DISCOVERY GOES TO FINLAND

[Music] pimo sarpaneva and his family live in finland's capital city helsinki like most finns they spend a lot of time outdoors the wind and the water and finland's forests are not only home to teemo but is inspiration as well for teemo is a glass designer with the help of master glassblowers he transforms his impressions of his native land into pure clear glass today we'll visit timo his city and his work as discovery goes to finland land of design [Music] discovery 70 the award-winning program for young people with virginia gibson and bill owen hi and welcome to discovery i'll bet you don't know who designed the glass you drank from or the plates you used to dinner last night in the united states we don't generally know who our designers are but here in helsinki finland designers are among the country's leading artists we're at the home of chemo and p sarpinev in their family teemo designed these glasses we're using p mississauganeva is also a designer [Laughter] pee designed the dress i'm wearing and the one she has on both are from her fashion collection i love the colors typical finnish summer dish with smoked baltic herrings and new potatoes and black bread fish is called water harvest of course in most parts of finland fish is always a very common dish because as we have got these 60 000 lakes and the sea all around have two boys tom and marco polo tom is 15 and loves to go sailing he sails whenever possible sometimes every afternoon in the spring and summer 13 year marco polo is interested in football which we call soccer you ever kept scaring me um the sarpaneva apartment looks out over the helsinki harbor just underneath the windows are two yacht clubs helsinki is a city of over half a million people about 10 percent of finland's total population lives here in the distance we can see spires from two churches which symbolize finland's geographical and historical position midway between west and east on the left is the lutheran cathedral from western european tradition and on the right is uspensky cathedral the russian orthodox church [Music] could you translate that for us yes bill it means we welcome you to finland and to our home thank you thank you that's great the finns are very international minded people perhaps because their language is so difficult in dealing with other countries they have to make themselves understood the boys study swedish and english in school in addition to finnish and peace arpaneva speaks eight languages finns like what they use to have beauty as well as practicality the materials teemo works with and the designs he makes are very much a part of the land the weather and finnish history design in finland really goes back many thousands of years to prehistoric times [Music] we're in the finnish national museum about 5 000 years ago during the late stone age the first signs of the finn's sure instincts for craftsmanship and a sense of form began to develop this beautiful elk's head is an example of early prehistoric work the ancestors of the present finns moved to finland from the shores of the baltic about 2 000 years ago they made pottery some weapons and farm tools and jewelry these ancient designs are being renewed today in modern finnish metal work so the tradition carries right through from ancient times to the present these intricately carved masterpieces date from the middle ages when finland was a part of sweden and the culture of western europe was dominant these wooden plaques the coats of arms of noble families were usually carried during funeral processions [Music] during the long period of the dark ages finland's tradition of craftsmanship continued to develop anonymous designers used plentiful raw materials like wood stone iron and wool inspiration came from people's occupations a nation of fishermen and shipbuilders carved these miniature vessels [Music] glass was needed for finnish homes and so finland's glass industry grew up to meet the need towards the end of the 17th century the earliest glass was solid and simple in design guilds were formed associations of master craftsmen and their apprentices [Music] during six centuries of swedish rule finland changed slowly in 1809 after a bitter war finland became a grand duchy under russia and began to rule herself more then the industrial revolution finally reached here but the crafts tradition survived industrialization because it was so deeply rooted doing things by hand making beautiful objects was an integral part of finnish life perhaps they thought that if you had to use something every day it might as well be beautiful even the most common objects were made to be decorative such as these implements for spinning and weaving in the 18th and 19th centuries finnish housewives used them with looms to make clothes in the famous rooyu rugs these review rugs are still being made in finland today later we'll see how we'll also see an entire city created by designers we'll do that in just a minute [Music] this island fortress guards helsinki's harbor it's called swaminlina today the fortress is no longer vital to helsinki's defense but it's still a military garrison and a public park families out for a picnic or some sun often roam over the four islands only a short boat ride from the city [Music] teemo and his sons are pursuing one of their favorite pastimes sailing in and among the islands that dot the finnish coastline finland is surrounded by water on three sides in addition there are approximately sixty thousand lakes in the country so the finns have grown to love water and aquatic sports teemo an experienced sailor is helping his sons learn the ropes [Music] finland also has thousands of islands many of them within a few miles of helsinki spring and summer bring fins out there for some quiet the islands serve many purposes some very close to the shore are private yacht clubs [Music] this one is a restaurant ferries take people from the mainland to the clubs in winter helsinki becomes surrounded by ice but icebreakers such as these keep the harbor open finland builds icebreakers for many nations these are being made for export to russia [Music] helsinki is a city in close touch with the sea it's known as the white daughter of the baltic it's a young city for europe it became important only after finland became part of russia in 1809. from the start the finns decided to build it from a definite design this is the senate square heart of the city it was planned and built around 1840 and stands today as its planners first conceived it the university on the west the council of state to the east in the center stands the statue of tsar alexander ii under whose benevolent rule the city was built and who started the fins on their way to full self-government in 1917 after the russian revolution finland achieved complete independence although the