COMPANY NEWS
Here's what we are up to at the moment.





25.12.2021
Company wishes you Happy Holidays and a Happier New Year!
Secrets of Japan collection photo by Paavo Lehtonen 2021




08.12.2021
Salakauppa open every day 13-18 until 22nd December.
For safe shopping Salakauppa is divided into customer side and service side. Welcome 1 person at a time.
Salakauppa Postikatu 1, 00100 Helsinki.



02.12.2021
New Product! Tree of Lots of Life
Manufactured in Izucar de Matamoros, Mexico. Material: Clay, paint, steel wire. Design: Aamu Song / COMPANY. Size: 150 x 140 x 60 mm. Price: 355,00 EUR.




01.12.2021
So thrilled to have a new webshop www.salakauppa.fi open!
Thank you web master Erik Zuuring and photo master Paavo Lehtonen.



01.-24.12.2021
Happy to be part of Light my Fire -exhibition by the lovely Connie Husser.
24 Designers, 24 Days, 24 Candleholders. Gallery Neumarkt 17, Zurich, Switzerland.



10.11.2021
New Product! Balloon Babushka
A family of 3 nesting dolls each with balloons. Material: Linden, paint, lacquer.
Manufactured in Semenov, Russia. Design: Aamu Song/ COMPANY
Size: 210 x 120 x 120 mm. Price: 160,00 EUR.




04.10.2021
Playing with Paavo.
A photoshoot marathon with Paavo Lehtonen.
We are working on a renewing our webshop www.salakauppa.fi. Opening in November with all new product photos.




20.09.2021
A delivery day in good company.
Once or twice a month we rent these big vans for collecting deliveries from customs at Helsinki-Vantaa airport. We always combine the day with a trip to forest. Todays forest souvenirs are those two baskets there filled with mushrooms.



24.08.2021
Happy to be in Good Company at VitraHaus, Weil am Rhein.
There's a beautiful new exhibition celebrating ten years of VitraHaus by Till Weber and Connie Husser.




24.08.2021
A Company pilgrimage to meet idols at Goethenaum, Ronchamp and Vitra Campus.




15.08.2021
New Secrets Postcards available.
Postcards show a selection of original drawigns that are made for our collaborating craft masters in Russia, Mexico and Japan. All illustrations by Aamu Song & Johan Olin. Lay-out: Nene Tsuboi. Size: 127 x 178 mm, 350 gsm. Printed by Grafiche Veneziane, Italy. Price: 2,00 EUR / pc.




20.07.2021
Waiting for DHL delivery man at our atelje in Lallukka, Helsinki.
That window there is where most of our logistics go through.




18.07.2021
Head of the Head Matryoshkas.
Aamu supervising product packing.




16.07.2021
SECRETS OF IMAGINATIONLAND book launch party at Salakauppa.
Master book designer Nene Tsuboi sharing thoughts here with Masako san. Both are wearing Thought Expanders which we brought back from our visit to Cosmic Factory last year. SECRETS OF IMAGINATIONLAND mini exhibition now in Salakauppa, Postikatu 1, 00100 Helsinki until 01.10.2021.





15.07.2021
The Arts Promotion Centre Finland today awarded Johan Olin with a 5-year State Artist Grant!




28.06.2021
New Product! Rainbow Circle
Manufactured in Izucar de Matamoros, Mexico. Material: Clay, paint, steel wire. Design: Aamu Song/ COMPANY. Size: 150 x 140 x 60 mm. Price: 200,00 EUR.
Rainbow Circle is the latest part of our Screts of Mexico -collection. It's available only from our shop Salakauppa (Postikatu 1) in Helsinki. The ceramic piece is so fragile we thought it is enough she survived the trip from Izucar de Matamoros, Mexico to Helsinki, Finland.
Oh, and Happy Pride Week!




24.06.2021
Design Stories from Lallukka.
We opened the doors to our Atelje. Read the article ‘COMPANY's design explorers Aamu Song & Johan Olin’ here. Words by Anna-Kaisa Huusko and photos by Unto Rautio.




