Arne and Tulla Ranslet
Dear parents who celebrate their 60 years wedding day today the 2 of August 2015.
True to the Danish tradition they were woken up early this morning
with strong ringing on the front doors bell. Outside waited the family with
singing and flags. The parents were captured on the bed so to say,
standing in their pyjamas under the the portal of Honor.
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| Tulla and Arne Ranslet celebrate 60 years of marriage today the 2 of august 2015 |
To those who want to congratulate
please send an Email to
ranslet@gmail.com
My parents meat each other in 1951 on the Academy of Art in Copenhagen.
My father Arne Ranslet had been employed as leader of the new ceramic workshop
on the Academy in Copenhagen.
Tulla, my mother who had studied on Isaak Grünewalds School in Stockholm and later on The Academy of Art in Oslo
just came home from 1,5 years on Art Student league in New York and the Art Institute in Chicago.
She had passed Copenhagen Academy on her way to Fernand Leger's Art school in Paris ,'
where she had been accepted as student.
She traveled with another Norwegian artist,
who wanted to meet a friend at Copenhagen's Academy before they should continued on their trip.
It took longer time than planned and my mother enrolled as a student
on the graphics and painting section
Tulla Blomberg Ranslet
One day she saw a beautiful bowl on Illums Bolighus in Copenhagen
,but it was very expensive ,but she thought , I can make a similar one by myself!
She went down to to the Ceramic workshop in the basement of the Academy and meat Arne
who taught the students how to make pottery.
It became a deep friendship that turned into the love and respect in
a 64 year long partnership.
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Tulla and Arne Ranslet
On their way to the Queens Royal Ship
Invited by the Danish Court |
They moved after their ended studies to the island Bornholm in 1954
together with other artists friends from
the Academy.The houses were cheaper on Bornholm
and the Island produced an excellent stoneware clay.
Their first workshop was opened in Teglkaas,
a little fisherman village on the north side of the island
between Hasle and Allinge.
Arne build and rebuild the house they bought and made his own big ceramic kilns.
Their workshop soon was known in Scandinavia ,
in northern Europe and the fame went on to Italy and America.
I remember as a child how many people we always were around the table.
It was very seldom that only the family dined alone .
My parents took practitioners from the rest of Denmark Norway, Sweden and Italy
even from Japan, who lived learned and worked with my parents.
And the house was always full of foreign Journalists, Writers, Musicians,
Architects and other Artists who also came visiting.
There were always an inspiring life in our home with
Music, Filming, discussions and big parties.
The languages mixed and we kids grew up with Danish Dutch German Italian Spanish, Norwegian,Swedish, English words sounding from every room.
It was a very progressive workshop everyone learned from my father to experiment
and every material was used and tried out .
In the summertime when the Island had many concerts the musicians stayed with us.
The grand piano was used ,Violins ,Harps, Bass and Cellos
were put up instead of Chairs and Tables.
The German Journalist and Author Emanuel Eckardt wrote and illustrated a book
inspired by the friendship and many cozy evenings with the Ranslets on Bukkegaard.
Emanuel Eckardt
A little about their work.
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| Photographer Carl Meier. Arne Ranslet at work |
Arne Ranslet was honored with a first price for his glazes in Faenza .
His bold and expressionistic Ceramics were unseen .
Danish Ceramics had a tradition of being very tidy and traditional and here Arne made fun of everything . Didn't care if things were beautiful or symmetrical or even straight.
He added humor and was brave, didn't give a damn about tradition!
And this gave the art interested audience
for the first time in all their years of serious collecting, some fun.
They could laugh from his sculptures and impossible pots.
They made you look an extra time and they gave good mood .
If you look at the animal underneath born with such an impossible figure,
there is something enormously funny and tragic about it!
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Arne Ranslet
Animal |
The collectors traveled from fare to have the first choice when the
big kilns were opened. It had to be opened slowly, the glazes were singing when they cooled.
The collectors stood on their toes and
pointed eagerly on bowls and sculptures, they could see trough the tiny opening.
They literally fought over his ceramic.
"I saw it first", was the sentence mostly heard in the Workshop.
The things were turned and admired, still so hot that they had to be handled
with my mothers thick baking gloves.
It went so quickly, my parents didn't even have time,
to take photos of all the funny, ugly or beautiful things,
before they were on their way to collections all over Europe and America.
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Carl Meier's photo of Arne Ranslet
Emptying the now cooled oven with the few things,
that were left after a day with many clients.
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On top of the kiln sits tiny figures of men and women.
This were the "Kiln Gods". My father never forgot to make a pair
they were the last things he put into the Kiln before it was closed for burning.
This tradition my father had picked up from China.
A burning could go so very wrong ,therefor the little couple inside would protect and give good luck !
We always discuss in the family, there must have been thousands of those small Oven Gods,
what happened to them?
Oh they are still here my father insures. And they still give good luck.
I have tried to find some of my fathers beautiful old things
,but they are never put out fore sale.
Even 50-60 years after they were produced,
they still have so much power that people admire and love them.
It was a very a busy time with exhibitions on Museums in Sweden, Germany and Norway.
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Arne Ranslet
Big bowl in Stoneware |
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Arne Ranslet This bowl has the Oxblood glaze, that my father after much experiments manage to create.
This glaze was known in China but the secret was kept for hundreds of years! |
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Arne Ranslet
Porcelain Oxblood glazed vase.
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Arne Ranslet
Porcelain bowl with oxblood glaze. |
My father had studied chemistry in his younger years,
in order to better understand the materials he was working with.
