Bibbi Forsman

happy midsummer!

2009-06-20T19:49:00.004+02:00

This is the heaviest book I've ever held: The Compendium Finale of Contemporary Jewellers 2008. 13,5 kilo, 2400 pages where 1044 jewellery artists from 54 nations present themselves, nominated by jewellery artists. An amazing idea and I will visit Mona Wallström's studio (she's in it and thus has it) many times too look more. Once is not enough.
Read more at Darling publications

This blog seems to have taken early holidays, let's see for how long.
Happy midsummer to all!

the smaller details

2009-06-09T08:14:00.002+02:00

Thank you so much for the hoorays, I really appreciate it!
I'm in the post work mood, when it's almost difficult to understand the job is done. Fixed with updating my website and made albums as therapy. Really useful and for free here
http://jalbum.net

More photos from Lidköping ceamic wall here
Work process here

I hope to have more time to look at what others do now. At Konstepidemin the HDK bachelor students fill the galleries, looks promising
HDK bachelor students presentations, click each name

it's up in Lidköping

2009-06-06T09:59:00.005+02:00

Photos by Richard

Three o'clock on Thursday we finally sat down, me and the excellent bricklayer Fredrik. We were pretty content when looking at the finished wall piece in the refurbished entrance of the hospital in Lidköping. I'll post a few photos here (thanks to Richard, I took only blurry photos of the final result myself) and come back with more details later. I'm tired and happy, now is time to rest.

almost there

2009-05-26T08:57:00.011+02:00

Photos from last days work, frantic. Almost finished, hope to be all finished by end of this week, wish me luck.

Yesterday I gained some sense of control. Realized that I had transformed worries over the result to being stressed over the tight timeschedule. Still, I don't have much time but feel more relaxed. Rearranged all the pieces outside the studio, Ami gave a good eye, thank you! As always, it's at the very end of a work process the new ideas arrive. Like an inbuilt carrot to keep you continue.

Ami also did a good job cleaning the studio yesterday (again thank you!) because on Saturday 30.5 we have the annual Open Day at Konstepidemin, see the whole program here.
Most welcome!

hurra!

2009-05-21T08:57:00.010+02:00

As I say, I'm hopelessly behind, still on last weekend. Tillt (new name for the former Skådebanan) had a lovely party to celebrate their new office. Rooftop ceremony, cakes and champagne; couldn't have been better.
Tillt works to bridge between the arts and workplaces and support the creative processes. Over the last years they've run a successfull artist-in-residence program but also come up with new ideas how these different cultures can get connected and made useful for each other. Hurra and good luck!
www.tillt.se

Last weekend I also got to meet Marie-Louise from Uppsala, amazing how blog world suddenly is alive and present. This weekend will mean studio work, strangely enough I find this phase of the work peaceful even if I really should feel more stressed. Maria at Konstepidemin took some photos in the studio yesterday, I don't look organized. Enjoy your weekend!

after rain...

2009-05-19T08:25:00.007+02:00

...comes sun. After work comes coffee break. The cups are from a porcelain print and paint collaboration some years ago, by studio partner Ami Lanmark and illustrator/painter Annmari Olsson (she is very funny).

Lidköping printing ladies

2009-05-16T10:38:00.013+02:00

It's been a long week, I double office and studio; no time for blogging.

Catching up; these two brave ladies, Iréne Magnusson and Inger Franzén-Storm, deserves their post. Instead of changing their jobs when Rörstrand factory was closed they bought the whole Rörstrand printshop with all equipment and materials and started on their own. Now they make ceramic transfer prints on special orders from their former employer and from independent designers and artists. They can do everything from the original work to print and decoration.

They also kept the old example collection from the Rörstand days, a cultural heritage. Touching examples of high and low.

Their website is in Swedish only, contact them for prices (decent pricing, a start cost for every print and after that price per sheet)
www.printdesign.se

outside studio

2009-05-09T10:55:00.005+02:00

Outside my studio door things happen too.
My nextdoor neighbor, sculptor Pecka Söderberg had his studio open for visitors last weekend, look here...

Work weekend for me, enjoy your days whatever you do.

so much to do

2009-05-07T20:36:00.002+02:00

Deadline for Lidköping wall is first week in June and I'm hopelessly behind. Work, work, work. Lucky it's been rainy, that's good for discipline.

Cynthia Atwood, sculptures

Fabriken LDKP

2009-05-06T20:17:00.010+02:00

Fabriken (The Factory) LDKP is an exciting initiative located in parts of the former Rörstrand factory. They have facilities for guest artists or designers to come and work for a period of time or for a specific project. They can develop design ideas and produce them, like a small scale factory. Mould makers, enormous kilns, access to the former factory laboratory, they can press hard fired tiles, they have space and they are super friendly.

They are open for all sorts of ideas that works with their development of Fabriken LDKP. At present the staple production is piggy banks, a production they inherited from earlier days.

Read more here and contact:
www.fabrikenldkp.se

rörstrand, rest in peace

2009-05-05T22:01:00.011+02:00

A few years ago the last Swedish porcelain factory, Rörstrand in Lidköping closed down. Rörstrand as a brand still exists and there are new designs. A lot of energy is put into making the former factory area an arena for contemporary ceramics. I must take it in portions.

First, there is a museum with the production throughout the centuries and it's mindblowing to think how many Swedish ceramic icons who worked here. Find all the names here

Rörstrand history (Swedish wikip)
Museum
Rörstrand designers today

The huge sculptures are from an firing event with Danish clay artist Nina Hole last summer, click Beneath the blue to see photos.

spring celebration

2009-05-02T20:47:00.001+02:00

This weekend is long and lovely. Valpurgis night bonfire, a sudden summer day at the beach and another well spent in the studio. And Sunday is still left, it's like a little holiday.

