70s jewellery - Jorma Laine

I've been admiring jewellery from the 70s for a long time, especially the work of Guy Vidal, Robert Larin, Pentti Sarpaneva and Jorma Laine. I especially love the brutalist pieces. Turns out I have a brooch by Jorma Laine! My mom reminded me last weekend. I've actually had it since I was in my teens. I got it as a gift from some much older cousins, but hated it back then. You know, the early 80s and all... If you're around my age, you're probably nodding! But isn't it great how we mature and learn to appreciate things? The brooch is made of bronze, then gold plated and oxidized. It was designed in the mid 70s. I'm normally a silver and steel person, jewellery- wise, but I think this has some nice folkloristic vibes and I'm glad to having rediscovered it. Those may be the same qualities I hated it for in the early eighties...

Jorma Laine (1930-2002) was a finnish jewelry designer, whose work in bronze and silver is easily recognizable. He developed a style of his own throughout the 60's and 70's, his pieces are very modernistic and often abstract. I see a lot of influences in my brooch, there's mythology, ancient times, bronze age, even some viking vibes! I love when a piece of design, even if very abstract, can produce all those images.

Laine attended the renowned art college Turun Piirustuskoulu (Turku Art School). During his career he had his own company, Silver-Laine, but is perhaps best known for the designs he did for Turun Hopea. He also designed silver jewelry for Kultateollisuus. Laine is known for his forward-thinking modernist impulse, a decidedly “Finnish” nostalgia for the past, and individuality. After a successfull career in jewelry design, he retired to his cabin in the forest where he led a hermitlike life until he died of a heart attack in 2002, 72 years old.

Photographing the brooch was so much fun, it's like a sculpture, so here you have it from every angle:-)

 

MMMC challenged me over at Instagram to show it on. Well, I wore it to work today as a "button" on an otherwise button- less black jacket, with jeans and black boots, so this is for you, Carmel!

Pure therapy

I just had a weekend of pure therapy. My kind of therapy is deep breaths of ocean air, wind in my hair and watching the waves roll in from the North sea. My boys and husband stayed at home for a boys only weekend, while I flew over after work on friday and stayed with mum and dad for the weekend. And it was pure heaven, with the windy, misty weather that makes such a dramatic contrast between the steel grey sky and the green grass. I love the roughness of this landscape and the vastness of the endless horizon. I love listening to the howling wind and roaring sea. It's my paradise.

The medieval church at Orre, dating from 1250

The old vicorage by the sea, beautifully restored, now an art gallery

 

The landscape formations are not solid, but moraine deposits from the ice age. This mild coastal area is where the ice retracted first. The steep ridge has been shaped by the waves.

The lighthouse

Views towards the old vicorage, the westernmost cluster of white buildings

  

Obrestad harbour was the first harbour to be built on this coast. A rescue station for seafarers was established here in 1854.

 

Leaving this place, I always feel that I'm leaving a piece of me behind.