Welcome to Bjarmia!
Bjarmia is a North Finland based ceramics and design company. The heart of the company is its own ceramics production. Added to its own ceramics, the selection of Bjarmia also consists of natural wild food products such as wild herbs, sparkling drinks and berry jams, beautiful design-handicrafts and home decoration items.
The headquarters of Bjarmia is Bjarmia Hall located in the centre of Kuusamo town in Northern Finland. In the Bjarmia Hall you can also find a wide selection of Marimekko-products and women’s and children’s clothing and accessories.
Welcome to our webpage, online store, and our shop in Kuusamo!
Products
Bjarmia-ceramics are made by hand in Kuusamo. Every ceramic piece is unique. All the decorations and glazings are made by hand, each piece individually.
All our ceramic items are stone ware and are dishwasher, oven and microwave oven proof. All items are suitable for food items.
The inspiration to our products comes from the bare but beautiful northern nature around us. Also the history of ceramics is a source of inspiration for us. All of our pieces are designed for use in the modern world, combining the aspects of ceramic art and tableware – with either traditional or modern “twist”.
Bjarmia Wild food products
We created our wild food product line so that our customers could enjoy Finnish natural delicacies from our hand made dishes. The product line consists of i.e. sparkling drinks, jams, marshmallows, spruce sprout syrup and hand picked wild herbs. There are no artificial flavors or colorants in these products! I.e. our jams’ berry content is 80%!
You can find our products in our online store. We deliver all around the world.
Shops and contact
Kuusamo
Our headquarters and factory outlet is located in Kuusamo city centre, Vienantie 1. The heart of the Bjarmia Hall is our pottery. The shop is around the pottery, in two floors. There is an elevator in the building. There is also a cozy café in the house, and in the summer time you can enjoy coffee and other refreshments in the beautiful summer terrace.
Contact: Bjarmia Hall: Vienantie 1, 93600 Kuusamo. Tel. +358 8 853869. Email: shop (at)Bjarmia.fi
Opening hours: Mon – Fri 10am-6pm, Sat 10am-3pm.
Night of the Arts in Kuusamo August 15th 2024!
Clay molding in Bjarmia – come and mold your own power amulet from clay!
Welcome to try clay molding in front of the Bjarmia house on Thursday, August 15. from 4 to 7 p.m. You can mold your own “power amulet” from clay to bring you joy and strength for the future! An amulet can be, for example, a decorative item, a small work of art, a pendant, a small cup/bowl… An “amulet” that brings joy and strength, just for you! You can decorate your amulet on the spot, or if you wish, participate in the glazing event organized later in the fall, where the amulets are glazed.
Bjarmia House is open 10am-7pm on Thursday August 15th, welcome!
Helsinki
NOTE: As the building is going under large renovation, we have moved out from this location. A warm thank you to all our customers in Helsinki! We will share more news later on. In the mean while we are at your service in Kuusamo, our webshop and of course you can always call or email us!
Bjarmia Shop in Pohjoisesplanadi 37, Helsinki.
In December 2019 we opened a Bjarmia-shop in Helsinki. There you can find Bjarmia ceramics, Bjarmia wild food items and design handicrafts from the Nordic countries. By order, we also deliver any product from our Kuusamo shop to Helsinki!
Contact: Bjarmia, Pohjoisesplanadi 37, 00100 Helsinki. Tel. +358 40 1532 153. Email: shop (at)bjarmia.fi
The shop is currently closed.
Contact us by stopping by at our shop, or by sending us an email from this link.
Phone number to Bjarmia Hall in Kuusamo: 08853869 (inquiries about products or opening hours etc). With anything else, you can always call Kaisa, the entrepreneur: Kaisa Valkama-Kettunen +358407249577
Corporate gifts
A gift that is unique and selected with a thought is a great memory of your company. From us you can have gifts that support your valuable brand and fit in your budget. We can make taylor made packages from the Nordic brands we represent. We can take care of large quantities or we can wrap up gifts for a sudden need for the same minute! Added to our own ceramics, we also have many more brands in our selection, including famous Finnish brands such as Marimekko and Aarikka.
Our clients consists of both, small and large businesses. With the same enthusiasm we serve the private entrepreneur, small businesses, large companies as well as a listed company. The most important thing to us is that your stakeholders will receive a gift that reminds them of your company. Packaging is always taylor made according to your needs; we can you cardboard boxes, sellofan, gift paper or we can just use ribbon to have plastic free package for more environmental package. Sometimes it is nice to give out a vase that already has flowers in it – we will be happy to get you the flowers to the vase ready.
Call +358407249577/Kaisa Valkama-Kettunen and let us take care of your gifts! If you wish, you can also reach us by email from this link.
Bjarmians and the Bjarmians of today – fairytale -like history
The Bjarmians were ancient trading people in the Far North, mainly around the White Sea, whose culture flourished at the time between the Viking expeditions and the Crusades around 900-1100 A.D. The trading route of these trappers and craftsmen led from the shores of the White Sea down to the great cultural centers of the south as well as to the west where the Vikings lived. Numerous artefacts discovered in the North East region – in Kuusamo, Kemijärvi and Salla – serve as proof that the Bjarmians have stayed in these regions relatively long periods of time.
Our knowledge about the Bjarmians and their origin is scanty and mostly based on old legends. Viking Ottar, one of the army commanders of King Alfred the Great of Norway, writes in his letter to the king about his expedition by sea to the shores of the Kola Peninsula. He tells about the Bjarmians whose fields were well-kept, and whose precious furs and such riches as silver and gold were quite a temptation for the seafarers.
The trading between the Bjarmians and the Vikings was busy and at times rather peculiar. An old story tells about Tore Hund, the governor of Finnmark in northern Norway, and his expedition to the Viena river in the land of Bjarmians. Tore and his men plundered their town known for its prosperity, destroyed its sacrificial grove and took the golden image of Jomali, the God of the Bjarmians, with them. But then again the Bjarmians used to sneak into the camp of their business partners at night and steal back the goods they had sold in the daytime. We are modern Bjarmians and don’t always strictly follow the old Bjarmian tradition – so don’t hesitate to step in – we are not warlike people at all!
Below is a map by Olaus Magnus from 1539. You can find Bjarmia on the top right corner!
Bjarmia Oy – at the footsteps of the ancient Bjarmians since 1974
Today the ancient Bjarmians are but a part of the history of Kuusamo, but at Bjarmia the craftmanship is still cherished. The pottery Bjarmia Oy, founded in 1974, wants to revive the ancient traditions of handicraft and trade.
We, the Bjarmians of today, produce handmade ceramics, and the inspiration to our creative work we draw from the nature around us – its deep wilderness, forested hills, wide peatlands and pure waters – and form a deep consciousness of our own roots.
The founder of Bjarmia Oy is Aini Valkama, whose longing back to search her roots brought her back to Kuusamo in 1974. In 2008, her daughter Kaisa Valkama, born and raised in Kuusamo, took over the company after several years of living in the Southern part of Finland and foreign countries.
The company celebrated its 45-year anniversary in 2019. At the end of the anniversary year, Bjarmia Oy opened a shop in Helsinki city centre, along the famous shopping street Pohjoisesplanadi 37.
As the founder Aini Valkama states; “Everything began with a blob of clay and a strong believe in Finnish craftmanship”. That blob of clay and strong believe has carried out through the decades. Today, Bjarmia remembers its roots and history, but the focus is in the future and the decades to come. Bjarmia ceramics are also available in Japan, where the company began export in 2017.
