TOURISTS

 What goes on beyond the walls of Tallinn’s Old Town? Discover the hidden treasures of Laboratooriumi street: the Ukrainian Cultural Center with its Labora workshops, where paper is made by hand, letterpress is used for printing, and calligraphy is taught in the evenings. Catch a glimpse of St. Hildegard’s Courtyard, climb up the Grusbeke Tagune Tower and stop by the woodworking workshop in the Old Town wall. If you have time to spare, try out one of the crafts we do – you’ll leave with memories and a souvenir of your own making.

Choose from our offer and book your workshop via email or telephone +372 581 479 18. If you are a tour guide interested in long-term cooperation, contact us for a tailored offer!

Excursion in the Ukrainian Cultural Centre

Visit the Ukrainian Cultural Center hidden behind the big wooden gate at Laboratooriumi 22 in Tallinn’s Old Town. Listen to its many stories and discover the countless folk toys, tools, and artwork from Ukraine and around the world. Visit the Labora workshops where paper is made by hand, old letterpress machines are used to print, and calligraphy is practised every day. 

  • 50 EUR per group (up to 30 people)
  • Length: 1 hour
  • Choose one of our short 30 min. workshops to add to your excursion – that way you can leave with a beautiful souvenir made by you! See below: Printing Tiny Books with Hammers, Seedbombs, and Print a Tallinn Postcard.

Print a Tallinn Postcard

During your excursion in the Ukrainian Cultural Centre, you will see many fascinating things, among them our old letterpress machines. Would you like to try printing on one of them? One of our handmade postcards with a drawing of Tallinn? Add this workshop to your excursion and leave with a postcard you’ve printed yourself. Or stick a stamp on it and send it to your friend – we’ll provide stamps and post it for you!

  • Length: 0,5 h 
  • Price: 100 EUR per group (up to 30 people)

Printing Tiny Books with Hammers

It’s exactly what is sounds like – you’ll be using hammers to print. Fun and a bit dramatic, you’ll print your own short story captured in the pages of a tiny book. Folded in a special way from a single sheet of paper, it will fit into your wallet!

  • Includes all workshop materials, tea and coffee.
  • Length: 0,5 hour
  • Price: 100 EUR per group (up to 16 people)
  • We recommend combining this workshop with Seedbombs (below), as the time spent on this workshop can be very individual. The price for the combined workshops is 150 EUR.

Seedbombs

Guerilla gardening is one way to spruce up a dull cityscape. So get your hands messy with some paper pulp and make seedbombs. Keep them at home to closely watch how flax grows, or throw them in a grey spot you’d like to see blooming in a few months.

  • Includes all workshop materials, tea and coffee.
  • Length: 0,5 hour
  • Price: 100 EUR per group (up to 16 people)
  • We recommend combining this workshop with Printing Tiny Books with Hammers (above), as the time spent on this workshop can be very individual. The price for the combined workshops is 150 EUR.
  • Please keep in mind that the seedbombs need to be either dried on a radiator immediately or put to grow while still wet (on a plate with water or directly on soil).

Papermaking

During our papermaking workshop you will learn how to make paper by hand using traditional methods. You will spend some time at our paper making workshop, dip your hands into paper pulp, and end up with some paper of your own making. You can come pick up your dry paper already one hour later. While you wait for your turn in the paper workshop, you will get a chance to write with a calligraphy pen and ink in our scriptorium.

  • Includes all workshop materials, tea and coffee.
  • Length: 1 – 1,5 hour
  • Price: 150 EUR per group (up to 16 people)

Seed Paper

Make seed paper which you can later plant and grow into wild flowers! During our workshop you will learn how to make seed paper by hand using traditional methods. You will spend some time at our paper making workshop, dip your hands into paper pulp, and end up with some seed paper of your own making. You can come pick up your dry paper three days later. While you wait for your turn in the paper workshop, you will get a chance to write with a calligraphy pen and ink in our scriptorium.

  • Includes all workshop materials, tea and coffee.
  • Length: 1 – 1,5 hour
  • Price: 170 EUR per group (up to 16 people)

Calligraphy

Come to our cosy scriptorium to explore the fascinating world of calligraphy. Tatiana will introduce you to the fragile beauty of calligraphy lines and show you how to use a pointed nib pen. You will try your hand at Copperplate, one of the most beautiful calligraphy scripts with an elegant and harmonic flow.

