Tero Lannes is a new Friend made through the website. He contacted me earlier this month, interested in Turkey Feathers. Boy am I glad I have nice feathers in stock. As a result we have the pleasure of seeing this true Artisan's work and are able to find out his inspiration and motivation for his flies.

Tero pictured at left, standing on a river bank, choosing a right fly for Irish grilse.

"I think I picked up Hairy Mary out of my box".

I doubt that it was tied by anyone other than him.

I admire his skill and talent immensely and I have a great deal of respect for his character. I wish he had more pictures of his work to share with us.

" I have only few own photos of my salmon flies, because I have taken photos of my flies only for couple years and I am not very productive tier. I have tied some unique flies in shadow boxes and took photos of them, but because I have made those works of art for gifts for special people I have decided that I will never publish those photos."

As I said I respect him but I really think it a shame a lot of his work will not be enjoyed by anyone other than the recipient. I hope they know how fortunate they are.

Tero was kind enough to share the following about himself and the beautiful flies he creates:

"I live in Southern Finland in a small village called Jokela, which is only 50 km to North from our capital city Helsinki. I am very fond of the place where I live, because near my home runs river Vantaa and the famous fishing part Nukarinkoski. For passionate fly fisherman and fly tyer, it means a lot to live near the river!

In summertime the fly fishing takes the main part my spare time and I have less time for fly tying. But when the ice covers our lakes and rivers, I spend quite often my evenings at my vice and tie fishing or artistic flies.

I have also been quite lucky in fly tying competitions and won some Gold Medals in ?creation feather-wing? -categories of international salmon fly tying competitions like:

- FQSA World Championship (2004 and 2005)
- Mustad Scandinavian Open (2003)
- Irish Open (2002 and 2003)
- S.A.E.N.?s competition (2003)

I was also the overall winner of the British Fly Fishing and Fly Tying magazine?s international fly tying League 2004-2005, where the entry flies had to be fishing flies not ornamental flies.

I have specialized in salmon fly tying and the feather-wing creations are close to my heart. I really enjoy to create and to compose flies by myself just like the masters did years ago! Since I tied my first own creation about six years ago, I have not been so fascinated by tying world renowned classic patterns again and again. For me tying a new creation is more like making a work of art. How funny it is, but the long and painful creation process has always been very important for me.

I have also tied salmon flies for gifts for some special people. For me this is a totally different scene, because gift flies will always stay unique and I will never tie copies or publish photos about those works. Every fly tyer knows that it feels so good to tie flies for people who really like them.

I wish I had more time to spin my bobbin and dress new flies. Too often I have the feeling, that there are so many other things to do in my life than tying flies. And I swear, when I sit down at my vice even the time goes faster than normally. I am not a professional fly tyer and to date the fly tying has been only a serious hobby for me. After telling that somebody might think, what actually makes this hobby so ?serious?? Well, it takes me usually couple weeks or almost 40 hours to compose and tie new unique and artistic competition fly. Isn?t that serious?"

Here are a few of his flies followed by text Tero supplied for each pattern:



The Falling Star
This fly was my 2004 FQSA World Championship Gold Medal winner in the Creation Feather-wing Category. Competition theme was ?the Milky Way?. The overall look of the fly is black and white with some shiny effects. The fly has a good balance of colours and the shape is traditional. However, it is tied very original way. On the tag I used a curled tinsel belt to imitate the falling star. The yellow silk is used to imitate the light of the star. ?Tinsel belt? was a my new invention, when I created this fly. The black and white body colours represent the midnight sky and the light of the stars. The Black Speckled Bustard (substitute), was a perfect material to imitate the stars in the Milky Way. The throat is also interesting. I used marabou tipped goose strips in the throat to give the fly more originality.

Beyond the Sky
This fly was my 7th place winner in the 2004 FQSA World Championship in the Creation Feather-wing Category. The colours of the fly represent the special ?blue moment? in the nature when day turns to night and stars start to twinkle. The horns of the fly are made of seldom used material (Anderson pheasant substitute) which fits well to the overall look of the fly and gives more originality to the fly. The name of the fly is ?Beyond the Sky?. A slightly mystical name invokes different kind of feelings depending on the audience and gives the fly non-visual impressions.

Diamonds
I created ?Diamonds? for 2005 Guideline Open Fly Tying Contest. This time competition?s theme was ?something old and something new?. The fly is tied by using traditional materials. I wanted to create a fly, which would look like a classic, but when you look at it longer, you will find something new and interesting details. I composed the diamond figures by using banded strips of Anderson?s pheasant (substitute). These new part are inserted in the fly so that they don?t dominate the fly too much. The wing is very tall with a strong hump. The name of the fly is Diamonds which refers to the diamond figures in the wing and glittering tinsel belts on the tag.



Smooth Dancer
This fly was my 2005 FQSA World Championship Gold Medal winner in the Creation Feather-wing Category. I dedicated Smooth Dancer to my wife Sonja (And she can dance! ). This time the theme was ?salmon angler?s better half?. I decided to compose a fly which colours and patterns are taken from Finnish national costumes. I think that the colours are a bit mixed for a classic fly, but anyway, those real costumes have very strong colours and I wanted to follow the original colour charts quite closely.

National costumes have a long tradition in Finland and almost every province have their own costume. Finnish national costumes are replicas of the festive attire commonly worn in the 18th and 19th centuries. Nowadays those costumes are still used as festive attire and believe me every costume is hand made!

The body of the fly is striped like the skirt of the national costume. Also the striped patterns of the wing are similar to the stripes of the vest of the costume. The ornamental tinsel loops on the body imitate the golden clasps of the vest. I made their size increasing from front to back just like the clasps in the real vest do from down to up. The tag and rear body is also made by using unique technique. I mixed three flosses of different colours and then tied the tag and body with using the mixed floss so that all colours can be seen. The body of the fly was very difficult to tie ? it has been definitely one of the most challenging bodies that I have ever made!

And I think you can guess why I named the fly as a ?Smooth Dancer??

Golden Heart
This fly was my 5th place winner in the 2005 FQSA World Championship in the Creation Feather-wing Category. I dedicated this fly to my mother. The colours of the fly are taken from the flowers which she likes a lot. Her favourite flowers are yellow roses and red and yellow tulips (so called ?Elite? tulips). Some of those colours are added in the wing so that they create an optical mix and the colours change softly to another. The body of the fly is very soft and all the colours are warm. The body is made of numberless golden silk bunches which are first brushed and cut short and then tied round the hook in regular spaces. I have used this new technique only few times.

Red Shine
This fly saw the light of the day, when I was playing with a crazy idea: I would like to tie a salmon fly, which colours are like a common trout fly?s colours! And of course I had to send this also to one competition. Afterwards it was not so good idea (MSO 2004, 7th place winner). The main colours of the fly are red and cinnamon and like I said that colour combination is less used in salmon flies. Hackle is a greasy hen hackle instead of commonly used cock hackle. The hen hackle shines nice and gives more originality to the fly.

Thank you Tero