Behind Villa Ylle lies a passion and respect towards sheep and wool.
In the beginning of the 70’s we had a neighbour with a little farm. They had goats, chickens, geese and  of course – sheep. Once a little lamb was born that was recejted by the ewe, and soon it was discovered that the lamb had leukemia. The lamb was named Neiti Sievänen (Ms Sievänen). I was allowed to feed her from a bottle and she followed me like a dog. Neiti Sievänen din’t make it on this earth, but the memory of her stuck to my mind, only to later return in to my life as Villa Ylle…

In 1993 I began my studies within Crafts & Design i Turku (Finland), and got in touch with felting on the way-and the felting had come to my life for good… The more I tried to attend classes in order to get rid of my wool supplies-the bigger my wool supply grew. I was a woolaholic…
Once I finished my studies I worked in several proffession-related jobs (teaching and textile-designing to mention a few)-and finally I was offered to teach felting at a local community center in Helsinki. I discovered that while teaching I also learned a lot of new things all the time-the students asked me questions about things I had never thought of before. I accepted the challenges and experimented and developed different techniques depending on the students skills and amount of strengththey had. Teaching felting has been so inspiring that the thought of an enterprise of my own started to grow-and that’s why I took some specializing studies in 207-2008 -focusing on wool. The name of my company-Villa Ylle- was born already 4 years earlier, through play on words and my interrest for comics…
(Villa means in finnish wool, Ylle in finnish means to wear something ”Wear Wool” would be the translation. In Swedish Villa reffers to a house (as well in English), and Ylle means wool ins Swedish, so it means ”Villa Wool”!)

I always liked vintage movies & fashion.  Old movies are like a piece of art, not computerized effects, all is just hand made, and mostly black and white. I’m fascinated by how Alfred Hitchcock managed to capture you for a whole movie-even though the whole plotsometimes  happened in just one single room…   I love the archipelago, the sound of silence, the old wooden cottages, the sea and the nature. I’m happy about being able to combine my three passions, sheep, vintage movies and the Finnish archipelago in my art, I think I’ve found the meaning of life. And the meaning of life? To live your passion! 🙂

My own quality standards are very high-and is use a huge amount of time and effort in order to make the products durable, easily to care for and versatile in use. The production-process is never left halfway, it’s taken to the finishline in order to become a durable and versatile product. I have two dogs whom participate in the production as well-they’re my quality controllers-sometimes I just have to realize that there’s obviously still something that needs developing when the dogs didn’t approve of the design or quality… My dogs also participate in aquiring materials-they produce a curly coat that I mix with sheepwool and turn into jewelry. I used to miss durable dogtoys too-my little shredders put any stuffed toy into pieces in no time-that’s why I manufacture something non-toxic, durable and seamless for the furry friends…

I hope my products bring You joy at every occasion, whether you’re human or a pet…
Eva Kyrklund
Diploma In Crafts And Design