Fluid and sensual are just some of the words that spring to mind when looking at the work of Lena Bergström (b. 1961), a Swedish designer of textiles and glass. Her initial burst of fame was achieved in textile design, but Orrefors Studio, Sweden’s then most famous crystal company head hunted her to design glass works, an entirely different field. In a rare display of artistic versatility, Bergstrom distinguished herself by pushing boundaries of what can be done with glass, developing her own distinct language and earning multiple ‘Excellent Swedish Design’ awards in the process. “Perhaps because I haven’t worked with glass half my life I dare to make the shapes I have done,’ she once quipped.

Bergstrom now works for Kosta Boda, a fine glassware firm with a hundred and fifty year history, where she continues to express herself through forms and colors but always with an eye for balance, composition and detail. “I am building up a library of colours and forms with personal symbolic value. My design idiom is emotional and physical. The greatest beauty must balance on the brink of failure.”

Her works are represented in many museum collections, including the National Museum in Stockholm, the Röhsska Museum of Fashion, Design and Decorative Arts in Gothenburg, the Cleveland Museum of Art in the United States, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Selected Glass Works of Lena Bergstrom

Featuring the ‘Planet Series’ of handblown sculpted glass designed by Lena Bergstrom for Kosta Boda in limited edition.