Aika Felt Works is a design company specialized in felt products founded by Japanese designer, Aika Urata. Her works are sold in design and interior shops mainly in Finland and Japan.
Aika Urata started working as an assistant furniture designer in Osaka in 1997 after graduation from Kyoto City University of Arts. With some years' experiences of design work, she moved to Rovaniemi, Finland in 2001 for studying in the University of Lapland, where she met Finnish traditional craft material - wool felt. A diversity of the material captured her deeply enough to determine her direction, and she founded her design studio in 2005 in Rovaniemi.
Wool felt is made of fiber of sheep, fulled with warm water and soap. Without any harmful materials, you can make a sheet of cloth by hand. As it is said that wool felt is the oldest cloth made by human being, it has long history and it's sustainable and ecological in that sense wool felt is a futuristic material as well.
Rovaniemi, where she lives and works, is a small city in North Finland near the Arctic Circle. During winter, which is almost half a year, the city is frozen covered with white snow, that can simplify and smooth forms of the world, and reflect more shades of colors. This surrounding awakes her sense, and extreme coldness makes distance from many things, which somehow foster her concentration on creation.
Aika Urata's attitude of design is to make functional products by learning the nature of the material. You see her answers how she has understood the material in her production.
Products are made one by one carefully by Aika Urata and also by creators cooperating with her in Finland. All the products have the warmth of hand felting, sewing, knitting or printing in their production process.
Artistic works are created occasionally. This helps to explore materials and new designs.
