I have had the privilege of cooperating with Rohje for two years now. Our journey began in 2020 when my paintings Dreamy and Into the Blue were 3D structured to the dials of Rohje Artister watches. I am pleased to say that our collaboration continues - the design of the new Artister model has begun! The new model will be released in late 2022. I wrote “A word from the Artist '' to Rohje’s blog about a year ago when Artister collection was published. This time, at the beginning of designing process of the New Artister model, I’ll be telling a little more about myself, my history with art and the source of my inspiration.
Art and me
I have been really creative my whole life. There are also many talented artists and craftsmen in my family. As a child, I never had a shortage of drawing and painting supplies, on the contrary! I had a great time with pens and papers: I drew, painted, wrote stories and made little books out of them, which I then illustrated myself.
After primary school I ended up studying art in its various forms. When I was younger, I was also a lot involved in antiques and art fairs. When I got into that fascinating world, my true love of art and Finnish design flamed.
Since then, life led me to study a completely different field and I painted mostly for my own pleasure. At one point, I took a few years break from painting until I started again. I have been painting part-time for 8 years now, sometimes more, sometimes less.
The source of my inspiration
I have always been inspired by experiences, which is why traveling has been one of the most important sources of my inspiration. Right now, my goal is to give more space to art and how to do it - I call this a creative wandering.
Because I am inspired by the visual beauty, I go to art exhibitions, photograph and browse art books & Pinterest. One major channel to get inspired is Youtube. Through it, I get to enjoy great art experiences around the world, virtually.
My dream is to be a full-time artist. I would like to find time to practice new as well as already learned techniques. It would be great to see my art in the form of textiles as well. I don’t know what my next step is in terms of making my dreams come true, time will tell.
Cooperation with Rohje
Our collaboration with Rohje began in 2020, although Henry contacted me on Instagram as early as the summer of 2019. It took a few months from the first contact and in the spring of 2020 we had our first remote meeting. I was a little nervous at first because I didn’t have any experience designing watches. However, everything went better than expected.
When I think about the journey we have taken together, the support of Rohje's team has been invaluable. Even with the wildest ideas, I've got the answer, "Anything is possible." The best thing about this collaboration has been the shared values! We are all entrepreneurs and working hard on our dreams. In joint meetings, we have shared ideas e.g. entrepreneurship and talked about more than just the watches. It has been inspiring to see how seriously Rohje’s team is implementing their vision. It is about strong faith and confidence in your own product and processes.
During this collaboration, I have begun to pay attention to watches in different ways. In the past, watches have been just an accessory, now they mean much more for me.
I’ve talked about my interesting connection to watches before, but I’ll say this again if there are new readers behind the screen. My grandfather's brothers owned a rather famous watch and goldsmith's shop in Kuopio, eastern Finland. One of the brothers was a watchmaker and the other a goldsmith. The shop has not existed for decades, but my last name is still associated in Kuopio with these gentlemen with a very pleasant reputation. It would be so great to be able to tell them what kind of project I am working on.
I look forward to designing the new color in the Artister collection! The best thing about this is that you Followers will also be able to follow the making process of the new painting and Artister watch. I’m so excited to be able to leverage my artistic skills again and combine it with watches.
Regards,
Noora Svärd
The artist behind the Artister collection
Instagram @noorasvard Facebook @noorasvardart
