Category Archives: kukat

Saila Seppo’s Art exhibition until May 8, 2022

People experience the environment around them all the time. When you go for a walk in the woods or the park, you will see nature wake up this spring.  There is sand from winter on the sidewalks that hisses under the shoes. Emotions are stored in memory.

Isn’t it worthwhile to focus on creativity and thinking? Greenbutton is a house of doing and thinking. How much cerebration is needed to create something completely new?

At Saila Seppo’s colorful art exhibition at the AVA Gallery, you get to know the many properties of microcellulose. Microcellulose is not a bulk material but a high-tech product. One must know its chemistry and be able to modify it appropriately so that it suits into different products.

What is interesting is the molding compound under development, which can be shaped into pots or other round ceramic objects. It can also be used on a pottery wheel. You will get an idea, how microcellulose could be used, in Saila Seppo’s art exhibition.

Even adults long for magic. In a beautiful way, you can enter the world of magic downstairs in the exhibition. There is no crystal ball, but flowers and jewelry can be found. They shine unbelievable beautiful.

When you look in the window at the AVA Gallery, you see Sisu dolls in the window and colorful carrots and mushrooms. You step in and fall in love with the post cards. The hall has colorful expressionist paintings on the walls, the oldest 10 years old and other fresh. There is in the middle a table which tells about microcellulose and it is full up of light pottery. Next to the stairs leading down is the Sisula dollhouse, which produces fairy tales in your imagination.

You walk down the stairs and you look at the paintings. Downstairs there are photographs of Sisuland and nature on the walls. There is a basket full of different colored necklaces. A mirror is also available. Sisu figurines can be found in many forms and in many places in the Gallery. Bracelets and earrings that make the outfit beautiful. There is also a video presentation downstairs. Video link

Welcohttps://youtu.be/-dV–1S1Uxgme to AVA Gallery Art Exhibition until May 8

Pohj. rautatiekatu 17 B,   open tue-fri 12-17 sat-sun 12-16

Greenbutton’s microcellulose products represent circular economy

Although nature gives some beauties of its own, our microcellulose products maximise its advantage producing bright colours integrating art, design and jewellery.  Colourful reliefs, small colourful Sisu figures, artificial colourful flowers, jewellery and dishes are all produced from microcellulose, which originate from nature. It is a joy and great pleasure to assimilate into the colourful culture. We are interested even in niche markets where we could offer high tech products.

All plants and trees consist of cellulose. Tree cellulose is mainly utilized as paper products. Cellulose fiber is actually a long fiber and its length is dependent what plant it proceeds from. Microcellulose has a very short fiber compared to normal cellulose fiber. They both contain the same cellulose molecules and nanocellulose, too. When the fiber is very short you could not any more produce paper from it. However, you get other properties, for example bringing up exceptionally bright colours, retarding fire and being processable to durable products.  Nanocellulose resembles more microcellulose than normal cellulose.

Greenbutton’s microcellulose product palette is diverse and some products are multi-purpose. For example, Greenbutton microcellulose flowers can be used for many purposes. Children can include them in their play or a friend can bring then to her friend in hospital or they can be part of a larger home decoration.  Sometimes people require tailored jewellery. Often ladies require that their Sisucellu necklace has the same colour as her dress and the longitude of the necklace is also important.  We produce jewellery products flawless according to our customer’s demand.

Sisucellu Jewellery with bright colours ameliorate a person’s possibilities to be noticed. Jewellery made of microcellulose is completely reusable. If the person finds her microcellulose earrings obsolete, she could violently crash the earrings into small amount of water. First, she peels off the lacquer on top of the earrings. Then she can add colour in the sludge and when the water has evaporated enough, she can produce new ear rings for her. Nothing is lost as waste.

Your bright coloured microcellulose necklaces could give you invaluable safety in fire. Especially if you are covered with necklaces, they act as a fire retardant.

