Every day can be Friendsday

    Murphy - Aino Riiho has always been sewing. In Finland, where she she grew up, crafting is a subject in school, and students can choose between crafting with hard materials or soft materials.
    “Everybody has an idea of how to sew really early on,” she said.
    Riiho had family members who made clothing. As she got older, she was making clothes for herself.
    Then she went to a festival, where a friend was selling the clothes she was making. The next year, Riiho was at a festival selling her Balance Pants.
    That was more than 10 years ago. She since met her husband, Forrest Oliphant, who was originally from the mountains of North Carolina and working on his master’s degree in Finland, and moved to Brasstown about five years ago. A big reason they moved to the area was John C. Campbell Folk School and the community surrounding it.
    “I make and sew things, so it’s nice to be around people who are crafty,” she said.
    Riiho moved her athlesuire clothing business here, too, but had to change the name. It was a difficult-to-pronounce Finnish name that meant “balance collection,” but she couldn’t just translate the business name since it could get confused with too many other similar American businesses. She chose Friendsday because she wanted it to be a positive name.
    “I think friends are the most positive thing I could think of,” she said.
    In Finland, they celebrate Friendsday instead of Valentine’s Day.
    Her passion in her business plan is sustainability, which she said is related to balance. Her products involve upcycling, or finding creative ways to transform waste clothing materials into items that are better quality.
    While she wanted to create clothing, she didn’t want to be a part of a problem with the fashion industry – the cycle of “fast fashion” in which consumers think they are saving money, but actually are buying lower-quality products that need to be replaced sooner and are adding to landfills.
    “I want to be on the good side of the fashion business,” she said.
    Riiho’s Balance Pants – she was able to keep the name for the pants – are made from secondhand T-shirts, with the waistbands and cuffs from organic cotton. One of her newer products, a hoodie, is made from secondhand Swedish army shirts. The meditation pillows are filled with scraps she created when making clothing items.
    As a bonus, since her business is located in Carolina Mountain Solar, she is using solar energy for the electricity used to create her products.
    Riiho still sells her clothes at festivals – she plans to be at the Murphy Spring Festival in May – as well as on her website, www.friendsday.fi, and by appointment only. In June, she will be sharing her knowledge by teaching a sustainable fashion class at the folk school.

Support group in
planning stages
    Marble – When Pat Barton learned she had a family member having a problem with depression, she also learned there was no one for her to turn to locally for support. She’s planning to change that.
    She is looking for other like-minded individuals – both family and friends who would like to better support their loved ones – to work on the details of starting a group. She knows she does not plan for it to be therapy or for there to be costs
involved.
    “It’s a sharing group,” Barton said. “We’ll cry together, and we’ll learn from each other.”
    She has plans for the group to meet at the Marble Community Center, but is also looking at other meeting locations. For details, contact Barton at 837-2731.
    Samantha Sinclair is the Scouting Around columnist for the Cherokee Scout. You can reach her by phone, 837-5122, Ext. 24; or email, scoutingaround@cherokeescout.com.