FINARTE CONCEPT STORE & CUSTOMER SERVICE
Fredrikinkatu 28, Helsinki store@finarte.fi
+358 40 038 4111
WHOLESALE ORDERS AND INQUIRIES
info@finarte.fi
+358 5 2871181
LARISSA IMMONEN
CEO | International sales
larissa.immonen@finarte.fi
+358 407 010 913
MARKKU BRUNILA
Wholesale Finland
markku.brunila@finarte.fi
+358 400 550 717
HEADQUARTERS
OFFICE
Finarte (India) Oy
Visiting address:
Kirkkokatu 1 48100 Kotka
MAILING ADDRESS
PL 66
48101 Kotka
VAT NUMBER
FI09241222
BOLD THINKING HANDICRAFT SUSTAINABLE MATERIALS
At Finarte, our mission is to help people create joyful experiences in their lives. We are a family-owned, Finland-based design company, with over 30 years of experience of responsibly producing hand-made rugs in India.
Our history goes back to the eighties. It’s a story of a young designer and a businessman falling in love and setting up a business that by today has evolved into the second generation. We see Finarte as something else than just a company – besides it being our life’s work, it’s a lifestyle of creativity, exchanging ideas and preserving things we hold dear.
Our creative process is led by the idea of unique design-items, which are available for many and will last time in both design and quality. We collaborate with talented Finnish designers from various fields that all give their unique input to our collection, always preserving precious handicraft traditions and techniques to the modern-day.
Our vision is still the same as over thirty years ago: together with our designers and with our artisans we create beautiful and unique home textiles made from sustainable materials.
ARKKI
Wool Rug
After trying their luck in Portugal and Finland to find the perfect weaving mill, Eija and Erkki eventually turned to Sitapur, India, in 1991.
Fresh from university, a 28-year-old Larissa Immonen reached out and grabbed the torch from her parents to become the CEO of Finarte in 2016. It is not only the entrepreneurial spirit that ties the family together - love for beauty and India keeps the cosmopolitan family and Finarte going strong.
”In my world, I’m an old CEO!” Larissa says smiling, when she looks back at the Finarte story. Together, her parents Eija Rasinmäki and Erkki Immonen are an entrepreneurial force to be reckoned with. They started their own companies in their early 20s, Erkki in his field of work as a certified public accountant, and Eija as a creative whirlwind in textile design. Their eagerness and bravery eventually brought the two together, both romantically and professionally, and their two separate interests gave birth to Finarte in 1985. 38 years down the line, their family business stands firmly as the leading design house for Finnish rugs, with their youngest daughter Larissa at the helm.
”I’ve had two great business role models to study growing up. My dad is the pragmatic one. Precise, punctual, and by the book. Mom on the other hand is the artiste of the company, a bit more relaxed and easy-going. I’m very lucky to have inherited both their traits, from a business perspective. I think too much of either one wouldn’t work for Finarte, or any other company for that matter.”
Despite her beneficial gene pool, Larissa was missing one final piece before she could become the perfect Finarte CEO. After trying their luck in Portugal and Finland to find the perfect weaving mill, Eija and Erkki eventually turned to Sitapur, India, in 1991. A move that came to change the Finarte trajectory forever.
What is the importance of India to Finarte?
”It’s an integral part of our company. We’ve exchanged weaving wisdom with people for generations in India, and we’re proud to call them our friends before business partners. One weaver at the factory grew so close to my mom that he named her daughter after me! I travel back and forth at least twice a year, and I also went to high school there.”
There’s mutual respect and understanding between the Finarte team and their Indian suppliers that only grows with time. When Larissa brought the company’s head of design Marianne Huotari to India in 2022, Huotari instantly grasped Finarte’s design language better than a million mood boards ever could.
Larissa concludes:
”I don’t know if my creativity and relaxed nature comes from mom, or from India. That place is an integral part of me as well.”
Finarte’s cofounder, textile artist Eija Rasinmäki has been working closely with Indian artisans since 1991, teaching them also new weaving methods from the Nordics.
Like back in the 1980s, all of our products are still woven by hand only from sustainable materials. All Finarte cotton rugs are made from recycled cotton, saving huge quantities of water and raw materials, and helping us towards a more ecologically sustainable everyday life.
Weaved into the very core of Finarte lies an ever-changing design language. There are no archetypical patterns and only value-driven guidelines — Finarte’s identity comes from people and intuitive creativity. Marianne Huotari, head of design, does however stick to one common thread; include colours to enable self-expression and enhance well-being.
When the iconic Finnish architect Alvar Aalto designed the Paimio sanatorium in the 1930s, he used bright yellow colour on the floors and stairways to enable patients to heal with colour. That is what Marianne Huotari and the Finarte design team believe in as well: splashes of colour in our everyday lives provide joy and well-being, explains Marianne Huotari. The idea of healing or colourful design is not new, but Finarte wants to make it available for everyone. The whole process of creation is intuitive and the result in its core very democratic design. Working hands on, and with a dear friend, makes the process both unique and surprising.
“When we travelled to India to make the new collection with Larissa (CEO), the plan for the collection was already ready in my mind. However, my experience in India and watching the skilled weavers made the idea of the collection take shape again. The basic building blocks of life and the rhythm of everyday life are the same and shared by all of us. I wanted to bring this idea through the basic elements of the collection - with checks, stripes and curves”, Marianne Huotari tells about the origin of the collection.
“Quite often something like this happens – a groundbreaking moment that allows us to see the world with new eyes and how we can implement that to our collection so that it is shared by everyone.”
This mindset has been part of Finarte’s design identity since its 1985 launch. The Finnish heritage is omnipresent, where long-lived rugs of the ultimate quality are hand-woven with sustainable materials just like Finns have done for centuries. Simultaneously, Finarte is always looking to push itself in new directions and keep exploration and curiosity as integral parts of the company.
What is it like to work with such heritage and re-inventing it everyday?
”Ultimately, we want to celebrate creativity and provide new perspectives — something that people haven’t seen before. We look through Eija’s archives to find inspiration and invite collaborators and designers to work with us, without restricting their creativity. Together we find the perfect materials and weaving techniques that can make the different designs unique.
”And then we find a way to implement it so that it’s still affordable, sustainable, and in line with our values. That’s how we create our signature pieces.”
Since founder Eija Rasinmäki started making rugs by hand in the early 1970’s, Finarte’s products have seen more colours and patterns than they can count. If Finland is the heart of Finarte, India is its lungs — circulating out creativity and inspiration with every visit the Finarte team takes.
“We want to offer something that doesn’t exist in the market — something that people haven’t seen before.”
75% wool, 25% cotton, cotton backing Pile height ~ 9 mm (Grey), 5 mm (Burgundy) Design
70% wool, 30% tencel, cotton backing Hand-tufted, pile height ~ 7mm Design
100% wool, cotton backing
Hand-tufted and carved, pile height ~ 7mm
Design Juslin Maunula
100% wool, cotton backing
Hand-tufted and carved, pile height ~ 7mm
Design Juslin Maunula
100% wool, cotton backing
Hand-tufted and carved, pile height ~ 7mm
Design
100% wool, cotton backing
Hand-tufted, pile height ~ 7mm
Design Marianne Huotari
100% hand-knotted New Zealand semi-worsted wool, cotton warp
Pile height ~ 35mm
Design Marianne Huotari
90% wool, 10% recycled cotton
80% wool, 20% viscose, cotton backing
Hand-tufted, pile height ~ 7mm Design Marianne
Cotton quilted bedspread
Cotton quilted bedspread
