Janna Syvänoja is a designer and artist born in Helsinki, Finland. She creates stunning sculptures and jewelry pieces out of recycled paper, maps, catalogues, dictionary books, and other found objects – old pieces of wood, barks of birch tree, roots, seeds and horsehair. The best pleasure, she said, is to create “something beautiful, valuable, from something that had been thrown away. Ecology is important to me.” Obsolete material alone does not inspire her, the changing of seasons and nature of Finland makes a fair contribution as well. Janna invented a technique for herself that she has since developed into an art form. The process of making these pieces involves a slow and “natural” technique. She slices printed newspaper or directory pages very delicately and then curves each slice of paper around the steel wire, sheet layered on sheet. The piece grows by itself, being in constant change. Using her unique creativity and imagination, all of these materials are changed into surprisingly delicate and elegant forms, brooches and necklaces. They are rich by their past, carrying along certain places and accidental meanings.
