Ceramics in Finland and tea cups for a cold day

On a recent visit to Helsinki Finland, I had the great pleasure to visit the Arabia Ceramics factory. For those not familiar, Arabia is a Finnish ceramics company, founded in 1873 and renowned in the history of Finnish design. Arabia became known in this country for its mid-century modern designs. Still in operation today and marketed around the world, they are now owned by Fiskars (as in scissors). 

The Arabia pattern, Ruska, shown below was one of my first and favorite dinnerware patterns. Also one of my earliest design memories/influences. The designer of the 'Ruska' series was Ulla Procopé (1921–1968), who worked for Arabia from 1948 to 1968. Ruska was in production from 1978–99

Today the original factory building functions in part as a museum, and visiting was full of visual treats. Among the most memorable, was their collection of teacups. Still looking modern today all of these designs are vintage Arabia patterns. They were pioneers in the production of rice grain porcelain (top row, center) which was in production between 1945–75 and for a short time in the 80’s. They also formed an innovative design department in the 1930s and over the years collaborated with many designers and artists to produce much of the work below.