On 20th March 1885, readers of the Hämeen Sanomat newspaper read the following news item:
"A group of ladies have established a handicrafts school, where young girls can learn all kinds of handicraft skills, such as how to sew bedclothes and skirts. Eight pupils enrolled in the school on the first day. The venture is a remarkable one, particularly as the sole purpose of the founders is to provide young girls, who have completed their schooling but who are still too young to start work as servants, with education in a number of important skills and to make them acquainted with organised work." One of the founding members referred to in the article was Fredrika Wetterhoff. That was the beginning of the Fredrika Wetterhoff Craft School.
Fredrika Wetterhoff's years at the Craft School (1885–1905)
In the first year, eight pupils enrolled at the Fredrika Wetterhoff Craft School, which was situated within a children's home owned by a welfare society of local ladies in the early days. The pupils were taught skills in sewing bedclothes, knitting, crocheting, straw work, carpentry and geometric drawing. In the autumn of 1888, the school moved to the spacious home of Fredrika Wetterhoff. The sewing mistress was paid 25 pennies per hour; other subjects were taught free of charge by the school’s founders.
Fredrika Wetterhoff greatly valued the skill of weaving on a handloom and considered it to be an important source of livelihood for working-class and rural women. Consequently, the teaching of weaving at the Wetterhoff school began in the summer of 1886 and it gradually became the school's most important subject. During the first years of weaving tuition, students wove rustic patterns designed by themselves and the drawing mistress.
Soon, the Fredrika Wetterhoff Craft School was well known in Finland, Scandinavia and even in Russia and the education it provided was highly valued. The exhibitions put on by the school were also very successful. The organisers of the 1891 arts and crafts exhibition in Lappeenranta invited the Russian Tsar and the Grand Duke of Finland, Alexander II, to visit the exhibition. When Fredrika was introduced to the tsar, he asked her what had inspired her to establish the school. Fredrika's reply was "Patriotism". The discussion ended very quickly after that.
Fredrika Wetterhoff was an exceptionally enlightened and courageous woman for her time. She often complained about her quick temper and sharp tongue and she is described as having been strict and demanding, but also a warm and kind educator.
Teacher training begins
Training for weaving teachers began in 1890. The German master-weaver Carl Neu was hired in 1891 to provide instruction for the teachers of the future. In 1887, Fredrika moved to Helsinki, but she continued to manage the school's finances and often visited Hämeenlinna.
Work at the school had got off to a good start, but the lack of space soon began to be a problem. In 1890, the school rented premises by Lake Vanajavesi, where it is still located today. In 1893, Fredrika bought the house that the school was renting and the building was renovated to better suit the school’s purposes: spacious weaving rooms, the apartment of the headmistress and the student halls were built upstairs, while downstairs was reserved for a lecture theatre, student rooms, dyeing rooms, a carpenter's workshop and a shop.