from Helsinki

Greetings from Helsinki, Finland!

My name is Annika Lund, and for two years I've been teaching embroidery to a group of wonderful, creative, fun and wise women at a centre for adult education in Helsinki, Finland. When it was suggested that the group put together an exhibition of their work, I asked the ladies whether they would like to join the prayer flag movement and include a line of prayer flags in the exhibition.

In order to encourage as many as possible to participate, I suggested that the 'prayers' could remain private for everyone, and that nobody needed to share their personal thoughts unless they wanted to. And as for 'prayers', every embroidered piece is a map of the embroiderer's life and thoughts in any case, as it is such slow work that you have the time to have many thoughts while you're working. Often you remember long afterwards what you were thinking, or where you were, when you worked on a particular piece.

Ten flags were subsequently made and displayed in the exhibition, and the fact is that they were such a success that they made it into the education centre’s newsletter. One of the flags even graced the cover of the newsletter!

And now it is time for the flags to join The Prayer Flag Project. Here’s an image of all the flags together, and if you want to see each of the flags in detail, please head over to my blog at www.salundannika.blogspot.fi.

Thank you to The Prayer Flag Project for the initiative to spread good will and inspiration all around the world!

Annika Lund