And how different minerals reacted with each other at higher temperatures,
than normally was used for Ceramics.
He used the blue stoneware clay from Bornholm,
and mixed it with Chamotte (crossed burned Clay).
This made the clay stronger and he could make very big things.
He then burned his stone-goods at 1400 Degrees Celsius.
He reinvented the Chinese secret glaze called Oxblood.
And as the only artist in Europe started working with porcelain ,
something that was only used by ceramic factories ,
where they cast their pots in fluent porcelain clay.
Arne Ranslet experimented with glazes made from the local Granite
and other stones which he crossed into dust in his "Kuglemølle".
A huge grinder he designed to make glazes in.
We children were sent down to the coast in order to find round Flintstones
which were the best grinding stones.
In the early 50ties my mother
Tulla Blomberg Ranslet made graphic prints and painted big portraits of neighbors
in a beautiful harmony of broken colors ,
very similar to the English artist group of Camden.
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Tulla (Bella) Blomberg Ranslet
The Patience |
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Tulla Blomberg Ranslet
Self portrait with the children Pia and Paul |
She also made ceramics and made porcelain jewelry.
In the early 60 ties my mother took up weaving and made beautiful textiles ,
that she used as separating room dividers
between their exhibited Ceramics on the Museums in Sweden where the couple exhibited.
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Tulla Blomberg Ranslet
Textile in tared yarn. |
The beautiful textiles made from Hamp ,Flax and tared yarns with interesting textures and patterns ,the different materials made a wonderful smell in the room!
She hanged them from the ceiling and broke
the rooms heavy proportion into several more harmonious angels and rooms.
The Textiles were woven very spaciously ,
their transparency split the view up in many layers .
This way the smaller things also could be enjoyed
and would not disappear in those huge airy dimensions.
Her early textile production started the
Room Art that later on, was copied by lots of weavers and other artists.
Who now hanged their paintings and textiles down from the roof and not only on the walls!
Few of her textiles still exist.
My parents were contacted by the Swedish photographer Carl Meier. With whom they started to exhibit. His huge black photostats of my parents gave broad sided views into their Art and life.
In the early 60 ties my mother Tulla started making her big wall decorations.She called it Reliefs
In the beginning they only had the different burned clay colors. But with the time she added mat
glazes and the Wall decoration which no other artist had made similar , drew much attention.
There came a big demand and she worked hard to fill the requests from schools museums factories and even churches. Even with a full time job as Art teacher on the Islands Folk University, she managed a huge household with never less than 10-12 mouths to feed ,
her 3 children's upbringing and a very active artistic career.
It was always in the late evenings she sat up and modeled her huge reliefs!
To me, back then, it seemed like she never slept!
When she eventually went to bed it was always with a book.
My mother reads one whole book every day and has done it all her life.
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Tulla Blomberg Ranslet
The garden of Eden
A theme that she would variate in several ways during the next 20 years |
In the late 1980 ties Tulla started painting again.
Huge pictures of our pets and animals, of the neighbor farmers and fishermen
Arne and Tulla had bought the big farm Bukkegard a bit further towards the north.
And there was space enough for 3 bigger workshop.
Also Arne who had worked in a more sculptural way went up in size.
He too make wall decoration of huge insects and fish ,or of
the Sea anemone or Octopuses.
He made many variations over the theme of Jonas in the whale.
The biggest which weight several tons, is shown underneath.
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Arne Ranslet
Jonas i Hvalfisken |
Arne Ranslet found that the clay was not so practical for outdoor temperatures.
Therefor he made up his mind from now on, he would made his sculptures in bronze.
And of cause he wanted to do it by himself.
After a brief course on the Academy of Art in Copenhagen, he set up his own Bronze workshop.
And already short time after did he manage the new discipline.
From then on he stopped the pottery production.
His huge sculptures are today found on many German and Danish squares.
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Arne Ranslet The golden goose
Winsen Germany
The Economic situation became better Tulla and Arne could now materialize their
50 year old dream of living in the south of Europe.
During my childhood we traveled many times to Italy,
but it was in Spain they finally settled.
Up in the mountains next to the small town of Guadalest
between Alicante and Valencia they found
a perfect piece of land with 240 degrees view.
Here they constructed their house with two huge workshops
and a big swimming-pool between them.
It became very progressive years of working and exhibiting.
The warm temperature did them good. |
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Tulla Blomberg Ranslet
The Kidnapping
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Tulla painted again, this time huge paintings several meters broad.
Both made sculptures and they both started working with ceramics again.
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Tulla Blomberg Ranslet
The long March
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Tulla Blomberg Ranslet
The red horses |
The red horses were painted after the terrible accident
with medical pollution in Seveso 1976,
All our animals had been such a big part of our life on Bornholm
They were painted and modeled and missed by the whole family.
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| Tulla Blomberg Ranslet |
Their latest idea became a book and it was translated into many languages.
The 3 children with spouses and their 8 grandchildren
now spread in 3 corners of the world, fly in for holidays.
Between Almond- and Olive trees the Ranslet couple grow their Bornholm's potatoes with dill
next to Grapes, Passion fruits, Oranges and Nisperos.
Grilling is no problem all the year around.
And the newly washed clothes dries
within 20 minutes in the warm mountain air-
A dip in the pool to start the day is a must for the progressive artist couple.
I and my siblings Paul and Charlotte and our spouses and kids wish
Arne and Tulla Ranslet a long life, good health and
look forward to see what they will create next.