senate square was finland's first effort into city planning its most famous is the city of tapiola it was planned first in 1951 and built over the span of the next decade it's a self-contained city more than just a collection of apartments or homes the city center has a landmark skyscraper [Music] a modernistic church recreation facilities an arts center in the works and the large shopping center the plan is to create enough jobs right in tapiola so that many of the people who live here can work here as well [Music] tapiola is called the garden city the designers wanted a city of flowers trees open spaces in addition to apartment buildings and shopping centers the builders had as their goal harmonious surroundings for modern man and his family not all the houses are alike there are small family homes for people who like and can afford them apartment houses for those who like the convenience of them and many kinds of homes and dwellings in between the houses are mixed in with apartments for balance and variety from a planner's model this modern community has sprung a monument to the vision and style of finnish design and architecture tapiola the planners say has something to please everyone a new addition to an old landscape we're going to see a beautiful rug being woven and watch a sculpture in glass take shape before our eyes and we'll do that in just a minute [Music] these are the famous ruyu in finnish means this special kind of rug centuries ago these hand-woven rugs kept fins warm and medieval homes and castles today they decorate modern living rooms but they're still woven in an ancient way the designs are made from hand-painted sketches like these finnish colorists and rug designers use many dark rich tints gentler than those used in countries farther south which have brighter sunlight and consequently brighter colors the designs are first made into numbered patterns then painstakingly woven by hand in wool the process is centuries old the rugs are sometimes more than two inches thick by coordinating hands and feet these women interweave rainbows of color it may take weeks or months before a rug is finished but when it's done it will last a lifetime the best finished glass is also made by hand this is the largest factory for hand-blown glassware in finland it has been making glass since 1881. these glasses being carried away to cool were designed by our friend timo sarpaneva glass starts from sand and it's mixed with special chemicals and melted at high temperatures into a liquid in furnaces like this one here it's kept ready for the blowers to use to start the process of making one of teemo's glasses an assistant glass blower coats his long pipe with molten glass he blows into it to enlarge the surface and to let it cool a bit cooling thickens the liquid to make sure all sides stay of even thickness he rolls the pipe in his hands now the glass has to be formed and cooled by hand with a wooden or leather form kept cool by dipping it in water [Music] [Applause] the craftsman lowers the molten glass into a mold made of iron and steel held by an apprentice and he blows the glass as hard as he can so that it spreads itself into a uniform thickness against the outer walls of the mold in a few seconds the mold turns the liquid into a recognizable shape [Music] now the base is made a dollop of molten glass in a form smoothed by a wet stick the man sitting on the bench is the master blower he's the most experienced glassmaker only masters can make stems and handles the more difficult parts it must be done entirely by hand the process is very quick and looks easy but it's not let's watch it again [Music] closely now all the sections of the glass cup stem base are fused together certain parts are chipped off as the glass is separated from the pipe this electrical machine has a temperature of over 5000 degrees for clean fine cutting then the glass can be taken away to cool the youngster carrying away the still hot glass is an apprentice glassblowing is a skill still jealously guarded and taught in a guild system it's handed down from master to assistant to apprentice and usually kept within a family at each furnace two sets of blowers keep the work going continuously the hot glass is kept away from everyone so it will not burn the workers the glassblowers perform as if they were in a beautiful ballet with its own rhythm [Music] [Applause] [Music] so the result works of art for the dinner table teemo has come to the factory today to discuss some new designs and to supervise the making of some special vase sculptures teemo works closely with the glassblowers for his designs are useless unless they can be translated by them into completed glass a design develops not only on paper but in experimental models the teemo and the blowers try out together in my way it comes out quite naturally it depends you know what kind of design you are doing for instance if i'm making you know glass and glass sculptures it's very different when i'm going to make for instance steel or designing awesome machines and usually i working with a team the people who working at the factory mode makers glass blowers and chemists and engineers and it's very much you know teamwork nowadays it takes over a year for a glass or vase to go from one of timo's ideas to a product ready to be sold in stores each glass is a new challenge for the designer and the blowers this base is especially difficult since it's very large and requires a large amount of glass now the design of the inner bowl is pressed in with wood and the hot glass bursts the wood into flame [Applause] [Music] after the glass is cooled it's examined for imperfections these women sometimes throw away as much as 20 percent of the glasses because they're not perfect the bad glass goes back into the furnace and becomes liquid again some objects are made with excess glass for easy handling in the molds then the excess has to be discarded if you know where to strike the glass it's easy [Music] finally the glass is ground and polished so that it's clean even and there are no unwanted rough edges here's one of teemo's faces coming through this final cleanup process thank you it's lovely now with a final wash it'll be ready for a modern living room and some beautiful flowers we'll be back in just a minute [Applause] we hope you've enjoyed our visit to finland if you'd like to find out more about this fascinating country and its people ask your librarian for these books mati lives in finland by anna rickenbrick and astrid lindgren my village in finland by sonia and tim gidal be sure to be with us next week for another exciting program as discovery continues to discover the world bye bye bye [Music] air travel arranged through and promotional consideration furnished by thin air [Music] this has been a jules power production in association with abc news