The Glade - a place for contemporary crafts

In his studio in Södermalm, Stockholm, ceramicist Carl Richard Söderström has created his own world of abstract forms, mystical creatures and animated beings. Söderström works in a black-fired stoneware clay and experiments with traditional craft techniques.

www.carlrichard.se/

@carlrichardsoderstrom

Cecilia Levy has a background as a graphic designer and is educated at HDK-Valand - Academy of Art and Design in Gothenburg. Through further training as a bookbinder, she fell in love with paper as a material. In her work she uses yellowed pages of old books and sometimes the text also has a role to play. Levy also works with art in the public space.

www.cecilialevy.com 

@cecilia_levy_art

Ceramicist Ellen Ehk Åkesson is working both in Sweden and internationally. She lives in Småland and her practice is inspired by the large forests around her. Ehk Åkesson works in different materials: glass, clay and bronze, but always with an organic language of form where the voice of nature is clear.

www.ellenehk.se

@ellenehkart

Elsa Unnegård graduated as an interior designer from Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm, last spring. In her graduation project VED, from 2021, she used fallen wood from a dead oak tree as a tribute to the richness of nature but also as a reminder of the consequences of consumer society's impact on the climate. Unnegård's sculptural forms are as much furniture as sculpture. The project was awarded Young Swedish Design 2022.

@studio_elsaunnegard

Emilia Sundqvist is a textile artist with a master's degree from Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm, 2020. She creates sculptures in materials such as silk and velvet. Sundqvist's poetic world is populated by animal-like humans and human-like animals, with a deliberately sweet aesthetic where vulnerability and strength are mixed and confused.

@millzuponthehillz 

Jewellery artist Hanna Liljenberg is educated at HDK-Valand - Academy of Art and Design and works in Gothenburg. In her artistic practice she is often inspired by the seaside, barnacles, rough rocks and lichens. Liljenberg creates jewellery by cutting paper into hundreds of small pieces that she joins together and combines into a kind of vegetation. The works on display in the exhibition are from the "Symbiosis" series, which merges metal and paper.

www.hannaliljenberg.se 

@hannaliljenbergjewellery

Handicraft artist Marie Eklund carves spoons into unique small sculptures. They appear fragile and delicate but are at the same time strong and fully functional to eat with. Each spoon has its own tactile character best experienced with the hand. Eklund builds still lifes where damaged and imperfect spoons are also included. She collaborates with gourmet restaurants where the handmade spoons add an extra dimension to the meal.

www.marieeklund.se 

@marieeklundhandicraft

Gold and silversmith Petronella Eriksson's forms are inspired by nature. By depicting natural elements in her art, she wants viewers to see the unique beauty of plants and to cherish them. Eriksson wants silver to be used in everyday life, the silver pot to be taken for a walk in the woods and blackened by the campfire. The silver vessel without a handle can be supplemented with a hastily carved branch found in the forest.

www.petronella.nu 

@petronellaeriksson

Jewellery artist Sanna Wallgren is based in Gothenburg. In her work she uses aluminium which she colours by anodising. The result is large, colourful and organically shaped necklaces, often with the body or nature as a theme. The jewellery in the exhibition is from the "Urban Botanics" series from 2021.

www.sannawallgren.com 

@sannawallgrenjewelry

Glass artist Sara Lundqvist is educated at Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm, where she also works as a teacher. Together with four colleagues she runs the female separatist glass group "BOOM". In her artistic practice she works with both casting and glassblowing in investigations of the possibilities and value of the material. Lundqvist often refers to magic and the supernatural in her objects.

@thesaralundkvist

Silversmith and jewellery artist Tore Svensson has a long and successful career both in Sweden and internationally. Svensson's main material is iron - the hard, thin body plate is refined through many hours of hammering into bowls of archaic shape, with a surface that invites touch.

www.toresvensson.com  

@tore.svensson.tore 

Exhibition curator, Helena Sandström, specialises in contemporary crafts and has a curatorial degree from Stockholm University. Sandström has extensive experience of exhibition production, both through her own work as a silversmith and jewellery artist with exhibitions in Sweden and abroad, and from her previous work at Gustavsberg Public Art Gallery.

The Swedish Crafts Centre is the only occupational organisation for professional craft artists working in Sweden, with around 750 members from all over the country. The aim for the organisation is to highlight, develop and raise the status of crafts in contemporary culture, nationally as well as internationally. Through public events, exhibitions, competence-enhancing and intermediary activities, the goal is to improve the financial situation for members.

konsthantverkscentrum.se