Lena Bergström (born 1961 in

Umeå Umeå ( , , , locally ; South Westrobothnian: ;). fi, Uumaja; sju, Ubmeje; sma, Upmeje; se, Ubmi) is a city in northeast Sweden. It is the seat of Umeå Municipality and the capital of Västerbotten County. Situated on the Ume River, Ume� ...

) is a Swedish textiles and glass designer.

Biography

After high school, Bergström started working as a decorator at Domus department store. She moved to

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

to study at various art & crafts schools, and eventually started at

Konstfack Konstfack, or University of Arts, Crafts and Design, is a university college for higher education in the area of art, crafts and design in Stockholm, Sweden. History Konstfack has had several different names since it was founded in 1844 by the e ...

, the University college of art, crafts and design in Stockholm. Bergström describes her studies as interdisciplinary, which is also shown in her work.Helgeson, Susanne; Svenska former, p.56-67; Prisma förlag; Stockholm 2000 After graduating at Konstfack in 1989, Bergström started working as a freelance designer. She got her breakthrough in 1992 with the textile collection ''X-tra, O-lik och I-hop'' for textile manufacturer Ljungbergs, which was awarded

Excellent Swedish Design Excellent Swedish Design (Utmärkt Svensk Form) was a design award handed out by the Swedish Society of Crafts and Design ( Svensk Form) 1983-2002 In the early 1980s, the opportunities for designers in Sweden were scarce. Few companies had reali ...

. The success continued with an exhibition at the Swedish Pavilion at the

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

World Exhibition A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition or an expo, is a large international exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specif ...

. The next year she was awarded Excellent Swedish Design once again for the collection "Ume, Lule, Pite"; a development of her graduation project at Konstfack. In 1994, Bergström got employed by Swedish crystal manufacturer

Orrefors Orrefors () is a locality situated in southern Sweden and part of Nybro Municipality, Kalmar County, with 719 inhabitants in 2010. The township belongs to Hälleberga parish and is primarily famous for its glassworks with the same name. Orrefors i ...

, and she has been a member of their staff ever since then. For Orrefors, Bergström designed several prize-winning products such as the Havanna and Drop collections, the crystal vase Squeeze in 1997, the votive Puck in 1999. Besides her career as a glass designer, Bergström has also continued working with textiles, for companies such as Ljungbergs textiltryck, Designer's Eye,

SAAB Saab or SAAB may refer to: Brands and enterprises * Saab Group, a Swedish aerospace and defence company, formerly known as SAAB, and later as Saab AB ** Datasaab, a former computer company, started as spin off from Saab AB * Saab Automobile, a fo ...

, and Design House Stockholm. Lena Bergström is represented at the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, The

Röhsska Museum The Röhsska Museum ( sv, Röhsska museet, earlier named ''Röhsska konstslöjdsmuseet'', also known as Design Museum), is located in Gothenburg, Sweden. It is a museum focused on design, fashion and applied arts. The museum collection consists ...

of Fashion, Design and Decorative Arts in Gothenburg, the

Cleveland Museum of Art The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, located in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on the city's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, and the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

in London.

Style

Bergström’s textile work is distinguished by its graphic qualities, while her glass and crystal designs are often soft and organic. In her own words, she likes ''soft glass, and hard textiles''. She also appreciates mistakes in the process; the vase ''Squeeze'' is a result of an accident that occurred in the glassworks while losing concentration at work – the result was a deformed, waving vase, that was awarded

Awards

Bergström has received numerous awards, including 12

;

ELLE ''Elle'' (stylized ''ELLE'') is a worldwide women's magazine of French origin that offers a mix of fashion and beauty content, together with culture, society and lifestyle. The title means "she" or "her" in French. ''Elle'' is considered the w ...

Decoration Design Award, UK 2002; Swedish ELLE Interiör Design Award 2003 & 2006. She was shortlisted for the

Bombay Sapphire Bombay Sapphire is a brand of gin that is distilled by the Bombay Spirits Company, a subsidiary company of Bacardi, at Laverstoke Mill in the village of Laverstoke in the English county of Hampshire. The brand was first launched in 1986 by Engl ...

Prize both in 2002 and 2005.

References

External links

*
Lena Bergström at Design House Stockholm’s website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bergstrom, Lena 1961 births Swedish designers Konstfack alumni Living people