Sometimes ideas need to fly free, sometimes thoughts need to meet and take completely new paths.
In this spring's round of eXpression Design, garden and ceramics meet glass in creations that celebrate nature.
Stina Wallin from Hörnefors designs timeless and sustainable gardens for all seasons. When she realised that there weren't enough good plant supports on the market, she set out to make her own.
I weld and work in metal. It's a lot of fun and I'm surprised every time I go into the workshop and something actually comes out," she says.
Apparently, more people had the same opinion about plant subsidies as she did - suddenly orders started coming in and Stina had the chance to start selling in shops.
For a long time, the idea was that she would highlight the plant supports in eXpression Design. But her thoughts, somewhat unexpectedly, took new directions. Instead, they resulted in an unusual garden decoration. "Vilja", as Stina has chosen to call it, is an outdoor glass and metal panel, inspired by the sea.
'I'm a real sea person and wanted to use the hardy plants that grow on the islands, sea parsley and torch flowers,' she says.
When she visited Eva Juneblad, one of the artisans behind Röbäck Glass & Clay in Umeå, many pieces fell into place.
The glass details in Stina's decoration were produced by Eva.
I get to be the artists' tool to bring ideas to life, and getting to put myself into other people's ideas and sketches and solve problems has been incredibly fun and challenging. For me it has been fantastic to be part of eXpression Design, a real luxury really," says Eva Juneblad.
More participants fell for Eva Juneblad's glass art. Anna Öquist Brännström has many years of experience as a gardener and ceramist, and came into contact with eXpression last year as one of the producers.
I thought early on that I would ask Eva if we could work together. I know how incredibly difficult it is to blow glass and it's cool to be able to see how the craft works," she explains.
Like Stina Wallin, she has brought together two materials in her product series: the "Mountain Greens" series is a ceramic tray and jug, and a drinking glass.
"Fjällgröna" is inspired by the summers' mountain hikes in the Vindelfjällen. The pot and saucer are glazed in white, green and brown.
They symbolise the mountains with their rocks, snow-capped peaks and plants. I have also travelled extensively in Japan over the last 20 years and the simple, clean shapes are inspired by Japanese aesthetics. I want to create beautiful objects to use in everyday life.
The trio agrees that the collaboration has been the most rewarding part of eXpression Design.
You learn an incredible amount by thinking up solutions together. I may have an idea, but I don't know anything about glass and what to do with it. Then Eva might have a solution," says Stina.
Eva Juneblad is an experienced glassblower, for over 30 years she has been creating art from the rather complicated material.
Glass is a material that you have to learn to relate to, you become humble about how difficult it can be to use.
Both Stina and Anna can imagine continuing to design for glass.
It can be quite difficult to convey what you have in mind, so it's a great feeling to see how my idea actually becomes exactly what I had in mind," says Anna Öquist Brännström.
Text: Elin Holmberg
Photo: Elin Nerpin
