Susan Ryhanen
1999-2006
As a money making hobby the Ryhanen family used to design and make garden ornaments and other various painted crafts in the mid 90's. One fateful weekend, deep inside a mediocre craft fair at a stripmall in Tarrytown they found themselves stationed next to a soapmaker. Susan was captivated by the strange chemistry of cold-process olive oil soap.
A year or two later, newly retired from teaching, Susan was mixing soap in her basement and laying the groundwork for a small soap empire. Her hobby grew into a little business called Creekside Soaps which sold soap as well as custom engineered soap making supplies, designed her husband, Pentti.
In 2004, Susans daughter Sarah suggested re-designing the packaging of the soap, using rubber stamps and Italian floral papers…in 2006 together they renamed the business SAIPUA (derived from the Finnish word for soap ‘saippua’ - a nod to Pentti’s Finnish heritage).
2006
Sarah and Eric opened a small storefront in Red Hook, Brooklyn and began a floral business under the same name. Sarah had caught the ‘flower bug’ the year before and was looking to house her hobby inside the soap business. The storefront was a little hole in the wall at 392 Van Brunt Street in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn.
Around 2007 Sarah began writing and posting images to a blog.
The first shop was an old candy store that had been empty since the 70’s
Small weddings with Ball Jar arrangements
Eric and the very first Saipua wedding at ICI in Fort Greene
2009
SAIPUA moved to a larger space on Van Dyke Street. We built out a small jewel box space using old barn wood with college friend Jeremy Korn of Tacklebox Architecture.
Over the next five years this studio was the heart of the SAIPUA machine. The flowers got better and better. Saipua/Sarah began to receive a lot of press for their unique loose and romantic floral styling.
Our dog Nea in the construction phase of the buildout.
Deanna who helped build the wedding business sits in the front of the shop
Behind the tiny wooden retail store there was a lofty garage used for producing flower jobs
Sarah and team develop a busy wedding floristry business
The first wedding press; a flower feature in Martha Stewart Magazine
2010
Sarah and Nicolette meet, compare notes on flower work and begin teaching together with the goal of traveling the world - they visit Iceland, Australia, the UK, Italy and California many times teaching people technique and sharing their passion for flowers and collaborative businesses.
Slideshow
2011
Sarah and Eric buy a farm 30 miles west of Albany and name it Worlds End. Eric insists no apostrophe since worlds are ending all the time. Sarah likes the name because it references the TC Boyle Book by the same name - it is a historical fictional account of her hometown Peekskill, NY. Friends complain the farm is so far from NYC so the name is fitting.
The purpose of Worlds End is to grow dream flowers. This is one: clematis alpina ‘blue dancer.'
While Sarah and Eric work on building the farm the farmhouse remains without a kitchen. They use a grill for all cooking until the first stove is installed in 2019.
They begin to restore a pair of historic barns to serve as teaching and making sites
Visitors sleep in tents for years
Eric scythes the grass for years before they buy a lawn mower or tractor
When the big teaching barn is finished they throw a big party - the infamous lamb dinner to coincide with the first sheep slaughter in 2015. They raise a 20 foot ring with 100 lit candles to mark the occasion.
The communal barn - on the right is started in 2018
2015
The city business reaches a zenith. SAIPUA is part of a broad floral movement that prioritizes seasonal, local flowers and collaboration between competitors.
The soap gets a sophisticated rebrand by Vanessa Saba and Lisa Hedge of Ensemble.
The move to the studio on Dwight Street in Red Hook. With two floors, a giant working fireplace, a ceramic studio, and kitchen, this studio is referred to as The CASTLE.
Flowers are regularly trucked to the city from Worlds End
2018
Managing the two projects is unsustainable for Sarah and SAIPUA closes it’s city studio and moves to the farm to focus on teaching florals and growing the interdisciplinary aspects of Worlds End. The idea of starting a school begins to take shape.
The communal barn - on the right is started in 2018
2019
We host the first coyotecafe (open farm sundays with lunch) and the first SUPERNATURE DISCO - events designed to get people to participate in the farm's increasing activities and inspire others to consider land-based businesses.
2020
We build the ‘soap factory.’ Until this point, Susan has made every bar in the basement of her home. Susan and Pentti move to Worlds End and begin to build their own house there. The farm begins to take shape as an intergenerational community of around 10 craftspeople, educators and farmers.
2023
In 2023, Worlds End School organizes as a nonprofit and while remaining deeply connected, the stories of SAIPUA and the farm diverge for the sake of consumer clarity. Sarah considers the soap production as an important, replicable model for tying new-worlding work to clear but antiquated modes of production in current capital systems. Put simply; selling soap supports the work of Worlds End School where the value of a skein of wool, or a tomato, or the education on how to conjure these items collaboratively in the living world will never be expressable in dollars.
Thank you
Sarah is gratefully indebted to partners Eric Famisan, Susan Ryhanen, Bryony Mattes-Harris, Zoe Wonfor, Meg Paska and the countless staff, apprentices, volunteers, students and supporters who see the true value of beauty, champion community over commerce, and continue to inspire an evolving vision of a new, more verdant world.
