Nanna Ditzel

I started this blog September 6, 2010. Some of you have been readers since the beginning. Others have come on board later. From now through the end of the month, I'm going to be on a short blogging break. Not only am I in the middle of a big volunteer project, I'm also trying to help get the new store open, so I've decided share some of my favorite posts from the past four years. I'll throw in a few new photos for you longtime supporters who read the posts when they were first published.


(First posted 6/17/2011)

Nanna Ditzel (1923-2005) was born in Copenhagen. Originally trained as a cabinetmaker, she later studied at the School of Arts and Crafts and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, graduating with a degree in furniture design in 1946. In that same year, she established a design studio with her husband Jørgen Ditzel and worked with him until his untimely death in 1961.

Throughout her career, which spanned almost six decades, she experimented with new materials such as foam rubber, fiberglass and wicker. She worked in many disciplines, designing furniture, jewelry, tableware and textiles and continued to create furniture and jewelry up to the end of her life. Much is still in production.

In 1968 she moved to London, where she and husband Kurt Heide opened the international furniture house Interspace in Hampstead. In 1986 she moved back to Denmark and opened her own studio.

She was exhibited internationally with one-woman shows in Amsterdam, Berlin, New York, Vienna, London, Stockholm, Milan, Glasgow, Manchester, Reykjavik, Paris and nationally in Denmark. During her lifetime, she was awarded many international prizes for her awards, including many medals from the Triennale in Milan and the prestigious Lunning Prize and is remembered as "The First Lady of Scandinavian Design." 

From nanna-ditzel-design.dk and furnituredesign24.com

Sausage chairs
1stdibs.com

Child's high chair
1stdibs.com

Oda armchair
pinterest.com - Ursela Maätita

Hanging Egg wicker chair
nanna-ditzel-design.dk

Swivel Easy chair
houzz.com

Skal chair
furnituredesign24.com

Settee, chairs and table
bolighuset-ry.dk

Trinidad chair
arttattler.com

Dennie chair
houzz.com

Child's Toadstool
arttattler.com

Silver bracelet, 1951
nanna-ditzel-design.dk

Wristwatch for Georg Jensen, 1995
nanna-ditzel-design.dk

Young Nanna Ditzel
retrostudio-online.com

Here's a delightful interview with Nanna Ditzel in 2005, shortly before her death. She discusses the Trinidad chair, designed in 1993, one of her award-winning pieces. The clip also includes production of a Trinidad chair.

youtube.com

Uploaded by fredericiafurniture, March 22, 2010