Posts from the ‘Turi Gramstad Oliver’ Category

Sep 20

Figgjo Heliotrope - Turi Gramstad Oliver

Figgjo Norway, Heliotrope, Turi Gramstad Oliver

This fabulous design is “Heliotrope”, another of Turi Gramstad Oliver’s striking designs. This series was only in production from 1970-1975 and is now quite hard to find.

A lot of the web resources for identifying and dating Figgjo output seem to have vanished over the past few years, but fortunately I was able to locate a list of a number of designs by Turi on a Norwegian Online Museum website here

I love the bold strong colours of this design, especially that of the sun and large flower – but also the layout and organisation of the design. You can almost smell spring in the air looking at this design. It is said to be Turi’s favourite design amongst the many she produced.

The design is placed on the same ceramic forms as most of the other Figgjo designs from the 1960s and 1970s like Lotte, Market etc which were all designed by Jorg Løve Nielsen

Figgjo Heliotrope – Turi Gramstad Oliver

Figgjo Heliotrope – Turi Gramstad Oliver (pattern slightly worn at arm)

Figgjo Heliotrope – Turi Gramstad Oliver

Aug 18

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Figgjo Turi Design – Village Scene

The delightful scene on this tall vinaigrette bottle form is by Turi Gramstad Oliver, for Figgjo Norway c1970.

It seems to be quite a rare design – depicting various scenes of village life. I have seen variations of it popping up very occasionally online – but I have been unable to find a name for the design – if it has one.

It may have been a design produced for decor pieces rather than a full production dinnerware line.

The line drawing for the design would have been silkscreened onto the clay, and the colours then hand painted to fill in the design.

If you have a piece in this design, or know any more about it I would love to hear from you.

Below, 2 variations of the designs I have found online: Read more

May 23

Figgjo Norway, Market Design

Figgjo Norway, Market

Figgjo Norway, “Market” was designed in 1963 by Turi Gramstad Oliver, straight after she had designed Lotte. Each shape of the Market series features a different scene of characters at food markets dressed in folk style costumes.

The colours are hues of green and yellow on a white ground. It was in production from 1966-1980.

In its era, Market was as popular as the Lotte design, but the most admired design of the two now, 60 years or so later, seems to be Lotte. Both Lotte and Market have a similar look and feel to them with their quirky and delightful characters, costumes and settings.

The design on every form is different, as is the case with Lotte. I haven’t yet come across a complete list of the forms in these series, but I continue to find a shapes that are new to me. Figgjo of this era was exported worldwide in large numbers – and especially to Australia, the U.S. and Canada where designs such as Market and Lotte are still very popular on the secondary market – but now to a whole new generation. Read more