organic. My childhood was all about listening to goldsmiths talk about their craft and the sounds and the smells of the workshop. I feel proud to continue using the same tools and to develop the craft. I feel secure at my metal workshop even when my creative process is wild, and I feel lost.