trees I met recently 1

Two exhibitions here in Göteborg:
Karin Nathorst Windahl, with love for teapots, at Sintra until 4.5
Jonathan "Ollio" Josefsson, textile artist with graffitti background, opens 24.4 at Nordhemskonst

Sorry for the break, I wasn't finished with co-exhibitors at the Stockholm Furniture Fair. A cold in combination with tax declaration came in the way, but here is two more of my colleagues at the fair:

Ceramic artist Åsa Berntsson's cobble stones silently speaks to you, sometimes raising a provoking thought and sometimes just reminds you to live. Lyssna = Listen. For us living in Göteborg the coble stone has it's own meaning, from the demonstrations and riots at the EU top meeting a few years back. A single stone can be used in many different ways, placed on the table of a companie's board meeting it can also be a reminder of different values.

Stefan Forsberg's oak bench makes you think about time as an important factor in the crafts. Oak, being so hard and difficult, and so strong and majestic.

Have a lovely weekend! I think we must say farewell to some of the snow now, maybe it's time.

so sunny

It's so sunny here. People open up like flowers to the sun, like every summer.

Sverker Eklund was in this blog before, I hope you are not tired of his work, I'm not! Konstepidemin open day-photos from his studio above.

This weekend I hope to visit Hammarkullekarnevalen, a huge local three day Carneval. The dancers will sweat this year, forecast says it will be hot.

Kicki Masthem ceramic

Wish you light and sun!

kalebassi

There are so many beautifully crafted things at Kalebassi, in Haga here in Göteborg. West African art and craft, will be back with more photos. First some of the music instrument that Margareta, shop owner, specialises in.

Had such a good studio day, frantic clay work. No photos, in this phase it all looks very grey. As always, when preparing for a show, the process itself brings a lot of new ideas (work is born out of work, for me) there is not time to follow. Clay must dry, be fired, glazed and fired again, it takes so long.

Save the ideas that doesn't fit into the whole image this time, for later. Now I calculate what needs two firings and what can be direct fired, what must be done now and what can wait a little longer. Show opens April 19, at Lerverk. Not a too big space but of course I want to do as good as I can.

Camilla is going ceramic, looks very good! It's a collaboration with Karin for her new shop Manos.
Joe Pogan, metal birds via Purple Homes

sverker's horses

Sverker Eklunds girls maybe you saw before here, but not his big, gentle horses. Show at Göteborgs Konstförening (until March 9). Sverker is one of my nice studio neighbors.

Wooden horses, can't get more Swedish than this.
Making of the traditional wooden horse
Collection of older horses
Elin Tidbäck's horses at Cosas

Tomorrow I hope to visit the studio, if everything works well. Couldn't be there as much as I wanted this week, office job calling. Some of the precious continuity it lost but I hope to repair it next week. Wasn't this week shorter than usual?

ballerinas and birds

Long gallery tour on Saturday. Most happy to see the show by Thomas Brolin, designer/painter/sculptor, at Göteborgs Konstförening. I pass his studio every day on my way to work, always trying to catch a glance inside. I'm so happy now, to have seen his lovely sculptures without that peeping feeling. On his website some of them can be seen, along with his other work an designs.

Photos from the show, above Three ballerinas, below Bird friend



Met, in the gallery doorway, three such talented ceramic colleagues, had a nice little chat with:
Jennifer Forsberg, Eljaröd, southern Sweden
Renata Francescon, Göteborg
Adrienne Riseley, back in Göteborg after a long stay i New Zealand.

open studios; two sculptors

I'm in Örebro, almost ready, just need a few more lightbulbs and mop the floor, then off to dinner.

In Göteborg: two sculptors keep their studios open at Konstepidemin, Saturday and Sunday 12 - 16: Lars Åsling and Sverker Eklund.


Photo Lars Åsling

Lars has some images from his studio at his web page, even you far away but curios can pop in.



In Swedish only, sorry, read my Sverker Eklund article in Hemslöjden 2006/5 here.



I think it's still a chance to see his "girls" in Stockholm, at Svensk Slöjd.

nice stripes and sverker's girls

Sverker Eklund, neighbor sculptor at Konstepidemin, will show his "girls" at Svensk Slöjd in Stockholm two weeks from Saturday. I'm glad to have one of the lovely girls at home, dressed in green with golden hair and red lips.





They are something between medieval angels and dolls from your childhood, but Sverker just calls them girls. The studio smells of wood and linseed oil from the tempera mixtures. In the morning when he arrives, he says he can hear them have conversations from the walls they are hanging.

Svensk Slöjd runs a shop and exhibition space, a nice web site full of Swedish handicraft and inspiring artists' work, but only in Swedish : (



I was happy opening the kiln this time. Sometimes it's like processing photos in a darkroom, to see the colours developed. Many little pieces to put together, after London trip.

plywood palace

Mona Wallström, dear friend and Konstepidemin artist, opens her solo exhibition Plywood Palace at Sintra, Göteborg, Saturday. She is a jewellery artist without limitations, creates a space within the gallery room and all its content, furniture and jewellery, in plywood.


She and her two lovely Spanish assistants Camino and Cento from Valencia have worked frantically for weeks now, to make it in time. Now they are moving in to the gallery space and makes it an amazing place.

Ceramic studio accent color: