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EESTI ELU reedel, 14. augustil 2020 — Friday, August 14, 2020
Face masks in Estonian national colours Ülle Baum interview with Stephanie Raudsepp On Monday, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus sent an impor tant message to the world during the online press brief ing from the United Nations headquarters in Geneva: “By wearing a mask, you’re send ing a powerful message to those around you that we’re all in this together.” He noted, “Wear a mask, when appro priate, keep your physical dis tance from others and avoid crowded places. Observe coughing etiquette, clear your hands frequently and you’ll be protecting yourself and others. The message to people and governments is clear: Do it all.” From 7th July accord ing to City of Toronto By-Law 541-2020 everybody is re quired to wear a face mask or face covering inside public spaces. Similar regulations are in place in many other cities in Canada. Over the past months COVID-19 pandemic situation has brought many changes to our everyday lives. Many re sponsible people have come out with many new initiatives during this extraordinary time and they make a personal contribution to the health of our citizens. Among them is Stephanie Raudsepp, who is well known to the Montreal Estonian community. She is a talented young artist, bookbinder and stationery designer, who started in the beginning of July her new project of making face masks. She has already designed almost two dozen masks featur ing her artwork. These can be
found in the link through her website www.stephanieraud sepp.com. These masks are made on demand to minimize waste and also depend on the custom size requirements of each customer. Among these beautiful designs by Stephanie Raudsepp are also the face masks in Estonian national colours blue, black and white. Interview with the artist Stephanie Raudsepp When did you start making the face masks? What in spired you? Are some of your face masks unique? What materials are you using? How many layers? Where did you get the design? What advice would you give to a person who would be interested to make their own face mask? My website and link to my shop where my stationery and face masks are available for purchase: https://stephanieraud sepp.com I began making face masks in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In Quebec, it is man datory to wear a mask in all public spaces as of mid-July. I had been doing so myself for many months already. However, wearing disposable masks or scarves (back in March when it was still cold) is not sustain able, for myself or the environ ment. I have also been running a hand-crafted stationery design business which had been flat tened, like so many others, when the pandemic hit.
I had created original digital art which I had sitting around waiting for the perfect project. Face masks were the perfect canvas. I partnered with a local com pany, “Art of Where”, who creates print-on-demand pro ducts using locally sourced and fairly traded materials and got to work designing these masks. Each mask is made from 200 thread count 100% cotton sateen fabric, which is soft and light, and machine washable. Masks are made of two layers of reactive printed ma terial which are guaranteed not to fade with multiple washes, an adjustable nose wire, filter pocket and adjustable ear loops made from ultra-stretchy com fortable cloth. I also encourage those who want to make their own masks to do so. There are so many tutorials and patterns out there. I am currently repairing my sewing machine, which had been sitting on my shelf and unusable throughout the pan demic as my repairpwoman had shut down her shop like so many others when the pandemic hit. Tell me, please, a little bit about yourself. I have always been a pen and stationery addict and been enamored by colour and texture. I have a Bachelor’s in Special ization Psychology, where I wrote a thesis on colour and emotion. Once I graduated, I bought myself a kayak and dove head first into all kinds of art courses. I was clear I didn’t intend to be a psychologist. I worked in my first stationery
ERR journalists: ‘Cancel culture’ has no place in Estonia ERR, August 2020 “Cancel culture” as practised and popular in the United States need not be imported into Estonia, which enjoys freedom of speech, senior ERR journalists Anvar Samost and Janek Luts find. Those objecting to people’s words, tone or overall mes sage, when expressed as an opinion, can always switch off. Speaking on Sunday after noon Vikerraadio discussion show “Samost and Luts”, more usually “Samost and [Toomas] Sildam” but with Janek Luts standing in for the latter, Samost said that a recent attempt by a radio journalist to sue an individual who had started a petition to get them removed from the airwaves was justifiable. The broadcaster, Alari Kivisaar, is seeking €75,000 in damages from Katrina Raiend, organizer of a petition which calls for Kivisaar’s dismissal as co-host of a SkyPlus radio talk show, after he allegedly made on-air remarks about the George Floyd police slaying in the U.S. which included a racial
slur. Kivisaar says the petition represents a mass online defa mation campaign which consti tutes slander. Trying to silence Kivisaar, regardless of how you may have viewed his words, was not an appropriate approach to take, Samost said. “Compiling petitions is not just some sort of fun sport; it is also practised in the U.S. [as a form of cancel culture],” he said. “There is freedom of speech in Estonia,” he stressed, adding that a listener who does not like the content of a show can turn the dial. “If there’s a radio station, for example, where things are getting heated, should we draw precise lines, which words can be used and which can’t?” he added. Janek Luts agreed, noting that on the episode in question, Kivisaar was not speaking in a different manner or tone than he generally does in his breakfast show, and so those who don’t appreciate his style should just not listen. Humorists Mart Juur and Andrus Kivirähk use a lexicon
in their (ERR) Raadio 2 broad cast “Rahva oma kaitse” which would not be in evidence with other presenters on other shows, but which need to be taken in the context of “Rahva oma kaitse” alone, Luts said. “The public expression of an opinion cannot be regulated,” Luts added. “Cancel culture”, or “call-out culture” as it it sometimes known, involves an individual or individuals being sent to Coventry, ie. ostracized, usually from either their social or pro fessional sphere, or both, and across all forms of media, in particular social media. Some discussion questions whether it exists to the extent depicted; concrete examples from the U.S. might include comedienne Roseanne Barr, whose long-running, epony mous show was canceled after a 2018 tweet condemned as racist by many, or the recent, tempo rary deplatforming of Donald Trump Jr., son of the current president, for issuing a post, again on Twitter, which claimed face masks were unnecessary during the coronavirus pande mic.
