METALL the Exhibit
The work of Åke Gustafsson featured in the METALL. Photo courtesy of Eckerö Post & Tullhus.
by Hannah O’Connell
Every year the museum Eckerö Post & Tullhus presents exhibits featuring local artists and craftsmen. This year’s exhibit METALL, showcases twenty-two metal workers and goldsmiths. Three of the craftsmen and the exhibit curator Julia Nyman spoke to the Swedish Finn Historical Society to tell us about their work, how life on Åland inspires them, and why the people of Åland are so creative. METALL takes inspiration from the book 25 Years of the Åland Home Crafts Association published in 1954, which says “tools and other objects had always been forged locally on farms’ own forges.” Julia Nyman, curator of the exhibit, speculated that there are so many craftsmen in Åland because people had to make their own tools for much longer.
22
Maria Karlström, head goldsmith and director of the jewelry company GULDVIVA, is the great granddaughter of Teodor Karlström, who in 1902 emigrated to Portland, Oregon, where he settled in a Scandinavian community and built a Sears catalog home. By the time he left Portland in 1912, his American home had electrical lighting. Back home in Åland he became a member of the first Åland Parliament. “[Teodor] tried to introduce modern American building methods to no success, he was a bit ahead of his time. No one really got into it.” Maria explained. “The village where he resided was electric in 1954. It was probably a very different world from the modern Portland that he had left.” Helsingfors and Norway trained goldsmith, Titti Sundblom, has owned her own workshop since
