Hellin Helena Tynell ( Turpeinen; 10 December 1918 — 18 January 2016) was a notable

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

glass designer who has been described as a pioneer of Finnish glass art.

Education

After completing secondary education in 1938, Helena Tynell went on to study model design at the Central School of Industrial Design (''Taideteollisuuskeskuskoulu''), now part of the

Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture Aalto is a Finnish surname meaning "wave". Notable people with the surname include: * Aino Aalto (1894–1949), Finnish architect and designer * Alec Aalto (1942–2018), Finnish diplomat * Alvar Aalto (1898–1976), Finnish architect and designe ...

, graduating in 1943.

Career

Tynell started her career in 1943 designing for

Arabia The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plat ...

, a leading Finnish housewares and ceramics manufacturer. At the same time, she also worked for , a design bureau part-owned by her future husband and fellow designer, Paavo Tynell. In 1946, having decided to focus exclusively on glass, Tynell left Arabia to join a major Finnish glass manufacturer of the time,

Riihimäki Glass Riihimäki glass ( fi, Riihimäen lasi) was a reputed glass company in Riihimäki, Finland, in operation from 1910, when it was founded by Mikko Adolf Kolehmainen, to 1990. Their production ranged from basic to high quality glass ornaments, which ...

, where she stayed for most of her career, and created many of her most notable designs. Finally, in 1976, she moved to Germany, to design for Glashütte Limburg, among others, until her retirement in the early 1990s.

Legacy

Tynell is best known for practical designs, purposefully created for large-scale manufacturing and everyday use. However, she herself was more interested in glass sculpture, experimenting with abstract forms, and other

artistic Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wh ...

pursuits, using both

casting Casting is a manufacturing process in which a liquid material is usually poured into a mold, which contains a hollow cavity of the desired shape, and then allowed to solidify. The solidified part is also known as a ''casting'', which is ejected ...

and

blowing Blowing may refer to: *Air *Breath *Blowing by a whale, from blowhole (anatomy) Industrial processes *Blowing (glassmaking) * Blowing (textile finishing) * Dry blowing, method to extract gold particles from dry soil without the use of water *Melt b ...

as well as other techniques. One of her best-known designs is a vase called ''Aurinkopullo'' ('Sun Bottle'), which was produced in the 1960s and 70s in at least 19 different colours and several sizes. In 2018, to mark the 100th anniversary of Tynell's birth, a limited run of 300 pieces was produced. Tynell's 20th anniversary retrospective exhibition at the ''Strindbergin taidesalonki'' ('Strindberg Art Salon') in Helsinki was the first time glass was exhibited in a fine arts gallery in Finland, signifying a certain “coming of age” of Finnish glass art. She exhibited extensively in Finland and internationally. Her works are included in the permanent collections of the

Design Museum, Helsinki Design Museum ( fi, Designmuseo, sv, Designmuseet) is a museum in Helsinki devoted to the exhibition of both Finnish and foreign design, including industrial design, fashion, and graphic design. The building is situated in Kaartinkaupunki, on Kork ...

, the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, and the

Corning Museum of Glass The Corning Museum of Glass is a museum in Corning, New York in the United States, dedicated to the art, history, and science of glass. It was founded in 1951 by Corning Glass Works and currently has a collection of more than 50,000 glass obje ...

in Corning, NY, USA.

References

External links

Images of several Tynell designs
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tynell, Helena Finnish designers Glass artists Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture alumni Women glass artists People from Äänekoski 1918 births 2016 deaths