Anna Greta Eker

Anna Greta Eker (1928-2002)

Anna Greta Eker was born in Mariehamn, Finland, and came to Norway in the fifties. Here she married Erling Christoffersen, the leder of the silver workshop at the applied arts center PLUS in Fredrikstad.

Anna Greta Eker: 'Wire with Glass Ball' silver bracelet, 1970s, glass ball by Benny Motzfeld.
‘Wire with Glass Ball’
silver bracelet, 1970s
glass ball by Benny Motzfeld.

The idea behind this for Norwegian craftsdesigners so importent center founded in 1958, was to establish a design center where designers working with glass, silver, ceramics and textiles were to create good models for the industry. However, the center is most well known for the craft products made in small or medium-sized editions.

Anna Greta Eker, who had started up as an industrial designer back in Finland, soon became one of the leading designers at the silver workshop. Together with other designers such as Tone Vigeland, she induced new energy into the studio production of modern jewelry in Scandinavia.

When the jewelry production at PLUS came to an end in the seventies, this concluded a long period of creating jewelry for the company Norway Silver Designs A/S. Eker started up her own workshop in Fredrikstad using as her artistname ‘AGE’, from the initials of her name, the same as her hallmark from the PLUS era.

Most of Anna Greta Ekers jewelry is hand hammered. She created geometric and organic forms such as twirling lines and combinatined them with semiprescious stones, handblowed glass from the glasswokshop at PLUS, and with wooden pearls. In tune with the fashion in the sixties, the jewellery is given a prominent exposition on the ears and around the neck. The form is sculptural, the earrings are ‘mobiles’ – and the neckring is a ‘portable sculpture’.