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Montecito Residence by Olson Kundig Architects
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Birds by Matti Klenell for Iittala







Inspired by the magpie, Matti Klenell has created a new addition to the Iittala Birds collection. The magpie is well-known for stealing jewellery and other shiny objects and hiding them in their nests. Klenell wanted to incorporate the same idea of hiding something into his new pieces. In the process, he has given his glass birds a practical use alongside their aesthetic one – drawing on the varied skills of the glassblowers and craftsmen at Iittala’s Nuutajärvi glassworks.
Klenell has designed two bird families for Iittala: the Harakka (Magpie) family and the Korpi (Deep Forest) family, both with two generations of members. Klenell’s birds comprise two or three parts, which adds to their sculptural qualities. They also include a functional feature that is unique in the Iittala Birds collection, as the hollow bottom sections of his birds can be used as handy little containers to keep treasures, such as jewellery, notes, and memories, just like the magpie.
“There’s a long tradition of using glass objects as hiding places, and there are many examples in mythology and history of urns and vases being used for this purpose. The stolen diamonds in detective stories are often thrown into a Ming vase, and people playing computer games often need to look inside an urn to find further clues for the game.”
– Matti Klenell
Buy it here: Birds by Matti Klenell, for Iittala
Monday, June 28th, 2010
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Montecito Residence by Olson Kundig Architects
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