TEA POT

SIGNE PERSSON-MELIN｜1925–2022｜SWEDEN

Signe Persson-Melin was one of Sweden’s leading ceramic artists and designers.

In 1944, she began studying ceramics at Tekniska skolan in Stockholm (now Konstfack), but soon took leave in search of a more direct engagement with clay, and in 1946 continued her studies at the Kunsthåndværkerskolen in Copenhagen. In 1947, she trained at Saxbo under Natalie Krebs, and in 1948 traveled to England, where she visited Lucie Rie and Bernard Leach’s studio in St Ives.

After graduating from Tekniska skolan in 1949, she established her own studio in Malmö, and in 1951 strengthened her workshop by bringing in the Danish thrower Ernst Christensen. In 1953, she held her first exhibition at Galerie Moderne in Stockholm together with the textile designer Ingrid Dessau. The exhibition was highly acclaimed and proved to be an important turning point for both artists.

In 1952, she took part in a craft exhibition at the Röhsska Museum in Gothenburg, where her work was highly praised by Kurt Ekholm, who had previously served as a director at Arabia and was then active in Gothenburg.

In 1955, she married the art director John Melin. The same year, she participated in the H55 exhibition in Helsingborg, one of the key exhibitions in the history of Nordic modern design. Her spice jars, combining cork lids, impressed lettering, and surfaces that retained traces of handwork, attracted considerable attention.

In the late 1950s, she also undertook commissions for public spaces, including ceramic walls and decorative works for the swimming facilities in Malmö in collaboration with the artist and designer Anders Österlin, a close associate of John Melin, and for Folkets hus together with the artist Anders Bruno Liljefors, who was also active at Gustavsberg.

After closing her studio in 1966, she continued as a freelance designer. Following her design of the glass series Ruben in 1967, she began working with Boda on glass products. In 1971, she joined the development of Boda’s new brand, Boda Nova, from its conceptual stage onward, together with John Melin. Through products in heat-resistant glass and stoneware, they proposed a new approach to the table suited to contemporary life. She later designed many products for major Swedish manufacturers including Rörstrand, Höganäs Keramik, Gustavsberg, Design House Stockholm, and Svenskt Tenn.

Working across ceramics, glass, cork, stainless steel, aluminum, and other materials, she moved freely between craft and industrial design. In her ceramics especially, certain elements recur from her early work to her later products and pieces: glazes applied in ways that preserve the character of the clay, surface treatments using impressed lettering and relief, and the interplay between rounded and angular forms.

In 1986, she became the first professor in Sweden in the ceramics and glass department at Konstfack. In 1999, she returned her base of work to her hometown of Malmö, where she remained active into her later years.

Her many honors include the Lunning Prize in 1958, the Gregor Paulsson Prize in 1973, and the Prince Eugen Medal in 2001.