A little bit of Swedish history that relates to the USA

During the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century about 1.3 million Swedes emigrated to the USA. Main reasons being poverty, bad crops here in Sweden and just generally the American Dream of the Promised Land.

An excellent source to learn more about this is to read the novel suite The Emigrants by Swedish author Vilhelm Moberg, which he wrote between 1949 and 1959. (The Emigrants, Unto a Good Land, The Settlers, The Last Letter Home). These books are considered to be among the best pieces of Swedish literature. And I do recommend them strongly.

In the 1970's two films were made based on the book suite. The Emigrants and The New Land. These films I also highly recommend. They were shown on Swedish TV when I was a child, around 7 to 9 years old, and I still have very vivid memories from them. Max von Sydow and Liv Ullman plays the two leading roles.

In the 1990's the two former ABBA members Björn Ulveus and Benny Andersson did a musical based on the story, Kristina from Duvemåla. The music clip from YouTube is from a performance by the female lead singer Helene Sjöholm, singing the main theme, where she is doubting God's existance. I get goose pimps!

My grandmother's older brother Harald Lignell emigrated in the 1920's. And I know I have a whole family of relatives from his descendants living in the US today. My cousin Eva went there and saw them some 20-30 years ago. I remember her showing photos of the amazing house they lived in. As I remember it, it was a round house looking almost like a spaceship that had landed in the desert. There was a small group of these houses built as I remember it on the outskirts of Phoenix Arizona. I think I must contact her soon to get the facts right. It would be very much fun if anyone would happen to know what I am talking about though. Those houses are apparently famous. My maiden name was Nordstrom (or Nordstroem, depending on how you choose to spell it). And isn't there a big and nice ware house called Nordstrom's in Chicago and around that area. I don't know if the founder was a relative of mine, but I can always fantasize, can't I.

Hej då!

Vi ses snart igen!

Malin

Beads & Design classics from my childhood

The other day I ordered these beads from Blue Marble Beads on Etsy. I instantly fell in love with them when I saw them, and I could easily see different ways they could appear in my jewellery. But they did remind me of something I had seen before ...
This is a coffee cup we had in our household when I grew up. It is called Spisa Ribb and is designed by Stig Lindberg. It is consider a design classic in Sweden. I have always loved the design, and a long time before I knew it was considered special. My mum still have them in her house.

This made me think of some other Swedish design classics I grew up with. And suddenly I was very proud of my mum and dad who picked all these nice things over the years. Some of them are actually in my own house nowadays, and some of them still at my mum's.

Pernilla Chair by Bruno Mattson

Kobra Telephone produced by Ericsson (can't remember the name of the designer at the moment). We had a red one.

Salt, pepper and sugar produced by Gense. From one sheet of stainless steel folded to a cone. This design is magnificent! The salt and pepper are in my house today. I love them.

Glass table on birch-construction by Alvar Aalto.

Chair Lamino by Yngve Ekstrom with sheep wool. It is standing in our lounge now.

The glass table by Alvar Aalto I actually managed to sit down on right in front of my parents when I was about 12, and of course it crashed, and I sat there with glass bits all around me being more ashamed then ever.


I bought some more beads the other day. From Humble Beads these beauties - I am soooooo exsited for them to arrive

You can tell she really likes and is influenced by Vincent van Gogh in these ones above. And she only made 3 sets of them. I am soooo happy and lucky I managed to get my hands on one of the sets.