  • Includes all workshop materials, tea and coffee.
  • Length: 1,5 hour
  • Price: 200 EUR per group (up to 16 people)

Congratulations Book

A special event calls for a special way of congratulating. Is it your birthday, anniversary or hen party? Your guests will write down their best wishes on individual sheets of paper. Our calligrapher Tatiana will prepare a calligraphic cover page with your name and the occasion. You’ll leave your party with a bound congratulations book of memories to keep.

  • 50 EUR in addition to the calligraphy workshop (see above)

Design and Print Your Postcard

Print your own postcards exactly as you like them. You will have two different options to experiment with – a variety pictures and wooden type. Combine different shapes and sizes, arrange them into a composition, and print as many postcards as you wish. You’ll have our Labora handmade paper to print on.

  • Length: 1 h
  • Price: 150 EUR per group (up to 16 people)

Papermaking, Calligraphy and Print

Get the most of your visit to our workshops, learn papermaking, calligraphy and printing all at once in just a few hours. You will spend 1,5 hours training your hand in calligraphy and then take a break to make your own paper and print greeting cards.

Perfect for those who love sending cards to their friends. Get together and create personalised greeting cards. Send us a design to print ahead or use one of ours. Print it in our letterpress workshop and then use your newly-gained calligraphy skills to write greetings inside. We can even provide you with envelopes and stamps, and post your cards for you!

  • Length: 2,5 – 3 h
  • Price: 400 EUR per group (up to 16 people)

Cooking traditional Ukrainian food

Gather your friends and enjoy a relaxed evening of good food and company. Come to our kitchen hidden in the Old Town Wall and learn how to prepare traditional Ukrainian food. We’ll be cooking borsh (soup made of meat, beetroot and other vegetables) and vareniky (dumplings with potato filling for the main and cherry filling as dessert). We’ll be serving tea and coffee. If you wish, bring wine or other drinks.

  • Length: 3 h
  • Price: 300 EUR per group of 10 adults (every extra adult +20 EUR, child +15 EUR)

Storytelling Keyring or Bracelet

Use old wooden type to print and markers to decorate a set of cloth cards, which you will string together on a keyring or bracelet. Then use your imagination to start creating stories. Share your story with others, and your bracelet, too – see what stories others will come up with!

Perfect for classes and teams who want to get to know each other better! The storytelling part can take as long as you want, they are a great tool to share and discuss.

  • Length: 1 – 1,5 h
  • Price: 150 EUR per group (up to 16 people)

Stop-motion animation

Imagine you are a film-maker. Gather your team and create a short animated film. Think of a plot, design your characters and bring them to life in a stop-motion animation.

  • Includes all workshop materials, tea and coffee
  • Length: 1 – 1,5 hours
  • Price: 150 EUR per group (up to 16 people)

Printing on cake and postcards with potato stamps

Come along with your friends and try out an edible printing technique – stamps carved out from potatoes! You will use them to decorate as many postcards as you wish and also to decorate your birthday cake!

  • Includes all materials to print on postcards, the birthday cake (chocolate, covered with fondant) to print onto with food colouring, and tea and coffee.
  • Length: 1,5 hours
  • Price: 200 EUR per group (up to 16 people)
Food

You can bring your own food or you can order one of our traditional Ukrainian dishes:

  • Oven-baked potatoes with sour cream and herring (5 EUR/child, 7 EUR/adult).
  • Vareniky – potato dumplings with fried onion and sour cream (6 EUR/child, 8 EUR/adult).
  • Borsh – beetroot and meat soup (6 EUR/child, 8 EUR/adult).

We can also arrange baked pastry from a local bakery of your choice – exactly what you choose, for a handling fee (20 EUR) to save you the time and trouble.

Room rent

Applies if you choose to bring your own food or order from a bakery, and stay after the end of the workshop and excursion to spend more time with your guests. Room rent is 30 EUR per hour, this includes using the space, dishes, and us cleaning up afterwards.

Travelling workshops

We are happy to travel to your destination with any of the workshops listed above (we cannot transport our big letterpress printing machines, so we will bring our table-top presses instead). The extra fee to cover our travel expenses depends on the workshop and distance, please contact us for pricing.