Orrefors Crystal Designers

When he came to Orrefors on a scholarship in 1994, Finland-born Martti Rytkonen began creating a body of work that projected a hip, modern sensibility while evoking the narrative works of Edward Hald and other masters who shaped the Orrefors style of the early 20th century. Martti's works are executed in classic Orrefors techniques, even as he, like all Orrefors artists, constantly experiments with design and process. Sophisticated and high-concept, yet as charming as folk art, Martti's works incorporate stylized images from nature, history, myth, urban life, graffiti, TV, movies, comics, the art of children - and his own playful imagination. Martti's formal training began in the design program of the Kyrkeruds Folkhogskola in Finland, continued at Medborgarskolans Art School in Stockholm and the Swedish National College of Arts, Craft and Design, where he was a scholarship student focusing on ceramics and glass design. Martti's work is in many private and public collections, including the National Museum of Fine Arts, Stockholm; Rhosska Museum of Applied Arts and the Swedish Glass Museum.