Nordic craft books: glass, ceramics and textiles
A curated shelf of five real books on Nordic craft, from Finnish glass and Scandinavian ceramics to Marimekko prints, Georg Jensen silver and Norwegian tapestry.
Our earlier roundup, Nordic art and design books, took the wide view, and the Nordic artist monographs piece went deep on the painters. This instalment narrows again, to the crafts: glass, ceramics, textiles and silver, the corner of Nordic design where the hand still shows.
It is a natural shelf for anyone who lives with prints. A botanical pattern on the wall and a hand-thrown bowl on the table are closer relations than they look, both built on the same Nordic instinct for pared-back form and honest material. Here are five books we keep coming back to, each real, in print or findable second-hand, and each worth the space.
Iittala: 125 Years of Finnish Glass, edited by Marianne Aav, is the closest thing to a complete record of Finland's most important glassworks. Aalto, Wirkkala, Sarpaneva, Franck and Toikka are all here, catalogued designer by designer, with more than 600 images. If you buy one glass book, buy this. On Amazon.
Scandinavian Art Pottery: Denmark and Sweden by Robin Hecht Minardi is the ceramics companion. It walks the great factories and studios, Royal Copenhagen, Saxbo, Gustavsberg and more, and gives the makers their due, Axel Salto and Gunnar Nylund among them. Practical too, with real detail on marks and dating. On World of Books.
Marimekko: Fabrics, Fashion, Architecture, edited by Marianne Aav, is the serious study of the print house that taught the world to love a bold repeat. It sets Maija Isola's patterns in their proper context, as design history rather than nostalgia, and it is the book that best explains why a Marimekko motif still reads as modern. On Amazon.
Georg Jensen Jewelry, edited by David A. Taylor, covers the Danish silversmith whose work bridged Arts and Crafts and modernism. Over 350 pieces, each with its designer, date and materials, make the case for silver as sculpture you can wear. On Amazon.
Frida Hansen: Art Nouveau in Full Bloom brings it home to Norway. Hansen (1855 to 1931) was the great Norwegian tapestry artist, a gold medallist in Paris in 1900, and this Stavanger Art Museum book gathers her floral, transparent weavings in one place. A quieter title, museum-published and easiest to find through Vesterheim, but worth the hunt.
Read enough of these and you start to see the pattern behind the prints, the same clean lines and love of nature that run through the botanical work in our own collection. If a book sends you looking for a piece to live with, that is the right place to start.