Microcellulose does not harm nature, because it originates from nature. You could cultivate plants on it such as there were soil. The production process of the Greenbutton’s products does not side produce any waste or pollution. Microcellulose dishes are produced at room temperature or maximum at 100 Celsius degrees. One principle and target in the circular economy is to produce products without waste and which could be circulated easily. Products made of cellulose fulfil these requirements.

Joulumessuilla tavataan

Greenbuttonin tuotteita voi ostaa myyntipöydältä Wanhassa Satamassa Katajanokalla 5. -9. 12. tämän viikon keskiviikosta sunnuntaihin. Myyntipöytä sijaitsee F-salissa. Wanha Satama on idyllinen paikka ja on jo siksikin ilo saada sieltä myyntipaikka.

Maa ei ole vielä valkoinen eikä taida ehtiä lumipeite jouluksikaan. Greenbutton-kynttiläalustat tuovat väriä ja valoa, kun kynttilän sytyttää.

Näin unta, jossa maan alta löytyi vanha kulunut pieni kangaspussi. Se oli suljettu nyörien avulla, mutta ne olivat hapertuneet rikki. Pussin väri oli sinertävä. Mietin, että oliko pussi ehkä satoja vuosia vanha. Olisiko sen sisällä rahaa tai jokin muu aarre. Vein pussin jonnekin, missä se varovasti avattiin. Pussin sisällä oli pieni ruskea sieni. Ihmettelin, miksi aikaisemmin eläneet ihmiset olivat laittaneet sienen talteen. Kiinnosti tosi paljon, kuinka vanha sieni oikeastaan oli. Sitä en kuitenkaan saanut unessa selville, sillä heräsin. Ehdin kuitenkin unissani pohtia, mikä ihmeen salaisuus sienessä oli, kun se oli tarvinnut piilottaa maan alle. Unessa päädyin siihen, että sienessä on vahva rakenne. Mietin herättyäni lisää, mikä ihmeen salaisuus voisi olla sienessä. Mietin, liittyykö sieni mitenkään Greenbuttoniin. Lopulta keksin tehdä mikroselluloosasta sieniä ja niin syntyivät Sisu-sienet.

Greenbutton lanseeraa messuilla myös sisustuskukat uutena tuotteena. Sisustuskukat ovat näyttäviä ja niitä voi itse sommitella erilaisiin paikkoihin omassa kodissaan.

joulupöydässä leikkeleet voi sijoittaa Greenbutton-kylmälevyn päälle. Kun levyä säilyttää jääkaapissa tai pakastimessa, se kylmenee ja pysyy kylmänä ja leikkeleet päällä myös. Tämä perustuu mikroselluloosan hyvään lämmöneristämiseen. Kuumat kattilat voi laskea Greenbutton-pannunalisen päälle.

Greenbutton on kehittänyt käytännölliset, mutta samalla kauniit Sisucellu-koukkuhelmet. Helmissä on kiinnityskoukku mukana ja siihen voi kiinnittää vaikkapa avaimensa.

Nähdään Wanhassa Satamassa ja minä kerron lisää Greenbuttonin tuotteista!

terveisin, Saila

Author: Saila Seppo

KallioNature has meant a lot for me ever since I was a child. I grew up surrounded by flowers and trees in my parent’s market garden. I was already moving around the greenhouse by the age of one, and I saw how my parents treated the flowers. When I was three years old, I used to answer the phone and talk to customers. I knew that the strawberries and the flowers were on sale to would-be customers. We had large strawberry fields when I was a toddler. It was a bummer that the strawberries were kept for customers, because then we couldn’t have them. I had to learn the difference between garden flowers and field flowers. I was allowed to play with the field flowers and with the forest trees. I got to pick beautiful bouquets of wildflowers at will.

We used to play house on a large rock. It was a huge boulder, probably a leftover from the last Ice Age, and it was our playground until it was blown to pieces to make way for a new road. There were more rocks in the forest, but the boulder was like our second home. In spring we would watch water flowing in the brooks. In summer we gathered berries from the forest. In autumn we looked for mushrooms with my parents. You had to be alert with the toxic mushrooms. We even ate some of the plants in the forest, like Oxalis leaves (Oxalis acetosella).

