An optician's atelier in Sodankylä, where the eyeglass frames and the jewellery are made by hand from Finnish birch bark and naturally shed reindeer antler.
Laura Knuuti had worked as an optician in southern Finland and had only just moved to Lapland when, out walking in the forest, she found a large, moss-covered reindeer antler on the ground. The find brought back a dream from her student years: making an eyeglass frame of her own.
Laura signed up for a reindeer antler course and decided to find out whether the antler could be turned into sunglasses. Hundreds of attempts and thousands of hours with a material that had been unfamiliar to her began to pay off, and alongside the antler she found a second old Finnish material, birch bark. That is how Keloa came about. Laura also studied frame design and manufacture in the French Jura, known as the historic centre of French eyewear making.
Keloa is a verb borrowed into Finnish from Sámi, and it means the rubbing of reindeer antlers. In late summer a bull reindeer rubs the velvet skin off his antlers against trees and branches. In autumn the antlers drop in the forest. The name Keloa refers to exactly that moment, when the antler is ready to be left in the forest to be found.
The natural materials decide every frame
Keloa's frames combine Finnish birch plywood and birch bark. Treated correctly, birch bark is soft, flexible and almost cork-like to the touch, and always genuinely unique in its colouring.
Reindeer antler is an individual material too. The core inside it only reveals what the antler really is like once you start working it. The colour can range from cream through grey to shades of old rose. Even within one and the same antler.
So each piece of bark and each antler decides for itself what kind of frame it can be shaped into.
Keloa uses only naturally shed antlers in its products, and bark from trees that are being felled anyway. Bark has to be collected with the landowner's permission, at a particular time of year and with a particular technique.
Keloa's collections all began as something made for a customer. Only the models that have proved to fit others as well go on in the collection. So the collection has been created together with our customers, and it develops one frame at a time, as splendid as our customers are. Every one is handmade and genuinely unique.
The natural marks in the material are allowed to stay visible. A small knot or a fleck of colour in the antler is not a flaw; it is part of the frame's story.
Keloa grew out of an optician's wish to combine natural materials with an eyeglass frame that genuinely works. Fit, comfort and the way the lenses perform are therefore an essential part of the design.
Lenses can also be obtained through Keloa on the basis of a valid prescription. The glasses and sunglasses are CE tested. The products carry the Finnish Key Flag symbol for domestic work.
Keloa's atelier and showroom are on the main street of Sodankylä. In our atelier you can try our products on, and you get to see how the eyeglass frames and the jewellery come about.
If you stop in Sodankylä, it is worth stepping inside and experiencing a genuine and different kind of atelier.
Lapland's materials also become jewellery and souvenirs
The surplus material left over from making the frames is used in jewellery and souvenirs. In our zero waste products the reindeer antler is decorated with hand-picked and dried wild flowers from Lapland and with recycled silver. Like the frames, each piece of jewellery is its own small unique work of art. A little piece of Lapland's nature that you can carry with you, wherever you happen to go.
Keloa, Jäämerentie 6, Sodankylä. keloa.fi · @keloafinland
An eyeglass frame being worked by hand on the bench in Keloa's atelier in Sodankylä. Photo: Keloa
A close-up of a handmade Keloa eyeglass frame in birch bark and reindeer antler. Photo: Keloa
The jewellery display board in Keloa's shop in Sodankylä. Photo: Keloa
Handmade eyewear from birch bark and reindeer antler
Eyeglass frames on the showroom shelves at Keloa in Sodankylä. Photo: Keloa