Kaisaleena Mäkelä

A silversmith graduate from the Lahti Polytechnic Institute of Design, Kaisa Leena Mäkelä furthered her studies in Japan where she graduated from Hiko Mizuno Jewelry College. A jewelry designer for Kalevala since 1993, Mäkelä has been responsible for several large collections that are historic in nature and are richly intertwined with culture. Enthralled with old mythology and symbolism, Mäkelä takes past myths and re-works them into modern and wearable pieces of jewelry. From her Horse collection which draws upon a thousand-year-old horse motif from the region of Perm in the Ural Mountains of Russia to her Bear collection which highlights the strong character of a half human, half forest being of Finnish folklore, she is deeply moved by cultural histories. A marvelous artist who has found the balance between the past and present, Mäkelä uses her gift to create one-of-a-kind jewelry.