Posted 12 years ago
not2fancy4me
(5 items)
I saw a picture on google images that was very similar to this vase, just not as tall from the top of the tulip petal to the rim of the vase. That image was labeled as I have titled this item. This vase is quite heavy and is .25 inch thick at the opening. It is 7.5 inches tall and about 4 x 3 inches oval. The violet glass that makes up the tulip petal over lay is about 1 inch tall at the base. The emerald inner part extends 2 inches about the violet petals. The label is gold and reads Arabia made in Finland. There is a hand written mark on the bottom that says Nuutajarvi Notsjo - but no other name or number. It is in mint condition. I purchased it from an art dealer in Traverse City, MI about 25 years ago. I would love to learn more about this piece.
If anyone has any information about my vase, please let me know. Thanks.
You chose really well all that time ago. It really is nice!
Not much has been written about the "Kukka" or flower vase, even in Finnish.
It comes in a variety of versions. Yours is the most complicated of the coloured versions. Blue on blue, white on white, amethyst on white are all on the net.
It looks like there were two sizes of vase that I've seen and there is a bowl as well.
I usually use a Finnish site "Laatutavara" for extra information on pieces. They don't have a year of manufacture for this piece.
Orvola, Heikki was born in Helsinki in 1943. He is a Finnish designer who has started his career in the 1960s. In 1968/69 he started as a designer Nuutajärvi.
Orvola is planned to include Marimekko fabrics in the late 1980s, but most of his production design is made of glass and ceramics. He designed the popular Aurora glassware for Iittala and the Illusia tableware for Arabia, together with the Fujiwo Ishimoto. Among his awards are the Pro Finlandia medal in 1984 and the Kaj Franck Design Prize in 1998. The title of professor, he received the 2002.
He studied at Pilchuck Glass Workshop in Stanwood, Washington in 1978 with Chihuly and later in the US became friendly with Marvin Lipovsky and the scene in the Bay area. He travelled widely and his work reflects his travels in the Russia and the Orient.
Thank you so much for the very interesting information. Quite amazing that Heikki Orvola worked with Chihuly at one point.
Hi not2fancy4me.
I had a thought: do you have a blue light? Uranium!
Sometimes that teal can even change under fluorescent too! Neodymium!
When I shine a fluorescent light on the vase, the violet glass seems to look light blue. But the green seems to stay the same. Does this make sense to what you would expect?
Neodymium! Rare earth!
Wikipedia says: "Neodymium is a chemical element with the symbol Nd and atomic number 60. It is a soft silvery metal that tarnishes in air. Neodymium was discovered in 1885 by the Austrian chemist Carl Auer von Welsbach. It is present in significant quantities in the ore minerals monazite and bastnäsite. Neodymium is not found naturally in metallic form or unmixed with other lanthanides, and it is usually refined for general use. Although neodymium is classed as a "rare earth", it is no rarer than cobalt, nickel, and copper ore, and is widely distributed in the Earth's crust. Most of the world's neodymium is mined in China.
Neodymium compounds were first commercially used as glass dyes in 1927, and they remain a popular additive in glasses. The color of neodymium compounds—due to the Nd(III) ion—is often a reddish-purple but it changes with the type of lighting, due to fluorescent effects. Some neodymium-doped glasses are also used in lasers that emit infrared light with wavelengths between 1047 and 1062 nanometers. These have been used in extremely high power applications, such as experiments in inertial confinement fusion."