study tour: orrefors + kosta boda (sweden's kingdom of crystal)

Sweden's Orrefors Kosta Boda AD consists of four glass factories located in Småland, Sweden - the oldest one dating back to 1742. these factories at one time were four separate entities but have been bought up by one company - you can read more of their history here

i found it remarkable the number of work stations that are still semi-automatic (which means that machines are only partly used - and it still takes years of training and muscle to work the glass there). the only down side to touring factories in the summer is that almost everyone is on holiday - they close almost all factories for atleast a month so they only have a couple small teams working - really for the public.


Orrefors (which stated in the 1898) now includes a really nice museum and a very translucent "crystal bar".


my favorite pieces in the museum were in this room


just love all the detailed and stylized engravings from the art deco period - i think this one is by simon gate, or maybe edward hald (?!)


my favorite current designer for Orrefors is Ingegerd Råman - like the skid mark effect.




just a few meters away is the Kosta Boda factory - the oldest in Sweden




the day we were there this team of six people were making wine glasses - making glass is very much a team effort since it is very difficult to work without an assistant. in production, each person has a role. the team we watched had one person gathering the glass, one blowing the cup...making the stem, the foot, overseeing, etc. (all the pieces were being assembled one after another before the glass would cool off. they make something like 300 wine glasses in an hour like this.

it was awesome to see a women on the team!

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

study tour: land of ikea

its been a whirlwind this past week... after a few days in Sweden touring the Smålands region where we visited a design school, glass factories, galleries, museums, we ended up in Stockholm. we even managed a trip to an authentic swedish IKEA store - where every single employee working the registers was a very friendly young (super) blonde woman!

i'll post the photos from Pukeberg Design School and the legendary Orrefors asap...

i'll be back soon... promise

heading to Sweden tomorrow morning - followed by Finland. in the meantime here are THREE (3) new posts below...
bye / hej da / näkemiin

study tour: weekend in Edeltoft

just returned from spending two days working in the glass studio at the Glasmuseet Ebeltoft on mainland Denmark. there are a number of glass artist in the town including the amazing Dam & Karlslund (which I didn't get a chance to visit but you have to see what they do with glass - you won't believe it) and the studio of MØHL & DRIVSHOLM


the first two glass piece i've made! my baby mushrooms... i'd love to make a bunch and plant them in North Creek.


looking through the museum's windows in the garden you can see the bay.


the studio we worked in is in the museum's garden. at lunch time there would be lot's of visitors which put us in the spotlight. yeah, yikes.


a classmate, Marion, who is French and getting her masters from the Danish Design School. with our teacher, Ole Victor, assisting.




new housing influenced by the traditional Danish style - super simple and nice

street grafix

this one is for you graphic designers... shots taken walking around Copenhagen.


those are not shadows - all painted
while walking on Istedgade in Vesterbro (near the red light district)


in the city near the main school building


ditto area


in Vesterbro - that red bike could not have picked a better spot to park.

køpenhavn bikes + one tiny car

bike paradise... here are a few to admire.

i'll post more about the bike paths and hoard of commuters who all stop in organized lines at lights - just to prove it's true to those who've never visited.


yeah, seriously sweet. i just can't get enough of these three wheel cargo bikes - the dog totally completes the package.


the city does have bikes racks but most bikes are left just against buildings with a little lock on the rear wheel.


hot fenders




danish bike messengers


just had to throw in this not so great photo of this super tiny three wheeled car (its that little white speck).

day three: bean bags, horses, beach

we started the day off by walking through a forest to get to the studio of Anders Read Petersen. he will be one of our glass blowing teachers on Bornholm.




that's Anders, smiling


he threw some people right into it and had them blowing


Anders' studio is below the bleachers at a horse racing track


next door to his studio is the design company, Gode Vibrationer. the women who run it weren't around that day but I still got to admire their lovely collection of bean bags and pillows.


loved their work space + all the saturated colours


then had a picnic lunch + nap at the beach

after heading back to the city center, the afternoon agenda included the National-Musset (museum) and the Danish Design Center (DDC)


the DDC had exhibitions on "living wood", nordic cuisine", but had just taken down their exhibition on Muuto


loved how they displayed all the pieces used to make the chair


little wooden monkeys - hanging out in the wood design for children display

day two: browsing, royal cafe, ceramics in copenhagen

any design fanatic could spend all day at Illums, the interior design Mecca.

i had my eyes on a gold polkadot tea set by rikke jakobsen... but fortunately our teacher gave us only 20 minutes in there. and i thank him for it since he had a packed (and amazing) agenda for us to tour the streets, window shop, pop into a glass blower's workshop, and to top it off... a visit to the Kunst Industri Museet (Danish Museum of Art & Design) after the Koppe Gallery and the Danish Craft Council gallery.

a new addition to the landmark porcelain store, Royal Copenhagen, is The Royal Cafe. this might be the best example of blending modern design with tradition into a very hip, kinda posh, eating spot.


you enter through the gate


some outdoor seating... they serve their "smushi" (the Smørbrød meets sushi) all served on the newest line of Royal Copenhgen porcelain plates. and the waitresses wear beautiful long aprons and braid their hair. i plan to return and take better photos.

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the store, okay gallery, of florist Tage Andersen costs 40kr ($8) - wild


!?!


i was pretty ecstatic to see an entire exhibition at the Kunst Industri Museet dedicated to the work of Bodil Manz. there were hundreds of pieces there - heavenly


she uses decals and extremely translucent porcelain which is so thin that she plays with intergrading patterns from the inside out.


the contemporary section of the museum was a little unclear to me - since it was all written in Danish
in any case it was a neat behind the scenes styled display with numbered boxes and some pieces dangeling here and there



+ dinner at the hip Laundromat Cafe which serves Brooklyn Lager, which i did NOT order.