From Finland with love

I adore finnish design. Yesterday, my dream find arrived!! I've found what's been on the very top of my wishlist for a very long time on Finn (Norway's Craigslist)- the Ultima Thule caraffe. It's so incredibly gorgeous, I absolutely adore this series by the amazing Tapio Wirkkala, designed in 1968. It's so breathtakingly beautiful, looking like eternally melting ice. The design is both beautiful AND intriguing, I keep noticing more great details all the time. The work of that bearded, pipe- smoking, natureloving guy is unlike anything else. As mentioned in a recent post, collecting the tumblers takes a lot of patience, the few that find their way to a store over here, is snatched away before they even hit the shelves. But my goodness, finding them is so rewarding, they are simply the most gorgeous glasses on this planet.

My heart always beats a little bit faster whenever I find new pieces of Arabia Ruska. I adore finnish design, and to me, Ruska is Finland, the roughness, the dark woody brown, the simple shapes, I love it. Just like Ultima Thule, it has a very Nordic feel to it. This masterpiece by Ulla Procope was introduced in 1961-62, and was in production for more than three decades, I'm guessing much due to it's modern and rustic appeal. Lucky for us, this makes it fairly easy to collect, as I know many of you do. It never seizes to amaze me that it was designed as early as it was. If I didn't know, I would easily have guessed the 70s. Earlier I've found the lovely teapot, dinner plates for twelve, several serving dishes and a teaset. Below is what I found yesterday in the Salvation army store. At ridiculously low prices, I might add.

I love the shape of the creamer, simple, low and wide.

Six coffee cups. I have eight teacups already, and often prefer the shape of teacups. But these coffee cups are even more gorgeous, so straight and tall. The only problem with Ruska is that the cups don't stack well... I do forgive them, though, since they're so gorgeous.

I haven't seen this dish before. It's an oven dish, but I can find so many other uses for it too, I adore the shape. It has the first stamp I've seen with the name Ruska on it.

 

I have this large round serving plate already, and have always wanted one more. I use it for everything, cake, salad, pizza and traditional dishes like a roast. 

Autumn has been at it's very best here today. Gorgeous weather and breathtaking colors. I went for a walk and I'm leaving you with a couple of snaps of a house here in my neighbourhood that I'm really curious about. With it's dark brown facades surrounded by Nordic foilage it seemed so fitting to throw it in after the Ruska. Although it's close to the road, it's hard to photograph. Despite it's very geometric appearance, it blends in with the foilage. Much due to the coloring, of course. It's designed around the end of the 60s. it has a square plan and an atrium covered by the glass pyramide you can see on the roof.  I'm hoping one day I'll get the chance to see it inside. I'll be sure to share it with you if it ever happens! Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Ps. I just linked up with Max over at Blackbird has spoken, do pay her lovely blog a visit, I highly recommend it!

Finally!!!

Finally, my vacation has started! The last couple of weeks have been murder. It's always like that before the summer vacation, everybody want their projects done and the applications for building permits ready... Trying to stay creative and design some goodlooking buildings amidst the chaos is a challenge.  I'm totally worn out like an old dish rag, and I don't think I can yet fully grasp the fact that I now have a few weeks off. It's gonna be lovely! This year we're off to Italy in a couple of days, to cruise along the Ligurian coast for a couple of weeks. Then, of course, we'll spend some time in Stavanger. I haven't been able to enjoy all your gorgeous blogs lately, but I will catch up!

I celebrated my freedom today by hitting a couple of charity stores:-) and I found some great stuff. I'll start with these fat lava planters. They're larger than the Bay planters I've found earlier, which is great. They're not marked, but they have to be german. I love the combination of orangy red and brown.

Next things I found are these lovely Iittala Senaatori (Senator) champagne glasses by Timo Sarpaneva. Notice the base? Exactly the same design as the Festivo. I actually thought these glasses were from the Festivo series, as I know the design for the famous candle holders started out as an idea for a large wine glass. They're really elegant. I found two, and have to keep looking for them. I might actually "inaugurate" them tomorrow when my husband comes home from Tokyo to celebrate that the vacation has started:-)

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you've probably noticed that I collect Stavangerflint Brunette. I love the color, the pattern and the simplicity of this Kåre Berven Fjeldsaa design from the 60s. Today, I found two medium sized bowls. I have quite a few serving pieces, and use them all the time, they're so versatile.

I have a Haldensleben vase that I found some time ago with a pattern that I really love. Today I found it's companion, a beautiful bowl from that same series. It's unmarked, but it has the exact same design. The vase has the same dark grey color inside it that's on the outside of the bowl. The pattern is really gorgeous, and works really well with the circular shape. Isn't it great? There's a lot of the WG vases around, but I really enjoy finding bowls. I have one from Scheurich too that I love to bits, you can see it here.

Speaking of west german pottery, one of my Scheurich vases also got a companion today, a vase in a different shape, the kind that looks a bit like a hand granate...

 

Finally, I found some Stavangerflint Sera by Inger Waage. It's one of my favorite Stavangerflint designs, I love the colors and the very distinct 60s graphics. I got 4 sets of coffee cups with saucers and small plates, plus two extra plates. The cups are perfect for espresso, which I love after dinner.