We grew Carnation flowers, Chrysanthemum and Roses in the greenhouse. These plants grew by the sides of the greenhouse on a soil floor. If there was a spot where nothing grew, there was a table. On top of the table were, for example, pot plants. The Chrysanthemums, which were growing in the greenhouse in autumn, had to be covered carefully every evening by black plastic sheets, which were removed in the morning. Chrysanthemums required a long night to flower beautifully. The summer days in Finland are quite long. The Chrysanthemums came in many different colours and cultivars. One really magnificent white cultivar would topple if you poked its spherical flower even a little. Therefore we had to be really precise when handling the flower, and we also had to warn the customers. A vine rotated the roof of the greenhouse, and we could eat grapes in the summer. I was proud of our own grapes. A wooden frame, where beautiful orchids grew, hung from the ceiling of the greenhouse.

Tulips of different colour were grown from flower bulbs by Christmas: parrot or told tulips, blue, white or pink strong-smelling hyacinths, blue, yellow or white crocuses, red and white poinsettias and fresh white or red azaleas. By Easter, the flower bulbs would turn into different sorts of daffodils, which were mostly yellow. I was born in spring, around Easter, so yellow daffodils are related to my birthday. English poet William Wordsworth  wrote the poem Daffodils, which became very famous.

“I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.”

In the summers, there were flowers growing outside, too, and I learnt to identify perennials, which rose from the ground every spring: great coloured Phlox flowers (Phlox panicualata) and white Baby’s breaths (Gypsophila paniculata). Other plant seeds were sown in the field, such as yellow-orange marigold flowers and blue cornflowers. Plants that were particularly vulnerable to the cold were sown under glass. The spring nights could be very cold, so cultivation pallets were important. They were almost like a smaller greenhouse. Glass windows were put to a wooden frame, so seedlings had more favourable growing conditions. Many plant seeds were sown in boxes, first in wooden boxes, then in plastic ones and finally in Styrofoam boxes. I got to know every box in my parent’s market garden. The boxes had to be moved from place to place because of temperature variations, for instance. Eventually the seeds developed into seedlings. Violet seedlings were planted incrementally into the mould box. In the end, the violets were planted into the ground or had been sold earlier. Flowerbeds were bullied by weeds, which had to be pulled out. Especially on hot days flowers had to be watered using long water hoses. I made deliveries to customers and it was always great to see happy customers.

In summer, petunias were grown in pots. They were dark blue, deep red, pink and white. Other summer plants on sale included strong-smelling brown-orange velvet roses, stunning high gladioli, deep blue irises, beautiful differently coloured asters, red and white Christmas begonias, various kinds and colours of other begonias, light orange twiggy cresses, sturdy differently coloured dahlias, blue starlets, red and white geraniums, which survive the cool winter thriving in the window, mysterious snapdragons (antirrhinum majus) of different colours, red waterdrops, shiny red sages (Salvia splendens), blue or white lobelias, white beautiful arums (calla), magnificent lilies, red peonies (Paeonia), and marguerite daisies. Red-flowered cyclamens, which had ear-shaped leaves, were sold in late summer.

In summer, there were cut flowers of a variety of roses with different colours. Queen Elisabeth was a beautiful, magnificent pink rose; Mercedes was a salmon-red and resistant rose variety; and Peace was a beautiful subdued yellow rose. When the roses were refined to keep longer in a vase, their pretty scents could become diluted. The roses were yellow, different shades of red and white. There were long-handled grand roses, like Queen Elisabeth and beetroses, and bright red Nina Weibull roses. On Mother’s day, we sold potted roses labelled as “Mother’s day roses”. They may have been rosevine or roseroot, which were planted in the yard. I loved roses. I even knew how to bring a withered rose back to life: I carved the stem and put it in cold water until it was revived. The roses could also cause pain when I had to get rid of the weeds in the rosebed in a hot greenhouse. It was very easy to get scratches on your arms and it was painful to work.

