Professional crafts collections

The professional crafts collections are a presentation of broad themes of professional arts and crafts, with foundations in the Craft Museum of Finland’s field work and active contemporary documentation activities since 1984. The collection is mainly focused on private practitioners and entrepreneurship. In-depth materials entered into the collection include interviews, objects, photographs, and videos. 

Specific categories may include, for example, crafting practices of the Finnish coastal region, information about the manufacture of Korsnäs sweaters and Kronoby reed basketwork, or focus on certain materials such as wool, stonework, or linen. Some of the material has been gathered from field trips of the archipelago and the coast (2002–2004), the Åland Islands (2004), and the reindeer herding regions of Northern Finland (2005–2007). Continuously evolving crafts professions, documented as they were in the late 1990s, are also part of the collection. Among these are saddle making, ski making, brickmaking, tailoring, basket weaving, as well as the handicraft techniques used in the creation of national costumes. The collection also includes materials documenting the work of individuals chosen Artisan of the Year by the Craft Museum of Finland between 2008 and 2017.