Anna Ehrner

"The process in the blowing room is the core," Anna Ehrner says. "The heat of the furnace and the movement and life in the glass are inspiring." She loves experimenting and often balances on the very peak of technology. Collaborating with glassblowers, designers and grinders gives her a steady flow of new impulses to develop the simplest forms. She is best known for her tall, soft leaf shapes in handsome vases, and a technique with shimmering veils of colour in crystal. The veils have become something of a trademark for Anna Ehrner´s creations. Born in 1948. Designer at Kosta Boda since 1974 with a studio at the Kosta glassworks.

Anna Ehrner is past master of transforming the collective expertise of the venerable Kosta glassworks into products that combine practical utility with great beauty. Witness, for example, her Line series, whose decorative element consists of a single, elegant line spiralling round the bowl. Or, take Atoll, which appeared in the late nineties. This is an eye-catching series of bowls ideal for parties and festive occasions - yet they also add a welcome splash of colour to the everyday table. This series took its inspiration from the circular lagoons of the Pacific Ocean.

After studies in ceramics at the National College of Arts, Crafts and Design, Anna Ehrner moved directly to Småland and, in 1974, began work as a designer at Kosta Boda. In recent years she has also taken time off to teach design at her old College. Kosta, however, remains her base, and it is here that she has a studio in bright, spacious, premises just a coupe of minutes from the blowing room and engraving shop.

Anna loves experiment and is drawn to explore the furthest limits of glassmaking techniques. Working with master glassmakers, mould-makers and engravers, she is constantly inspired to seek new ways of developing the simplest of forms. Indeed, she stresses that collaboration between product developers, technicians, craftsmen and designers is essential to her art and gives her the freedom she needs to explore her ideas. For Ehrner, the final objective is almost always a synthesis between function and elegance of design, even though the final piece may be years in the making.

Kosta, a classic tableware manufacturer, has now been producing Anna Ehrner´s popular Line series for many years. With its applied spiral of clear glass, Line, which combines technical brilliance with sober elegance, is one of Sweden´s best-selling services and is an outstanding example of modern Swedish glassware. 2002 is the 20th anniversary of our service!

For many years, black was Anna’s favourite colour. During the nineties, however, other colours began appearing in her palette, particularly green in all its shades. These later designs include everything from handsome, leaf-shaped vases with softly rounded contours to sophisticated pieces of brilliant design incorporating shimmering veils of colour within the body of the glass.

Today, veils have become very much her personal trademark. "I was inspired by the will of the glass itself," she explains. "Placed side by side with the exuberance of Nature, glass offers endless possibilities for the designer."

In the 1990s the long, leaf-like pieces of many colours began to take shape in the blowing room. These were to remain the focus of her art glass throughout the nineties and inspired her to a radical new approach to the art of design. "I´m basically an impatient soul," she explains. "I like to let the glass make its own decisions, to inspire me while it´s still molten. That´s what so fascinating about glass - you can test your ideas right there in the blowing room."

Her eagerness to experiment with new forms gave rise to art glass characterised by generous lines and bold colours. Solid glass leaves and pistils stand proud in massive urns, creating a leafy sculpture that never fades. Although there are never more than two shades to each sculpture, the impression is one of intense colour.

In 1996, Anna Ehrner had her own exhibit at the Swedish Glass Museum in Växjö. Aptly named "Variey", the exhibit won rich praise for its shining crystal with shimmering veils of blue and green tones that evoke thoughts of water and plants with waving leaves.

In recent years, Anna Ehrner has designed several popular products for the Kosta Boda range. At the millennium shift, she released Athena, majestic candlesticks and champagne glasses of clear glass, with hand-painted gold and platinum details. In 2000, a series of low, spherical candleholders - Cool Moon and Blue Moon - were hugely popular, and were even used as props in the Eurovision broadcast. With poetic layers of colour adrift in each crystal sphere, each piece is unique.

At the start of 2001, Anna Ehrner´s chandelier with hand-blown glass leaves was highly acclaimed at the international Stockholm Furniture Fair. A similar chandelier hangs in the entrance of the Nordic Light design hotel in Stockholm. In 2001 Ehrner´s Moment wine glasses with matching water glasses and carafe were released. "This is a wilder, sturdier version of the Line glass I made in the 80s," Ehrner says. "My vision is for every glass to be different. The threads in the bowl of the glass are like blades of grass, blowing in the wind and growing wild." The same year saw the release of the tall Woodlands vases in three natural colours: moss-green, sea-blue and birch-white. Woodlands features thin ribbons of colour, added free-hand in the blowing room - austere, yet playful. "I wanted to create graphical decor with flair," Ehrner explains.