Silver and Gold artist

Olle Ohlsson is a designer who neither takes "usability" into account nor adjusts his designs to rational rules. His work in silver and gold often shows that playfulness is in evidence. A look through Olle Ohlsson's many fantastic objects shows, however, that he nearly always uses the raised vessels design as his base. Already in the 1960s he discovered that turning a bowl upside down results in a head. The same simple principle applies to most of the hats. They are bowls that have been endowed with a special kind of life.

Looking at Olle Ohlsson's art, ranging as it does from unconscious extravagance to everyday simplicity, it strikes me that he is really looking for the object's innate mysteriousness. The material transforms things into something else than what they appear to be when Olle plays with proportions and meanings and provides the careful observer with constant surprises. Often with enigmatic undertones that invite different interpretations.

"There is no book of rules for a creative silversmith", says Olle. "One must give oneself time to listen to what the silver wants, how it replies to the hammer's language. As for myself, I am never so much at ease as when I have silver under my hands. There is something mysterious about that".

(Excerpt from the book "Silver & Gold", 1991)