"No, Watson, this was not done by accident, but by design." ~ Sherlock Holmes

The last few days have been the days of the designers... They are EVERYWHERE! 

Almost all of the designers for Kosta Boda/Orrefors came to the factory on Thursday for a sort of workshop to see what could be made in Orrefors.  What the machines do, how the factory is set up and etc.  The cool thing was that all of the designers (many of which are trained glass blowers) were wandering around the factory along with Team 12 (the group of blowers from Kosta who work on the art glass stuff) and the Orrefors masters!  Lots of people and lots of activity :)

Designers talking to the Orrefors masters:

 Kosta masters and Goran Warff:

 Designers looking at the centrifuged glass.

 and a big ole mix of Orrefors and Kosta! 

 This is Göran Wärff who is one of my designer favorites. 

 And my other favorite is Ingegerd Råmen... and she signed MY BOOK!!!

 Vegard and I talked to her for a minute and said how much we like her work and she seemed genuinely pleased to hear it.  She liked that her work could be enjoyed across the generations, which is what is so nice about her sort of timeless pieces!  

Papa arrived on Friday!!! Very exciting!  We walked around, ate pastries... and he went to bed early.  Saturday we wandered around Orrefors, looked at the factory, the town, the hotel and finally went to the Krystall Shop! While there they had crystal on sale for 50 (yes, FIFTY) percent off!!! So, I got this huge vase and had it shipped to America... I also got some books! One on Orrefors, even in English, because I need more books...

 On Sunday we went to Kalmar to visit the castle and see the city.  The last of the leaves are changing here and dropping fast in golden piles all over the place... so pretty and surreal.

 It was the first time I have actually been INSIDE the castle!  There was some beautiful paintings and really amazing wood inlay:

 How could they do this in 1500-something?

 Every wooden surface in some of the rooms were covered in inlay... so amazing!

 And here is the table all set for dinner.

 Papa goes "do you think if I sit in that chair and you take a picture we will get in trouble?" where the place setting clearly says King somebody or other.  Haha.

 More inlay, weird relief paintings and the King's hidden, personal toilet were in this room.

 The chapel with a painted ceiling.

 With some very fancy chandeliers:

Also, funnily enough, the mistress's chamber was a tiny, hidden room just off the main reception area for the king... such a cliche and funny at the same time!

 It was a nice day to be inside the castle... it was so foggy you can't even see Kalmar behind the castle!

 Here is looking across the moat back at the graveyard and the street.

 In the graveyard the leaves hadn't been disturbed and it looked really amazing.

 Then we went to Öland to the VIDA museum.

 It has works from Ulrica Hydman Vallien who does everything from fabric to ceramics to glass design.

 And some super modern paintings, I don't know who they are by but they are huge! That is Papa standing in the background.

 I have mixed feelings on the super modern paintings... they are just blocks of colors and dots or lines, but they are also kind of cool... but I am not going to have one in my house...

 And the most exciting of it all was the Bertil Vallien exhibit!

 He is famous for doing sand casting with glass which inspired us to try it this week too!

 Really amazing things and a cool display of his full range of stuff from beginning glass design to the current things he is doing like the boats or these faces.

So, in general the past few days are full of being surrounded by designers, looking at their stuff and reading tons of books and talking glass with Papa none stop! I have full plans to completely overload him with glass and by the time he goes home he is ready for a relief from all the glass! I think it will take some work...

Tomorrow is our first day of school! Wish us luck :)