Nick
May 18th, 2004, 03:37 PM
From endurance to enjoyment, the sauna is only one of the Finns' particular pleasures
By Carol Stocker
Globe Staff
May 16, 2004
....A visit to the little-known, 17th-century ironworks village of Fiskars west of Helsinki was another highlight. When the Fiskars company (it invented those ubiquitous scissors with the orange handles) relocated to modern headquarters 20 years ago, it turned the entire factory town that it owned into a subsidized artists' cooperative. With its waterfalls and industrial buildings of stone and wood, it looks like a New England mill town, but older. There's a restaurant called Fiskars Wardhus, an exhibit hall, and rows of shops selling high-quality arts and crafts created by the 120 families who live there.
One of them [yes, them] is Howard Smith, an African-American artist, and his Finnish wife, potter Erna Aaltonen, who have converted a barn built to store apples into a home brimming with their adventurous work. Smith said he moved to Finland from New Jersey in the 1960s after concluding that his career in the United States had been blocked by racism. Though Finns are more reserved than Americans, ''Many of the friends I made here 40 years ago held fast till death," Smith said at one point. "Differences of opinion are resolved with a bottle -- but not over the head."
Meanwhile, Aaltonen marveled at our candid conversation. "We are not so outgoing," she said. "You start talking so easily!"
http://www.boston.com/travel/articles/2004/05/16/immerse/
By Carol Stocker
Globe Staff
May 16, 2004
....A visit to the little-known, 17th-century ironworks village of Fiskars west of Helsinki was another highlight. When the Fiskars company (it invented those ubiquitous scissors with the orange handles) relocated to modern headquarters 20 years ago, it turned the entire factory town that it owned into a subsidized artists' cooperative. With its waterfalls and industrial buildings of stone and wood, it looks like a New England mill town, but older. There's a restaurant called Fiskars Wardhus, an exhibit hall, and rows of shops selling high-quality arts and crafts created by the 120 families who live there.
One of them [yes, them] is Howard Smith, an African-American artist, and his Finnish wife, potter Erna Aaltonen, who have converted a barn built to store apples into a home brimming with their adventurous work. Smith said he moved to Finland from New Jersey in the 1960s after concluding that his career in the United States had been blocked by racism. Though Finns are more reserved than Americans, ''Many of the friends I made here 40 years ago held fast till death," Smith said at one point. "Differences of opinion are resolved with a bottle -- but not over the head."
Meanwhile, Aaltonen marveled at our candid conversation. "We are not so outgoing," she said. "You start talking so easily!"
http://www.boston.com/travel/articles/2004/05/16/immerse/