Gustavsberg porcelain town

 

More and more, I am turning into my mom, loving porcelain and getting excited when I visit shops of the original porcelain town. Gustavsberg is only 20 minutes by car off of city central Stockholm. I believe the green leave Bersa collection is most well seen at department stores worldwide. The designs are very typical Swedish, simple and homey, and I must add, a pattern that people outside of Europe would want Scandinavian design to be.

 

It seems the company itself has been sold off in pieces in the 1990s, so the company Gustavsberg founded in 1826 no longer exists. But apparently artisans continue to produce in the Gustavsberg tradition and that's what we see today.

 

The museum had all the plates from its start as well as gigantic vase contributions to world expos including one such in Bogota more than 100 years ago. The video footage of how they used to print patterns showed a surprisingly similar method of how Japanese wood block prints were made.

 

Unfortunately, the antique shops around town were closed today (mostly only open during weekends in winter time, and open all week in the summer), but I managed to go to two outlet stores in town.  Do visit!

 

Gustavsberg Museum

Odelbergs väg 5B13440GustavsbergSweden

Telephone number: +46 8 570 356 58

 

Carl Malmsten's exhibit

 

There is an exhibit for designer Carl Malmsten at Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde. His furnitures are seen everywhere in Sweden, in households, department stores, and even extravegant offices. I particularly liked this drawer which said was inspired by Chinese cabinets. It balances nicely in a toned down old school living room.

 

 

Carl Malmson also designed many other things such as typewriters and bags today (I just realized the Sandqvist bag lying on the ground next to me is by him too). He also has a school of woodwork where aspring young Swedes and others are making beautiful woodwork. He also founded a guitar making school. It's incredibly nice to see artisan work being succeeded to the next generation.

 

Imari in Kyushu

We were probably the only young-ish persons in this town today. The town Imari in Saga Prefecture houses very well known Arita porcelains called Imari, dating back to the Edo Period.

The porcelains were really beautiful, and I am really happy that I was able to pick up really, really nice traditional Nabeshima plates. Apparently to the Europeans and many Japanese, Imari plates are remembered as those exported in the 17th century, with lots of blue, red, and gold as gold was abundant in Japan back then. The plates I picked up were not these kind but somewhat similar in pattern. Nabeshima plates were not exported, so they did not use gold as had been preferred in the West. Apparently Nabeshima plates were used exclusively by Lord Nabeshima then, and later sent as gifts to Meiji Emperor etc, so they have a distinctively noble design... nice!

 

Visit this town which is about 15 minutes drive from Imari City. This place has over 30 kilms, which independently sell very nice porcelains. Mine were bought here.

 



 

Beautiful indigenous costumes at the Shanghai Museum

Lovely mask.

Revive the artisans with 2k540

There's a very new shopping place in Tokyo called 2k540 AKI-OKA ARTISAN near Akihabara, where they only sell regional Japanese artisan goods. It's a complex of 40-50 stores. The products are all manufactured by traditional artisan families (shokunin) that have been making the same product for 100 years or maybe more.

I picked up a few textiles, kitchenware, and small plates that were genuine and beautiful.

My favorite shops were:

- Nippon Hyakkaten (closest to Akihabara) where they sell small items like plates, textiles, and sake;
- Hacoa where they sell keyboards and ipod covers made of very light wood, and leather looking bags that are made of incredibly strong paper;
- Takumi no Hako where I picked up some kitchenware made of bamboo.

Don't forget to pick up a very nice cup of coffee that will be roasted just for you, at Yanaka Coffee Shop after walking around...

I really like that these craftsman families are aware that they cannot just sell the same traditional product, and that they have to constantly create something new to the likings of the modern consumers. I really hope this place (it seems, developed by Japan Railway itself) can revive these extremely disciplined and innovative artisan families.



Photo credit: 2k540 AKI-OKA ARTISAN