Hi!
My name is Heli Savila – creator and maker behind Lemons And Yarn. I am a punch needle fiber artist based in Helsinki.
I like to create improvisational abstract paintings with yarn. I am rather impatient and creating that way is like going on an adventure – not knowing what comes out and relying on the materials to guide me. It all comes down to materials. How they make me feel and how they interact with each other. From that I choose the composition.
I hope that my work takes the viewers on an emotional adventure the same way it takes me when I am creating it.
I am curious about transferring emotions with different materials. Questioning the terms like "beauty" and "mistake". I like to use materials that at first bring out negative emotions and work with them, using them in a way that in the end there is nothing negative left. Also mistakes are the cornerstone of my work. Making them, using them, working around and with them. Again – making something good out of something that otherwise would be a mistake. Focusing on materials, their personality and relationships between different textures and colours.
Punch needle is a small pen like tool with a hollow inside and a metal tip.
The technique itself is very easy – there is basically only one movement to do. Using the punch needle and a special fabric, the needle is pushed through the fabric over and over, leaving one side of the fabric flat stitches and on the other loops.
This simplicity creates limitless possibilities of how to use it and creates a meditative freedom when creating.
Summer of 2023 I was selected to join a small group of artists to attend a residential course at the Oxford Rug Hooking School in Vermont, USA. As by the end of 2023, I am a Certified Oxford Instructor, being one of the few in Europe and first in Finland with this certification.
Press
Public Collections
Exhibitions & Events
Upcoming exhibitions
Group exhibition • Suomen käsityön museo • Craft Museum of Finland • 2025
Past exhibitions
Kuukauden nuori taiteilija • Gumbostrand Konst & Form • Söderkulla • Finland • 29.2 - 21.4.2024
Ornamon Teosmyynti • February 2024 • Online & 10.2 - 18.2.2024 • Design Lab Galleria 8. krs • Iittala & Arabia Design Centre • Helsinki
Works from 2021 – 2023 • TeeMaa • Helsinki • January – February 2024
Art Dual • Gallery GAo ShAn • Helsinki • group exhibition • 23.11.2023 - 16.01.2024
Ornamon Teosmyynti • 11.3 - 31.3.2023 • Online & 11.3 - 19.3.2023 • Galleria Maamusta • Helsinki
Punainen – Wearable Art And Highlights of Finnish Living • Gallery GAo ShAn • Helsinki • group exhibition • 23.11 - 23.12.2022
Art Goes home • Galleria Kookos • Helsinki • group exhibition • 2021
On the other side of the wave • Rõõm • Helsinki • 2019
Past events
Bom Christmas Market • Studio Bom • Helsinki • 26 - 27.11 and 17 - 18.12.2022
Design District Market • Vanha Ylioppilastalo • Helsinki • 2021
Design Market • Helsinki Design Week • online • 2021
Design District Market • Hetzukoto • Helsinki • 2020
Designtori Tampere • online • 2020
Design Market • Helsinki Design Week • online • 2020
Xmas Design Market WeeGee • Espoo Museum of Modern Art • 2019
Korjaamo Design market • Helsinki • 2019
Design Market • Helsinki Design Week • Kaapelitehdas • Helsinki • 2019
Education
25.6 - 1.7.2023
Oxford Teacher Certification Program 2023
Oxford Rug Hooking School
Vermont, USA
2010 - 2014
Estonian Entrepreneurship University of Applied Sciences
Design in creative industries
Minor in interior design (BA)
2005 - 2008
Tallinn Art School
Memberships
Ornamo Art and Design Finland
The Finnish Association of Textile Artists TEXO