THE MAKING OF
It takes a dedicated team of skilled artisans to produce each delicate, mouth-blown vase
Aalto’s design was challenging to make at the time, and the process is much the same as it would have been in his day. Each vase goes through a multi-step process that involves a team of craftsmen and takes over 16 hours to complete at Iittala’s lakeside factory in southern Finland. Molten glass is gathered from the furnace, then the glass artisans shape the lump using wooden blocks and mouth-blowing techniques, before ‘kneading’ the glass and setting it into the mould (the factory now uses a steel mould rather than a wooden one). Finally, each piece is polished and checked over by quality control before being signed off.