That's this weekends catch! I don't quite know how many of the little italian pensiones that will have internet access, there just might be some "radio silence" here. Don't worry, though, I'll be back! In the meantime, I wish all of you an amazing summer! (for those of you in Europe and the western hemisphere) For you guys down under- stay warm!

Pieces of teak, glass and pottery

This weekend has been one of the really great ones. The weather has been sunny and warm, allowing us to have all meals out on the terrace. I love that. I didn't think I'd be doing much thrifting, but I squeezed in a small stop on my way home from work on friday, and a small trip late this afternoon. I found some stuff that I don't usually find, which was very exciting. At the local salvation Army store on friday, I found another Ultima Thule tumbler (for information, look here). I collect them, and really hope they keep turning up.

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There was also another Kosta Boda snowball votive holder, designed by Ann Wärff in 1973. I found two last week, so there's now a trio.

More glass, I found three small smoky grey Hadeland Fersken (peach) dishes, an award winning design by Willy Johansson in 1956. I guess they were originally designed as individual butter dishes, but I can also imagine they'll be great for soy or ponzu sauce for sushi.

I found this Figgjo Market piece designed by Turi Gramstad Oliver. Market is a rare find over here. A quick search on the web reveals where they all are... (rather large continent to the west:-) I have this one and a lidded serving dish. Unfortuneately, the lid was repaired with glue after having been broken, as is often the case with these. The lids are heavy and fall off very easily. I guess it will get a new life as a small planter in my kitchen in the company of two siblings, Folklore and August. You gotta love those quirky market scenes with all the glorious detail! The butter boxes were designed for what used to be the exact shape of a package of 500 grams of margarine here in Norway. That was later changed into a more rectangular shape, and consequently, Figgjo started making the lower rectangular butter boxes, like my Folklore one below (More Folklore here and here). 

 

 

 
Also, waiting for me when I came home on friday, was a package containing a four ring Festivo for my new collection, a bargain on Etsy. I now have three!!

Saturday was spent in the garden, doing a little bit of grooming. Today, my husband left early for New York, the kids were off with friends and I felt like a bit of thrifting:-) For a long time I've been curious about a lady who regularly has ads on Finn (the norwegian equivalent to Craigslist). She lives a 40 minute drive away from me, and I decided it was time to pay her a visit. She sells all kinds of retro pieces, and has an impressive glass collection. She has a room she calls the "retro room", which is covered in teak shelving full of treasures. She uses what she earns from her sales to restore her beautiful art nouveau house from 1906, and who wouldn't want to sponsor such a noble deed? I hope she doesn't mind me publishing a photo. Her current project is to restore the windows. I have to admit, the house itself was half the purpose of my trip. I love art nouveau, both my own home town and my mother's (Ålesund) has a lot of it, and I think I really fell in love when I lived in Brussels at the age of 15- 16 and visited Victor Horta's house. For you foreign guys, this is what our wooden art nouveau houses looks like. Isn't it beautiful?

I could have bought pretty much everything she had on display, but I really needed to restrain myself. A few goodies came along, though, and I will definitely be going back! The first things I fell for are these wonderful salt and pepper shakers and the salad servers and spoon in steel and teak. I'm not sure who designed the salt and pepper set, but they're most probably danish. They're large and heavy, and I will give them a light sanding and coat of oil to bring out that beautiful lustre. The salad servers and spoon are so incredibly elegant. I've seen them before on the web and have been hoping to find them one day. I know for sure they're norwegian, and I think they're designed by Thor Bjørklund who invented and patented the typical norwegian cheese slicer in 1925. I'll have to see if I can find out some more.

Next pieces I found are two Hadeland Multe bowls, also in one of my favorite glass colors, smoky grey. The Multe (cloudberry) series was designed by Willy Johansson in 1966, and was awarded "Merket for god design". I'm not sure how to translate that, but it's an award where both form and functionality is taken into consideration, given by the norwegian design counsil. They're so beautiful and simple, and I've been looking for one of these to fit the "upper deck" of my Digsmed lazy susan. It has small bowls in the same color and room for a bigger bowl on the upper level. I don't think there was one originally. 

The sweet lady had an impressive glass collection. It was hard to decide what to pick out, but what I couldn't leave behind were these modernist owls by norwegian artist Benny Motzfeldt (1909- 95). She was an amazing glass artist with a large and varied production. Aren't they gorgeous? They're not large, but very heavy, and will work as paper weights or just great sculptures.

The next piece I got was such a thrill to find. I've never seen Kronjyden Relief in thrift stores over here, so this is my first piece, a candle holder, hopefully there will be another one to join it. I love the color and the pattern, and totally agree with Birgitte, over at The Little Black House, that it resembles a danish (or norwegian for that sake) cornfield rather than something assosialted with leaves. "Relief" was designed by Jens H. Quistgaard in 1959-60.

After leaving the beautiful art nouveau home of the sweet icelandic lady, I made a quick stop at an antiques barn. They mainly have older pieces, but look what I found! A Figgjo Tor Viking lidded serving dish! It reminds me so much of growing up, we used to have this at home.Apart from this piece, I now have four small plates, two egg cups and a creamer and sugar bowl that was my mom and dad's.