Photography by Tero Saikkonen
I saw an article on the Finnish newspaper Iltalehti awhile ago, that someone in Southeast Finland had handcrafted a Viking themed outhouse.
I saw the pictures and was in awe of the craftsmanship and amount of hours someone must have spent creating that gorgeous masterpiece!
Little did I know that the creator of this outhouse was the same person I met on a Viking Facebook site and who reached out to me! :)
Toni Saikkonen had dreamt of making an outhouse for over five years, and had collected all the wood material for a long period of time.
All in all he used 12 types of wood; Aspen, Pine, Spruce, Linden, Ash wood, Elm, Japanese walnut, Cedar, Birch, Oak, heat treated Poplar and Ipe.
He finally had the time to begin his project during Covid-19 quarantine.
The amount of detail poured into every single part of the outhouse is amazing and I can only admire how very talented he is at his craft.
The outhouse of course, is made entirely according to the era. Only a couple screws were used for the roof hammers, but otherwise everything else is attached with wooden pegs or wooden joints.
Toni has studied to be a carpenter-artisan and has had many courses in both wood and precious metals. Toni is a private craft entrepreneur, but due to the corona, there was no work so he had the time to make his outhouse, named "The Chapel".
Fortunately, he has a lot of work now, and rightfully so, he is a very gifted craftsman!
His company, founded in 2008, Torkel Design is a company specializing in unique and detailed metal and carpentry products.
You can find him at markets selling his gorgeous products and the Icebreakers for Vikings drinking game or you can visit Verla, where he has a summer shop.
Or you can contact him for custom-made personal furniture, interior items, gifts, decorative items, traditional knives, and other utensils, construction work, metalwork, restoration, repairs of almost all kinds of items and things!
Photography by Tero Saikkonen
If you visit Finland and haven't been to Verla, you should plan a day trip there in the summer!
Verla is a UNESCO World Heritage site that captures an interesting phase of development in Finland’s history.
Since 1996, Verla Ground wood and Board Mill has been on the World Heritage List on the basis of:
"Verla Ground wood and Board Mill and its associated habitation are an outstanding and remarkably well-preserved example of the small-scale rural industrial settlement associated with pulp and board production that flourished in northern Europe and North America in the 19th and early 20th centuries, of which only a handful survive to the present day." - www.verla.fi/en/worldheritage
I am so thankful I get to meet such amazing and talented people!
And might I add, I would never have met them without having the courage to launch my Icebreakers for Vikings drinking game and talk about my game on public forums!
-Kartini