DesignerFinnish
Heikki Orvola
3 active items
Heikki Orvola was born on 29 November 1943 in Helsinki and trained in ceramics at what is now Aalto University between 1963 and 1968. That ceramic foundation would prove formative, even as his career came to center on glass. When he joined the Nuutajärvi glassworks in 1968, he brought an understanding of volume, weight, and material honesty that gave his glass objects an unusual solidity and warmth.
His first major glass project came in 1972 with the Aurora series for Iittala, a set of drinking glasses notable for their refined proportions and subtle luminosity. The series demonstrated that Orvola was not interested in glass purely as a vehicle for decoration or visual spectacle, but as a medium capable of quiet, lasting presence on a table. It remains one of his most collected works, with complete sets still appearing regularly in Nordic auction rooms decades later.
Orvola's practice has never been confined to a single material or manufacturer. During the 1970s and early 1980s he worked across ceramics, and collaborated with textile and fashion house Marimekko on fabric designs. With Japanese-Finnish designer Fujiwo Ishimoto, he developed the Illusia tableware line for Arabia. He has also produced objects in cast iron and enamel, and his 24h dishware series for Arabia, designed in 1996, received the Design Plus Award at the Ambiente International Fair in Frankfurt.
The work for which he is most widely known outside specialist circles is the Kivi candleholder, designed in 1987 and still in continuous production at Iittala. The name means "stone" in Finnish, and the form earns it, thick-walled, heavy, available in dense jewel-like colours that pool light inside them when a tealight burns within. Manufactured originally at Nuutajärvi and transferred to the Iittala factory in 1995, the Kivi is one of the most commercially successful objects in Finnish design history, and one of the few twentieth-century pieces to have entered everyday households across multiple generations without losing its identity.
In 1998 he designed the Verna goblet and the Palazzo glasses for Iittala. The same year, he received the Kaj Franck Design Prize, one of the two most significant design honours in Finland. He was awarded the Order of the Lion of Finland in 1984 and received the title of Professor in 2002.
At auction, glass dominates Orvola's market presence. Of approximately 70 items in the Auctionist database, over 50 are glass objects. The Aurora series has reached 1,700 EUR for a set of 25 glasses, and a group of 12 Aurora champagne flutes sold for 1,200 SEK. Kivi candleholders appear regularly, with a set of 4+4 pieces achieving 1,647 SEK. Active houses include Formstad Auktioner, Hagelstam and Co, and Helsingborgs Auktionskammare.