23.06.2021
We did a talk for UR (Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company) as part of on-going exhibition ’Travel as a Tool’ at Vandalorum Museum, Sweden. Here's a link to the talk (it is in English but beware it's nearly half an hour monologue – or maybe it is duologue since we're a duo. Well, plenty of broken English for sure).





06.06.2021
SECRETS OF IMAGINATIONLAND book out now!
Illustrations and texts: Johan Olin. Book design: Nene Tsuboi, 2021. Size: 230x170mm, 80 pages. 20 EUR.

’There is a place called Imaginationland. We have planned to visit there for quite some time.
But we’ve been always busy finding secrets in our neighbour countries or further away.
For the past fifteen years we’ve traveled to different countries, met with local masters,
learned their ways of manufacturing and together created new traditional items, country by country.
In 2020, during the strange year of pandemic when all travels stopped we suddenly had all the time for this journey.
And so, instead of packing our bags and hurrying to the airport we starter a journey into our imagination.‘




06.2021
SECRETS OF IMAGINATIONLAND
We took a jouney into our imaginations. Secrets of Imaginationland is the latest part of our on-going ’Secrets of’ series (click the image to take a tour in our heads). Portrait photo: Elina Simonen. Drawing: Johan Olin.




05.05.2021
Quality control days.
Before we pack our products we open and check every one of them.
This work used to be so fun in pre-pandemic times when we had friends and family members come over for a day of packing madness with junk food, bad jokes and even worse music choises. These days it's slow and solitary work – but enjoyably in its meditative nature.




25.04.2021 Blue Bears are back.
It took 3 years for the Blue Bears to get from Suzaka, Nagano to Töölö, Helsinki but here they are now.
The lack of suitable (big enough and well dried) birch wood delayed Master Sunoharas starting of the sculpting process.
The Nagano Apples arrived in just one year.




06.04.2021 In Good Company in MoMA.
Mama Birds and Tree of Seasons at the new MoMA Store in New York.
(Thank you for the photo Kim Sung Jung)




02.04.2021
Happy Easter from Salakauppa.
We are open every Wednesday and Friday 13-18.
Welcome. Postikatu 1, 00100 Helsinki.






27.03.2021
Travel as a Tool exhibition opens at Vandalorum, Sweden.
The exhibition presents trips and journeys of Nordic designers and architects from the 1940s to the present day.
We have added a new piece to the touring exhibition; Tree of Alebrije from our Secrets of Mexico project.
Selected Secrets of Mexico items are also available at the museum shop.




10.03.2021
Happy that someones are able to travel.
This bunch of candle holders Cara Pequena & Cara muy pequena just arrived from Mexico and are available for orders again.



15.02.2021
New Product! Masters of Matryoshka
Material: Linden, paint, lacquer. Manufactured in Semenov, Russia
Design: Aamu Song/ COMPANY. Size: 260 x 150 x 150 mm
Price: 250,00 EUR

Masters of Matryoshka is an homage to the Masters of Semenov and Nizhniy Novgorod region.
There are many Masters involved in making one matryoshka. In Masters of Matryoshka, the outer layer is wood turning master. Next is potato starch applying Master. Then painting Master, lacquering Master and the grinding Master are following. Traditional Matryoshkas follow in the most inner layers. While Masters make each step, they treat matryoshkas like holy babies and give them life and spirit into the material.


Masters of Matryoshka Model II
Material: Linden, paint, lacquer. Manufactured in Semenov, Russia
Design: Aamu Song/ COMPANY. Size: 260 x 150 x 150 mm
Price: 250,00 EUR




03.02.2021
SALAKAUPPA opens again on February 3rd 2021.
Open on Wednesdays and Fridays 13-18.
Welcome. Postikatu 1, 00100 Helsinki.




20.01.2021
Mama Birds ready to fly south.
Designed by Aamu Song in 2019 Mama Birds are now available in the MoMA Store NYC and online.




18.01.2021
New Year, new snow, new start.
Winter wonderland outside our newish office in Hesperiankatu, Helsinki.


What we did before: