INGRID ATTERBERG. Vase, unique piece, Upsala-Ekeby.

Glazed earthenware. Height 22 cm.

Background: The designer at Upsala-Ekeby who was closest to the clay, the material itself, was Ingrid Atterberg (1920-2008). As a trained ceramicist, she experimented from the very beginning with clays, glazes, and techniques. For example, she revived black clay, a mixture of red clay and manganese oxide, and made it an effective element in many art pottery series, not just her own; she also developed a series, Sintergods, which succeeded in producing stoneware effects from the Uppland clay; she also devised a way to utilize the effects of chamotte clay without having to throw it on a wheel.

However, Ingrid Atterberg would not have occupied her place as one of the greats in Swedish ceramics if she had not managed to combine her feeling for the clay with a stylish modernist compass. This was particularly evident during the 1950s, with series such as Pepita, Domino, Pylon, Kort serie, Tricorn, Chamotte, Spira, and others. She left the factory in 1964 for other design assignments. By then, she had been there for 20 years. Eventually, she resumed ceramics in her own studio in Uppsala, where the diligent experimentation with clay and glazes continued, but with a radically different body as a result.