Norway | C20Ceramics

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

Jul 27

Inger Waage – Stavangerflint – “Darling” Design

The ceramic designs and patterns of Inger Waage (1923-1995) are some of the most recognised of Norway along with those of Turi Gramstad Oliver. They stand out as now iconic mid-century modern and are highly sought after by collectors and lovers of good design around the world.

Inger Waage attended the Norwegian Crafts and Art Industry School in Oslo, studying ceramics between. 1943 – 1946. Following this she worked in her own pottery in Stavanger 1943-1946, and then worked at Stavangerflint from 1953 to 1979 with an extraordinary output of designs.

I don’t come across Inger’s Waage’s work often, but when I do it stands out like a beacon. Recently I found a bowl pictured here from the “Darling” series design by Inger in 1962. The series features either a male motif, female motif or both male/female together, or fruit motif on different pieces. The pattern is a combination of hand-painted and silkscreened design.

There is also an excellent youtube video showing a lot of Waage’s one-off and stunning hand painted pieces from Stavangerflint:

Sep 13

Bjørre Norway

Bjørre Pottery was a shorted lived, but important Norwegian pottery started in 1945 by Gunnar Remen and ceramist Egil Bjørnholt. The name consists of Bjørre Björ from Bjørnholt and re from Remen.