Sarpaneva Cast Iron Casserole

Designer: Timo Sarpaneva

(1926 - 2006) Professor Timo Sarpaneva was one of Finland's most well-known industrial designers and artists, renowned for his textile and glass products. Versatile in his work as a designer and artist, he made use of ceramics, metal, textiles, wood and glass in his projects — though glass was certainly his favorite. The material immateriality of glass became a life-long obsession; glass as a form revealed by what it contains, glass as a fleeting substance between idea and reality.

"Glass is the finest of all materials, the way it can be worked, the way it achieves its form is unique among materials. It metamorphoses from a viscous mass to clear crystalline objects. It is capricious and difficult; it is a material which lives many lives."

Timo Sarpaneva was Doctor HC of the Royal College of Art in London and the University of Art and Design in Helsinki and Academician HC of the University of Mexico. His work can be found in museums around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York.