A Little Lady

There is this great little ceramic gallery and boutique in Gothenburg, on a small side street near the Gustavi Domkyrka (cathedral), called Lerverk. And I actually have a pretty funny story about the name of this boutique from way back before I knew how to [badly] pronounce Swedish. Before we moved to Sweden, we traveled here during our summer vacations. On one of the first trips here, while riding the bus back to his parent's home, I said to my husband, who was my boyfriend at the time, " I want to go back to that store called "Lurvurk." He looked at me like I was crazy. Eventually we figured out that I meant "Learvurk" (sounds like). What can I say, it looked like "Lurvurk" to me. 

So anyway, my husband and I have exchanged quite a lot of our money for works of art at Lerverk. My husband's parents have also parted with a great deal of their money in exchange for works of art there, and some of those purchases have been contributed, in the form of Christmas and birthday gifts, to our "Lerverk collection." Sometimes when we are in Gothenburg we visit the gallery and boutique and discover many pieces that we'd love to buy, while other times we merely file ideas away, future gift ideas or purchases to long for. Nearly every summer we select something from Lerverk to add to our ceramic collection. One year we bought a beautiful ceramic rose that was combined with wire, a rubber tube, and cement, which made up the flower's stem and the sculpture's base. Another year we bought a sail boat sculpture with the boat made of raku-fired clay and its mast made of iron. 

There is nearly always something fabulous that we find to covet at Lerverk. On one of our more recent visits I came across the lovely little lady sculpture below. My husband actually has two other figurines made by the very same artist. Two cute little men, one in a black suit and one in a fancy overcoat, that are part of our Christmas decorations. Unfortunately they are packed away until next year but you can view them here on my Finding Happy Day 352 post. I haven't decided yet but I may keep my little lady, in her green evening gown, medallion necklace, rosy cheeks and top bun, around all year long. She just makes me smile. I love the way she looks as if she is either startled or singing. What do you think?

Ps. We still call Lerverk, "Lurvurk," sometimes. Just for fun. :-)