Arabia Finland | C20Ceramics

Apr 23

Arabia Finland Krokus – Esteri Tomula

Recently I came across some of this lovely design by Esteri Tomula for Arabia Finland. The design is Krokus, and it was in production for quite a short period between 1978-1979. Im always drawn to the work of Esteri Tomula, often before I know that it is a design from her.

You can see my previous posts on the work of Esteri Tomula by navigating the “categories” on the menu bar to the right of this page.

The Krokus series came a few different colourways: A green,blue and white version, a black and white version, and a black and white version with a grey/sepia coloured banding. It is at the same time a delicate, but striking and bold design.

Much of Esteri’s work was inspired by the flora of Finland, which becomes obvious when you see her designs – but especially obvious in this design.

The forms the design is placed on are from the EH series, designed by Peter Winquist in 1970, and used on many of the designs for years to follow.

Arabia Finland Revontuli

Quite a rare find. This very attractive geometric design is Arabia Finland’s “Revontuli”, produced at Arabia from 1954 – 1963.

The form design is of course classic Kaj Franck, on his “TM” Shape, and the pattern design is by Raija Uosikkinen.

The TM shape was designed by Franck in 1948, inspired by a coffee service in made by the Imperial Porcelain Factory of St. Petersburg for Emperor Paul 1 of Russia.

When designing this form Franck did not include a recess in the saucer to hold the cup, which kept the form pure in appearance – and as a consequence the saucer can also be used as a small sweet/cake plate.

Raija designed 3 colour-ways for the series as far as I can find out – Blue, Red and a Yellow Ochre.

Arabia Finland Revontuli Blue

Arabia Finland Revontuli Red

Arabia Finland , Anja Jaatinen-Winquist

Anja Jaatinen-Winquist (b 1934 – ) started with Arabia Finland in the late 1960s while the company was going through a rapid period of change and expansion, and she continued working at Arabia in the product design department until 1974.

She designed several tableware services for Arabia including the M model “Karelia” with its iron oxide decoration, “Saara” (in production 1971-1976), and also Kalevala, and Paju (which came in both blue and yellow variations)

Anja was also a very skilled wheel thrower and made one-off items for the art department…although these works are very hard to find now.