Swedish designer Lovisa Wattman, has designed most of my tableware from Höganäs Keramik. I love the simple, elegant yet modern design of these stoneware plates and bowls. Just the other day I added the black (milk) pitcher (top left) to my collection. A majority of these items are out of production now, but I have not grown tired of them.
Most of my round dinner and salad plates are egg shell white or charcoal black, mixed with the odd grey, celadon green/blue and yellow for fun. But when it comes to the triangular breakfast bowls, I've gone wild and added a few greens and dark blues, - all colors that match my finnish cups and bowls, Arabia's Paratiisi perfectly.
The new pitcher made me remember when I, some years ago, styled three different table setting, using my Höganäs stoneware. I set a colorful party table for 12, a romantic, late dinner for two, and an early morning breakfast table for one, on a small balcony. For fun I sent the pictures of these table settings to Höganäs, who at that time had a contest going on. I won, and was invited to the factory to check out their work and new designs. (The pictures of my 3 table settings are lost - most of these pics are from the Höganäs site).
The Höganäs trip turned out to be different from what I had expected. Less Höganäs Ceramics and more garden design.
I had asked my garden expert friend to join me, and we decided to drive the 200+ kilometers down to Höganäs in my car (that kept acting up all through the ride). We got to the Höganäs factory before lunch, rather hungry, since we had not had time to stop for coffee on the way. My hopes for some refreshments soon died, as we quickly were introduced to the kind man who was going to show us around, and off we went.
It was a great tour of the factory, seeing all the different phases of the production and talking to the designers. Wish we had not been so hungry, though.
I got no Höganäs item as a winning prize, but had time to spend an hour at the factory outlet, before heading west to claim the winning prize: an over night stay and fancy dinner at Mölle by the Sea. Absolutely lovely, though we were there off season, and had to dust the room, wipe off the bathroom and shake the bed spreads, before settling in. Unusual....
The following day we focused on art and garden design, and had a fantastic drive cross the country side, before heading home - fingers crossed the car would last all the way. It did.
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