Tzuri Gueta design and jewellery

lidköping trip

2009-05-02T17:09:00.008+02:00

Took a trip to Lidköping last week, where the hospital entrance now is taking shape. I was there to meet with the builders and look at the wall I'm working on. It's always a strange feeling to see in real life, something you've only imagined from drawings. I feel like being very small and placed inside my own model.

First kiln with pieces for the wall was opened and this it what it looks like, so far. Lots of work left and very little time, as usual. But it's so much fun!

There will be more about ceramic life in Lidköping next week.

Marianne Kanter paintings and sculptures
Studio Violet Re-used and Re-cycled at Karin Ericsson's Manos until 24.5

konstrundan highlight 2: ditte johansson

2009-04-28T23:11:00.007+02:00

Ditte Johansson knits glass fiber. After being fired the objects are glassy, half transparent and very beautiful. And fragile as life itself. More photos here.
You see, it's sunny and warm here now :)

konstrunda highlight 1: lotta söder

2009-04-27T20:48:00.008+02:00

Lotta Söder paints and screenprints the glass before cutting it to mosaic. I saw her studio filled with color at Konstrundan in Majorna on Saturday, it was beautiful. I envy all the colors in glass.
Article (Swedish) in Zenit here...

last week

2009-04-26T14:08:00.010+02:00

This week I wasn't friend with the camera but here is some of what happened.
A meeting in the lovely park Trädgårdsföreningen, where Konsthantverkscentrum will hold the annual craft fair in August.

I was surprised to find out I was out of clay but got a quick delivery. Almost finished with the clay work for Lidköping. More mosaic to be done.

Today is the last day of jewellery artist Bettina Speckner's show at hnoss. More photos here...

Konstrundan, artists' open studios in Majorna, Göteborg. Fantastic day for a long walk, it was crowded around Röda Sten (a good spot to start). Open also Monday 16-20.

Röda Sten opened a lounge in the bottom floor, a good reason to visit.

Another is the café.
Hope your weekend is peaceful or fun, whatever you wish for.

slips

2009-04-21T20:12:00.004+02:00

The range of colors when working with clay is a bit limited, it's always been a challenge to find a color scale as rich as possible. I'm into stoneware slips, didn't make it easy for myself.

Bettina Speckner, jewellery artist at hnoss until Sunday, photos here

Elsa Agelii tells about the textile project Water in desert tomorrow Wednesday 19.00 at Galleri Majnabbe here in Göteborg. Her travel blog here

hello monday

2009-04-20T23:31:00.009+02:00

Studio Violet unpacked the kiln, it looked really good. Morran seemed very supportive. I had a good studio day myself, today's visitors brought energy with them.

KnitKnit, knit project book edited by Sabrina Gschwandtner (who gives a talk at Gustavsbergs Konsthall next week 29.4, about the exhibition Motion Blur - American craft and about contemporary American craft. Invitation here...)

violet visit

2009-04-19T12:57:00.009+02:00

Studio Violet (Camilla Engman and Elisabeth Dunker) needed a kiln and I packed their work in ours on Friday. Their prints look lovely, I hope it will come out perfect. It's a table ware set for a show Re-Use at Karin Erikssons Manos April 30. Nice having you here!
It's still sunny here, hope your days are light and sunny too.

Spring at Konstepidemin

2009-04-17T08:32:00.006+02:00

It's so warm I can have the studio door open to the sun. Love it.

From two other Konstepidemin studios:
Elisabeth Åström, set and costume designer
Elisabet Eriksson, textile artist

Carina Fihn presents her 23 guest artist at her website: Virgil Dejarv

new work in progress

2009-04-15T20:05:00.006+02:00

I'm spending a lot of time in the studio these days and enjoy every minute. It's hard to stop, I have to force myself to go home for dinner. Above is one more piece for the wall in Lidköping.

Jan Lambert Kruse glass artist, shows work at Galleri KHVC, photos here...
Ulrika Krynitz Ur-natur

celebrate spring!

2009-04-09T18:27:00.011+02:00

A collection of Easter yellows from the construction site yesterday. I'm finished! Still some work to do for the carpenter, so I don't want to show the result until later.

I'm inbetween computers
Wish you lovely, light spring days and happy easter-weekend!

almost finished

2009-04-06T23:57:00.006+02:00

Nicest lunch break so far, on the pier in the sun at Eriksberg. Just as I got into studio mood they called from the construction site, it's time to put up the two remaining mosaic pieces in new apartment building entrances. Hope to show more results soon.

Niki de Saint Phalle mosaic, Tarot Garden
Let the sunshine in!

Lidköping on my mind

2009-04-02T08:37:00.008+02:00

It's always exciting to see what a sketch looks like when transformed to real size and real materials but also difficult to leap into something new, almost before finishing what was before.

I've slowly worked myself into the next commission, the wall in a hospital entrance in Lidköping. Passed the initial mental barriers, materials are ordered and stocked, sketches enlarged, work tables emptied and nothing else to do but roll up the sleeves and get practical.

See the model here

Walker Pickering photos

from another viewpoint

2009-03-29T09:57:00.006+02:00

This week spring is in progress after all, invites to long walks.

Umedalen sculpture park, among other artists:
Raffael Rheinsberg
Richard Nonas
Anthony Gormley
Wim Delvoye
Louise Borgeois
Klitsa Antinou
Anna Stake