ArtistSwedish
Siv Lagerström
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Few objects capture the spirit of early-1970s Sweden quite like Siv Lagerström's acrylic rings: bold geometric forms in saturated color, produced from an industrial material that cost almost nothing yet demanded to be worn and noticed. Lagerström studied at Konstfack in Stockholm's metalwork department from 1963 to 1967, graduating into a design culture that was beginning to question whether expensive materials were a prerequisite for meaningful objects.
The rings emerged from an unlikely collaboration. Through her Konstfack classmate Ingegerd Råman - later one of Sweden's most admired glass and ceramic designers - Lagerström connected with the lifestyle magazine Idun, which featured her work and sold the pieces by mail order. Production was handled at Gravyrverken in Sollentuna, a modest industrial facility that became the unlikely origin point for pieces that would eventually reach museum collections. The rings were marked simply "Siv," a first-name signature that communicated directness rather than pedigree.
The design philosophy was deliberately democratic. At a moment when Swedish society was actively debating equality, Lagerström used acrylic plastic - then a thoroughly modern, low-cost material associated with the Space Age - to argue that expression mattered more than cost. The pieces were compared favorably to Pierre Cardin's futuristic fashion of the same period, sharing that era's conviction that the future could be designed into everyday objects. Brigitte Bardot is said to have owned one of her rings, though Lagerström's primary audience was always broader than celebrity culture.
In 1973, her work appeared in the exhibition "Ädlare än du tror" (More Noble Than You Think), a survey of jewelry and decorative objects in plastic held in Malmö that helped legitimize non-precious materials within the Scandinavian design establishment. Despite the rings' international success, economic pressures and a lack of sustained domestic support brought her business to a close by the mid-1970s. The brevity of the productive period only increased the objects' collectibility in later decades.
Both Nationalmuseum and Nordiska Museet in Stockholm hold Lagerström's rings in their permanent collections, a form of institutional recognition that arrived long after the commercial moment had passed. On the Nordic auction market today, her work appears primarily at Bukowskis Stockholm, which has handled the majority of pieces in circulation. The 17 items recorded in the Auctionist database are almost entirely rings from the 1970s, with the top auction result standing at 900 SEK - modest prices reflecting a market for design objects rather than fine art, with considerable room for revaluation as the Swedish design revival of that era attracts fresh attention.