14 July 2008

study tour ends = studio work begins

happy bastille day!

we just wrapped up our scandinavian study tour and i have so much to share after traveling from Ebeltoft to Sweden's Småland and Stockhom followed by Helsinki... we arrived late last night to Bornholm, our home for the next four weeks where we'll be working at the Glas og Keramikskolen. it is a top notch, very modern and equally well equipt glass and ceramics school. it'll take me a few days to catch up but i'll do my best...

to start with, last week we visited Pukeberg Glasbruk near Nybro, Sweden, where Ole Victor (our tour guide/teacher) is the head of the glass program. the glass studio is "one of the oldest Glassworks in Sweden. Pukeberg are also the most well preserved Glasswork area in the Kingdom of Glass. Glass in different shapes have been made here for over 130 years."






the studio spaces and communal spaces are all very nice - housed in restored factory buildings fitted with modern touches


students at this school work closely with local manufacturers to develop designs and create prototypes. this is an example of outdoor seating by a student.


the Pukeberg Museum, also on this site, includes a large gallery and a massive design archive of over 100,000 pieces focusing on artifacts of the Swedish design process. we had a tour of their restoration studios and storage cases which hold anything from Swedish textiles to rough sketches by famous designers.

over a hundred years ago, the glass studios here made Sweden's large glass gasoline signs (above).


all of the students at the school are on holiday but the graduating student's final show was still up in a building on campus (old electricity transfer station). it was really nice to see their work.


one of my favorite projects, glassware for the people who suffer from arthritis.

(one thing i noticed that is very distinct in scandinavia is that all the schools use photos of the designer along side the work being presented - hey, even IKEA does it for certain products!)


a detail of the center of a table in the exhibition