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aunts and uncles were born, and to experience Laulupidu 150 years after it began. I have been a community member since I was young, and have attended Estonian Sunday school at St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Montreal, the annual Bazaar, was awarded two stu dent scholarships through the Estonian Foundation of Canada, one while participating in the annual golf tournament near Photo: Matthew Raudsepp Lättemäe, in Quebec, however I do not know more than a hand ful of phrases and song in Estonian. My grandfather was Piiskop Karl Raudsepp, and my own father, Karl J. Raudsepp, recent ly retired, was the president of the Montreal Estonian Society for many years. I have attended a multitude of Estonian com munity events since I was little, in Montreal, Toronto, and north of Montreal at Lättemäe and around Lake Varys originally Photo: Karl Raudsepp set up by Karl Pruuli. Estonian life and culture shop. I bound my first book by hand and never looked back. I surely influence my artistic nature and respect for nature wanted a background in art so received a BFA in Art History. and the environment. This is where I first began I made the mask featuring exhibiting my own artwork and the Estonian flag as a surprise handbound books, and had my for my dad. He has since pro art and writings published in moted it and shows it off, Academic Journals and curated which has helped it gain popu exhibitions featuring in-studio larity within the Estonian interviews with contemporary commu nities in Canada, with Canadian artists in conjunction orders already coming in from with the CCCA (Canadian Toronto and Montreal. Center for contemporary Art). What would you like to After bouncing around from accomplish in the near fu Toronto, New York City and ture? back to Montreal, I launched At the moment, the pande my online shop featuring hand mic has reduced the need for crafted eco-conscious stationery my stationery products, how and paper goods, including ever, watercolour sketchbooks notebooks, watercolor sketch have been especially popular books and cards made from since April 2020. 100% recycled cotton rag (re These face masks reflect a claimed textile offcuts from bit of a pivot for me at the mo Montreal’s textile industry) and ment. I’m not yet sure what the 100% recycled, post-consumer future holds for the retail sector waste paper. at the moment, but eventually I’ve travelled to many coun plan to get back to selling my tries and always look for new products in stores throughout stationery or paper products to Canada and eventually interna add to my ever-growing collec tionally. tion of notebooks, paper, and Is there anything else you pens and look for handcrafted papermakers, stationery design would like to add? ers or paper shops to add to the I’m happy to answer any map in my mind. questions. I can be contacted Currently, I sell my products through my website stephanie through my online shop, in- raudsepp.com, by email sraud person at the One of a Kind sepp@gmail.com, or on social show in Toronto (largest hand media (Instagram or Facebook) made fair in Canada), and @handboundbysraudsepp through retail stores across On behalf of the “Eesti Quebec and Ontario (find the Elu” readers, allow me to full list on my website) with wish good luck to your pres plans for expansion across the ent and future art projects. country when retail stores gain The Canadian Estonian com more traction. munity is blessed to have so What is your connection to many talented people who Estonia and Estonians? Does even during these extraordi this Estonian connection nary times see the world in influence some of your pro blue, black and white colours. jects? Do you speak some Thank you, Stephanie, for Estonian? What Montreal your contribution to our com Estonian community events munity. do you enjoy the best? Have ÜLLE BAUM, Ottawa you been in Estonia? I am a dual citizen CanadianEstonian through my father, yet E STO N I A N LI F E I traveled to Estonia for the first Your source of news time only a year ago in summer about Estonia and Estonians, 2019 to meet cousins and blood home and abroad relatives on my grandmother’s side, to see where some of my
