Saipua

Saipua | Esperance, NY
Category: Beauty, Skincare, Self-Care, Soap, Floral, Retreats, Education

Saipua is home to the creative practices of artist and educator Sarah Ryhanen and her network of collaborators and co-conspirators.

Saipua began in 2006 with a Brooklyn studio devoted to the dual crafts of flower arranging and soap-making (Saipua means “soap” in Finnish, a nod to Sarah's heritage and the tradition of Sauna). Through her floral practice, Sarah has cultivated a distinct aesthetic, inspiring a broad movement in floral design. Saipua's work has adorned weddings worldwide, runway shows, and collaborations with artists and organizations. Over the years Saipua has developed into a dynamic consortium of creative endeavors; cultivating products, spaces, educational programing, and experiences that foster and encourage more intimate and provocative connections to the natural world. 

ALSO check out Worlds End School:

Worlds End is 107 acres of rocky clay soil 40 miles west of Albany located on ancestral Mohawk land.

It is first and foremost a home to several artists, writers and gardeners. The land is managed as a small-scale diversified homestead farm. Our goal is to make the land here productive for the dietary and creative needs of those who live and work here, while improving the overall health of the soil and water for the benefit of the surrounding ecosystem.

At the crux of what we aspire to is a real balance between purposeful work and enjoyment. We feel that prioritizing in this way results in an experience for visitors that is creative, and at times challenges the notion of what a farm ought to be. We are interested in the ways that alternative relationships to time and economy invites different relationships to self, land and community. As a dynamic site for learning and making, the farm invites different forms of intelligence left out in other places to transform the nature of the conversation.

Merging aspects of productive market gardening with permaculture design, the growing space is small, amounting to less than half an acre total. This also allows for more pasture access for our flock of Icelandic sheep. Visitors should arrive ready to view a living, fluid agricultural experiment that is always changing. We hope that students will leave feeling as inspired by what they have learned and seen as we feel every day that we enjoy this creative collaboration with this place.