When Norwegian designers Torbjørn Anderssen and Kristine Five Melvær were planning their wedding, they decided to make a vase together that symbolizes coupledom.
Torbjørn Anderssen and Kristine Five Melvær usually keep their professional lives separate. Yet both are accomplished designers in Oslo. He’s one half of Anderssen & Voll (with Espen Voll), which has designed everything from bar stools for Italian manufacturer Magis and pepper grinders for Wrong for Hay to an indoor gardening collection for Toronto design retailer Mjölk. Melvær won an award at ICFF in May for her Mikkel and Naturpledd blankets for Røros Tweed, which, just like the vases and lighting in her impressive collection, are bursting with colour.
While the two were planning their wedding, which took place this month, they also decided to craft some of the tableware together. The Oui vase is a blown-glass vessel, created with the help of Magnor Glassverk, with a pinched top that creates two separate yet united openings. The idea is that each partner in a couple can fill their side to their liking. (Some ingredients the designers favour are a peony stolen from a neighbour’s garden, and an artichoke with some pine branches.) “Every vase is stamped into shape, and then the top section is cut, pinched and shaped by hand to make each vase into a unique piece,” the designers explain in their press release.