I remember that we didn’t have as many different begonias as our competitor in the market square. Red, yellow or white blooming begonias were exiting flowers, because their twigs were easily broken.

Carnation flowers (Dianthus caryophyllus) were cut flowers from the greenhouse. Carnation growing required work, because the weakest branches had to be removed. White carnation flowers were painted in different colours. Carnation flowers suit many different occasions. The wonderfully fragrant white lily of the valley is a suitable option for the finest of events, even for weddings. Sweet peas grew against a high net, using it to climb upwards. Sweet peas had that lovely scent and their colours were as thin as a petal. Pansies were great when making beautiful corsages. I especially liked the perennial blue-flowered Viola cornuta, which grew in large areas. With baby’s breath (Gypsophila paniculata) you could make white-blue set-ups, which I happily did. Yellow or white freesias were beautiful, like blue irises and differently coloured gladioli. Sunflowers were magnificent and their weighty inflorescence needed a strong stalk. I made bouquets to sell at the market square. The first time I sold flowers at the market square I was around ten years old. I had to calculate the prices of the products in my head, if the customers bought more than one product. I knew how to count and enjoyed my work. When I turned 18, I rented a flower stall for the summer and I sold flowers. I priced my products based on the market square prices, only I duplicated them. When the customers complained about the prices, I lowered them. And when they were super happy about the prices, I raised them.

The yard and the field were filled with more flowers, chimneys and vascular plants, which grew by themselves, without care or planting. In spring I found white anemones in the forest. High, brown, baton-like bulrushes and yellow marsh marigolds I found in the stream. The pond was filled with beautiful water lilies. I could find true grass, bluebells, spreading bellflowers, daisies, light blue forget-me-nots, poisonous yellow buttercups and yellow tough dandelions. Dandelions left nasty goo on your hands. The dead inflorescence was replaced with seeds and their parachutes. It would have been fun to blow the seeds to make them fly, but the adults didn’t want me to spread the seeds around. Sometimes I made salad from dandelion leaves. Other flowers, like daisies and bluebells and other wild flowers, I used to make a corsage.

We also had bushes for sale: white spiraea, yellow cinquefoils, blue or white floral lilacs, burnt red small-leaf barberries, white berry blossoms, snow berries and high cedars. Rhododendrons came in different colours. Rhododendron requires the same kind of conditions as azaleas indoors. Soil acidity had a large impact on rhododendron’s growth. The plant also required continuous moisture. We also sold plants that thrive along the water: willows, redcurrants, white currants and blackcurrants, pink-berried raspberry trees and green-berried gooseberries. Plum and apple trees, which grew in the yard, brought in good money.

We had also other kinds of trees on sale, such as yews, oaks, beautifully leaved maple trees, dense junipers, and high cedars. In autumn, I collected leaves that had fallen from the trees, and dried them between a book’s pages. I still have some of those stored in a box.

My mother and father made wreaths from spruce needles and flowers for funerals. Customers could choose their own customisable text on the wreaths. Sometimes a nosegay was made for the grieving people. Heathers grew in the autumn, and my mother made lichen wreaths from them to be taken to the graves. We got lichen from the woods. Chrysanthemums were sold in vases in the autumn. They had beautiful and almost scentless flowers and were beautiful everyday flowers.

We also sold houseplants. These included many-coloured Paul flowers, rubber plants, palm trees, ferns, anthurium plants and Chinese roses.

Wild wines grew up along the walls of our brick house. In the spring they had green leaves, which then turned red in the autumn and finally dropped off before winter came.

As a child I learnt how to differentiate between plants. Their inflorescences were different, just like their leaves and stems were. There were really many different varieties of flowers. I was mostly attracted to their scents and colours.

Sadly, I have since become allergic to scents. Now I can’t bring any flowers to my home at all, not even Christmas flowers. These days I only admire flowers from afar or from photos. Greenbutton flowers are good for me and the are beautiful.