The collection by the cottage industry counsellor Laura Korpikaivo-Tamminen (1904–2001) includes textiles from her childhood home, school and student work, sales, exhibition and competition work by various designers as well as traditional crafts. The collection also includes handicrafts from abroad, a wide range of woven products and weaving tools, and other items. Currently, the collection lists about 3,000 artefacts. Besides textiles, the collection will also include items from the Korpikaivo-Tamminen’s home, such as furniture and ornaments.

In 1979, Laura Korpikaivo-Tamminen donated her detached house with its movables, the adjacent plot and a textile collection of 1,000 items to the City of Lappeenranta on the condition that the city builds a museum of handicrafts on the empty plot. The museum building was completed in 1983, with the first exhibition organised based on the museum collections. The Museum of Handicrafts ceased operating as a separate unit in 2003. Today, its collection is part of the cultural-historical collections of the Museums of Lappeenranta.

Explore Laura Korpikaivo-Tamminen’s digitised collection online.