Arabia Sunflower Aurinkoruusu Hilkka-Liisa Ahola

The group of Arabia "sunflower" cups and large platter was a good buy at auction on Monday. The design of the sunflower is a such a popular Arabia design, and its easy to see why.

I never knew there were coffee mugs in this design until I bought these. A search on the web found a milk jug and sugar bowl, but no images of mugs or cups - so I guess they are pretty rare.

I listed them on eBay (except for 1 for myself! and one that was damaged) and they went practically straight away - such is their popularity.

In my search for more about Hilkka-Liisa Ahola I found a fantastic website/store in Finland - "Dishware Heaven" where as well as a huge range of Arabia and other Finnish products - there is a great section on the designers of Arabia - with short biographies, where this information on HLA is from:

HILKKA-LIISA AHOLA (born 1920 in Helsinki) started at Arabia with a six month traineeship in 1943. Besides design she had studied both ceramics and porcelain painting with instruction from Elsa Elenius. In Arabia Art Department she worked 1947-1974.

Ahola designed faience decorative item sets and decoration models produced by casting for factory production and own unique works, especially ceramic tiles, ceramic tile compositions and bowls. She still worked on the moist work form before decorating. Characteristic to her work were strong ornaments, use of different shades of blue and lush paintbrush technique.

In 1968 she was awarded Grand Prix, in Faenza Ceramic Biennale and as a ceramist she was given an opportunity to work in the factory's Art Department.

Characteristic to her unique works were diversity of decoration technique; romanticized perky female characters have been implemented by sgraffito technique, ceramic tile compositions reminiscent of strong batik works have brushed glazes with different colours and luster glazes.

Ahola designed glass mosaic works for (to the customer in 1970 and released in 1970) luxury cruisers Song of Norway and Nordic Prince built in Wärtsilä's dockyard in Helsinki.
 

.