528 – The Traditional costume of Häme, Finland

Card no 528 - Sini

 A Martta Wendelin picture 

Country Card Sent From: Finland 

Place that Card Sender Lives: Lahti 

Date Received: 30th April 2013 

Distance Travelled: 1,191 miles 

Time Taken: 5 days 

It was obviously my week for traditional costume cards!  Sini tells me that when she was young the range of cards was limited compared to nowadays but she recalls getting a number of Martta Wendelin cards for her birthdays and name days. This girl is wearing the traditional costume of the Province of Häme.

Martta Maria Wendel ( November 23, 1893 , Kymi - March 1, 1986 , Tuusula ) was a Finnish painter. He graduated from high school in 1910 in Kotka Finnish secondary school and then studied at the Helsingin yliopiston piirustussali (Helsinki University of the drawing room). Wendel is known especially for cards and magazine cover images and as a draftsman and illustrator of fairy-tale books.

Wendelin drew about 650 Christmas cards between the years 1931 - 1963 and created almost 30 Christmas characters . He used Finnish national costumes and was instrumental in the transformation of the image of what is the "traditional Finnish Christmas."

I like the unusual shapes of these Finnish stamps.

525 - Feeding an Eagle Owl in Swedish folk costume

Card no 525 - Monica 

Folk costume from Järvsö, Sweden 

Country Card Sent From: Sweden 

Place that Card Sender Lives: Borås 

Date Received: 29th April 2013 

Distance Travelled: 695 miles 

Time Taken: 6 days 

Monica has recently been to an exhibition of photos of Laila Durán who has just brought out another book based on a year travelling in Scandinavia. The journeys from Sápmi in the north to Scania and Sørlandet in the south have offered unforgettable meetings with people who uphold their textile heritage and traditions. All over Scandinavia there is a vivid interest in folk costumes, bunads and regional costumes. Laila Durán has cooperated with museums but has also been invited to private homes, documenting the costume traditions during both feasts and in everyday life.

Laila Durán has a marvellous blog for anyone interested in folk costume and textiles. 

The "riksäpplet", the coronation orb of King Erik XIV of Sweden, still kept in the Royal Treasury, was originally made in 1561 by Dutch craftsman Cornelius ver Weiden, but apparently its world map decoration was added by Frantz Beijer of Antwerp in 1568 (the year Erik was deposed) probably using information from one of the great local cartographers such as Ortelius - or rather, using second-hand Italian information which the likes of Ortelius were borrowing as a basis for their work.

520 – Girl in Ukrainian national costume

Card no 520 - Tanya 

Painting by Kateryna Biletina

Country Card Sent From: Ukraine 

Place that Card Sender Lives: Lviv 

Date Received: 27th April 2013 

Distance Travelled: 1,176 miles 

Time Taken: 10 days 

 Postcrossing i/d - UA-579727

Kateryna Biletina (sorry - link now dead) studied at the Odessa Art College and then the Kiev Academy of Fine Arts. She is a well-known book illustrator and portrait painter. She paints well known people and then dresses them in traditional costume. I don't know what the musical instrument is that the girl is playing.

"The girls portrayed in these pictures do not wear national costumes in real life but you should see how they change in these costumes! I asked my friends and acquaintances to bring me what they had at home and they brought a lot of ribbons, necklaces, shirts and chemises. It appears practically everyone has grandmothers’ chemises in the far corners of the family wardrobes." 

The stamps included both a lovely acorn and oak leaf one and an appropriate girl in traditional costume.