Helena Lehtinen (born 1952) is a
Finnish contemporary jeweller and teacher.
Lehtinen was born in
Lahti
Lahti (; ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Päijät-Häme. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Lahti is approximately , while the Lahti sub-region, sub-region has a population of approximately . It is the mo ...
and spent her childhood in
Nastola
Nastola is a former municipality of Finland. It was merged with the city of Lahti on 1 January 2016.
In the province of Southern Finland, Nastola is part of the Päijät-Häme region. The municipality had a population of (30 June 2015) and cover ...
, Finland. After studying silversmithing in Lahti University of Applied Science from 1973 to 1977 she travelled to Norway and Germany where she became familiar with works of the Swiss jeweller
Otto Kûnzli which made profound impact on her later choices.
Together with Tarja Tuupanen and Eija Mustonen she formed Hibernate group in 1999. In 2000 she graduated with the designer degree from Lahti Polytechnic. She was teaching in
Konstfack
Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design, is a university college for higher education in the area of art, crafts and design in Stockholm, Sweden.
History
Konstfack has had several different names since it was founded in 1844 by the eth ...
, Stockholm as a senior lecturer from 2004 to 2006 and facilitated courses at the South Carelia Polytechnics, Lappeenranta and at the Goldsmith School, Lahti. In 2013 she received an international Herbert Hoffman Prize an
Finnish Jewellery Art Associationawarded her Jewellery Artist of the Year in 2015.
Helena Lehtinen was exhibiting extensively all her live and her work is in public collections of
Design Museum Helsinki, Danner Foundation, Munich (on permanent loan to Die Neue Sammlung - The International Design Museum, Munich, Germany) and Gallery Marzee in the Netherlands.
Her jewellery is being described as diverse and surprising. “In her oeuvre we find traces of Minimalism, although her works are never simpler cold. (…) Lehtinen’s oeuvre is characterised by her pieces, but never boring, compositions which we are able to witness in her series.”
[direct quote from the book ''From the Coolest Corner – Nordic Jewellery''] She gets her inspiration from small everyday objects and works with wood, metals and recyclable materials.
She considers jewellery to be an art piece that can be interpreted and given meaning by the owner. Lehtinen also believes that media play an important role in promoting design, and jewellery design in particular, amongst general public.
References
Sources
Helena LehtinenArchived copy
* ''From the Coolest Corner – Nordic Jewellery, editor'' Widar Halén, p. 92
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lehtinen, Helena
Finnish designers
1952 births
Living people
Women jewellers