Antrei Hartikainen
Antrei Hartikainen has designed and manufactured place setting products for Metsä/Skogen using Finnish alder. The selection includes tableware such as a flat fruit bowl, a tray and a cutting board. Each product is finished using a natural oil and wax finish. One of Antrei’s strong points is his expertise in material combined with a sense of aesthetics. He knows the limitations of different materials and dares to push those limits to discover new forms.
“In Fiskars, where I live, nature is present everywhere. My favourite scenery is when you exit a tunnel as you go towards the centre. On one side of the road, there’s a lake with plants emerging from the water and reaching for the sky. On the other side, there are trees that get the brightest shades of green, orange and red during autumn. Occasionally you can even see a purple hue in the foliage.”
Jutta Ylä-Mononen
Jutta Ylä-Mononen has a background in journalism and interior design. Together with Antrei Hartikainen, she has designed and manufactured a tableware collection consisting of ceramics and wooden products. The ceramic bowls are made using a plaster mould and then finished using engobe colours. Everything is handmade and each bowl is unique. The colour palette ranges from green moss to the shade of sand in the bottom of a lake in the woods. The bowls go together beautifully with the alder tableware designed by Antrei Hartikainen. Metsä/Skogen has also bracelets Jutta made using Finnish red clay. They are available in terracotta colour, white, brown and black. The black bracelets have been smoked in the baking oven of the old family house.
“I spent my childhood summers in Virolahti, near the sea and the Russian border. My mother loved going to forage for mushrooms and berries and she always took my brother and I with her. She placed us on a big stone to eat our snacks. After we finished our sandwiches, we were both given a blueberry branch and we both sat there happy eating blueberries on a bed of moss on the rock. We would spend hours upon hours in the woods and we always had fun there.”