In 2024, world-renowned designer and artist Turi Gramstad Oliver was (finally) honored with both the Stavanger Cultural Award and the Rogaland Culture Prize of the Year. Best known for her pioneering work as a designer at Figgjo, Oliver was also the subject of an eponymous book published in 2023. While working on the book, designer Goedele Teirlinck spoke at length with Oliver about her artistic process, personal life, and experiences as a woman working in the Norwegian design field during the 1960s and 70s.
I see that you already have several copies of the Turi book here on the coffee table. Maybe we should flip through it together? We could talk a little about one particular chapter—the Figgjo chapter—about the time you worked at Figgjo Fajanse and decorated tableware. You became world-famous for your work. People all over the world collect tableware with your designs. It seems like you’re only becoming more and more popular! I’ve even started collecting tableware with your signature Turi-design.
Yes, that chapter is definitely relevant! Most of the houses in this area have Figgjo pieces with my drawings. A few years ago, I had an exhibition at Vitenfabrikken featuring my work from my time at Figgjo. I met someone there who said, "My grandmother had a bowl like that… in the chicken yard!"
Yes, you’re everywhere! Maybe they kept eggs in that bowl! I think your work from your time at Figgjo has been inspiring to many. In the book, author and art historian Torunn Larsen mentions something about the expectations you had when you transitioned from studying to working at Figgjo.
I was trained as a ceramicist and thought I would be designing entire tableware sets. I wasn’t aware that you become specialized when you enter the "industry." I realized that quite quickly—they already had designers there. Ragnar Grimsrud was employed at Figgjo; for a long time he was the leading designer in Norway, so there was no point in competing with him. Being a designer is also more physically demanding—you work with plaster and iron, large casting molds. They noticed that I had done a lot of drawing and that I had been in Oslo, where I stayed with Kari Nyquist. She and I were good friends, and she gave me advice. She also worked occasionally as a decorator at Stavanger Flint.
Were there many women working at Figgjo at that time?
Yes. It was a women’s industry. As I mentioned, the heavy physical work was done by men, but there were many women. Despite this, the decorative design department was small—there were only two of us designing all the decorations when I worked there.
What did a workday look like?
The designer would usually have created a new tableware set and asked if I could decorate it. I would draw several proposals, and then we made silk screens of my drawings for the molds. The molds were then used as samples. Finally, those who were considered to have "great importance" would review the proposals.
"The ones who had great importance"? Now I’m curious...
It was the salesmen who decided what was sellable. No one asked me, "What do you think, Turi?" The salesmen and the director decided what people should buy for the kitchen, even though it was women who bought the dinnerware.
That may have changed a bit in recent times; I think there are more men buying dinnerware today. But did you have the whole series of illustrations ready, which you presented to the salespeople? I’m thinking of dinnerware series like Lotte, one of your first dinnerware collections, which became world-famous!
As I said, the salesmen first got to see some samples, and then they decided what they would take out into the world. When they returned to us, they would tell us whether it had sold well or not. If something sold well, like Lotte, I would expand the line with new patterns, and it grew along the way. But it was difficult at times for me. I never received compliments, even though I did a good job and things sold well. The salesmen didn’t understand what I was doing. They were uncertain and never dared to take any chances. For them, it was most important that what we designed looked like something they had seen somewhere before, when they were traveling or in an industry magazine.
Do you mean that they brought things from abroad that they wanted you to copy or be inspired by?
Yes, boring industry magazines! I can tell you about the one time in my entire career at Figgjo when I was allowed to go on a study trip to London. When I came back, the director asked, "So, Turi, what did you see in London?" I told him that I had visited the Victoria and Albert Museum. "What! That’s not what you were supposed to do! You were supposed to look at dinnerware!" I’ll never forget that. I couldn’t always accept the way they spoke to me!
That must have been difficult for you! Today, it’s standard practice that designers find their own inspiration, and aren’t just forced to imitate things!
Back then, you were perhaps just grateful if you were allowed to draw... But I became stronger over time and learned to say, "No, listen here!" It takes some courage! There’s probably more of that now than there was before.
But you’ve managed to work well under a lot of pressure. How did you balance work and family?
It was never a problem. I was married to an Englishman who worked at the university and was very proud of me. When he came to Sandnes on his first visit, he moved here and never wanted to go back. His parents thought it was strange, especially the father, who thought Norway was a developing country. His father came to visit and was shocked when he saw that we didn’t have the same pub culture he was used to from Newcastle. Brian and I had two sons. I worked from home sometimes when they were little. One of my son's in-laws was once invited to a home in Japan while he was traveling, and they had set the table with Turi-design tableware.
In working on the book, I feel that many stories like that have come up. We’ve included, among others, Canadian Kim, who has a Turi tattoo on one of her upper arms. Author Torunn Larsen says that she collected your items in Trondheim before she moved to Stavanger. She writes that she was "starstruck" when she first met you! Is that something you experience often?
Hehe. Sometimes people tell me that they collect my things.
But it’s sad to hear that none of the men you worked with ever gave you any compliments! I can understand why you quit. The posters you’ve made are lovely, and all the textiles and paper works from after Figgjo. I see the same line in the posters that you used for the dinnerware. I especially like the invitations you made for your private parties!
It’s really nice to see everything collected in the book here; there’s so much that I thought was gone. I’m surprised myself. What an exciting life I’ve had!
It’s also nice to see the early drawings from your childhood and teenage years.
From the time before I became famous! Haha!
You made collages with pictures and drawings. Look at the cat Lovise here!
That drawing is from the art and crafts school in Bergen.
And these here. The girl looks like an earlier and younger version of Lotte, perhaps?
Yes, that one is an early drawing, inspired by Kari Nyquist. Both Kari and I were inspired by the artist from Copenhagen Bjørn Wiinblad.
But you took it a step further and created your own stories that resemble comic strips. That must be inspiring for comic book artists today.
This guy, the man in the Lotte series, who was part of the Lotte dinnerware, they called him Samuel in America. Then the characters were named Lottie and Samuel, and the story was that he “lived among the mountains and the fjords.” He had to have a name too!
Then he really got a life of his own after you put him out into the world. You’ve created many children!
Yes, very many...
Do you think you could have created even more exciting things at Figgjo if you had been allowed to?
I think so.
Do you still draw?
I never stop drawing! I recently read a book about Louise Bourgeois. I’m traveling to Oslo in a few days to see a big exhibition of her art at the National Museum. My latest drawings are inspired by Louise Bourgeois.
You know, we included those drawings in the book...
Yes, that was a big surprise! You’ve included a lot!
Some of the Figgjo items in the book are photographed from my own collection. This one, Elvira, I have on the shelf in my office.
Elvira was my last pattern at Figgjo. That jug is both printed and hand-painted. You can see by the brushstrokes that it is hand-painted. When I showed the director my samples, he said, "No, we can’t take this out to Europe! No one will buy it!" I begged on my knees. Eventually, the director told the salesmen, "Can you take it with you and see if you can sell it?" Do you know what they replied to the director?
No...
"We’ll do it for your sake!"
But was it sold?
Yes, the Elvira dinnerware ended up being the best-seller of the whole trip.
Simon A. Kjær is an editor, art director and designer at SAK design and trykkSAK forlag. SAK design has curated a traveling exhibition about Turi design, on view at Grafills Hus in Oslo from February 27 – March 30, 2025, and will be presented at Holmeegenes MUST in the summer of 2025. trykkSAK forlag published the book TURI in 2023 together with art historian Torunn Larsen. The publication contains hundreds of images from the artist's own archive.
This interview was originally published in Norwegian by grafill.
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