Timo Sarpaneva

Timo Sarpaneva's collection.

In the 1950s, Timo Sarpaneva, a young aspiring glass artist, had come home from the Iittala glass factory and was feeling down. Nothing had worked out. Erkki Vesanto tried to console the sad young man by saying that nothing had been lost, that there was still such a technique as the 'stick-blow method. Vesanto explained to Timo what it was all about. According to Vesanto " Timo came the next day, with an orchid under his arm". Timo had done it overnight. The stick-blowing method became a lifelong project for Sarpaneva. He developed it over decades with glassblowers around the world. It can be used to produce works of amazing variety in shape and appearance. Some, such as coloured plates or glasses, cannot be made by any other method. The 1997 coloured rim plate was made at the Nuutajärvi glass factory, where Sarpaneva bought workshop time on weekends when the factory was closed. Heikki Punkari and Reijo Salonen from the Iittala factory worked at the workshop together with him.

Marjatta Sarpaneva