Oiva Toikka

Design professor Oiva Toikka: one of the great names in Finnish glass design

Professor Oiva Toikka received numerous awards for his imaginative, rich and bold glass art, including the Lunning Prize, the Pro Finlandia Medal, the World Glass Now 85 award, the Kaj Franck Design Prize and the Prince Eugen Medal.

Toikka's best-known works are probably those in the Iittala Birds collection. From 1973, Oiva Toikka worked with the glassblowers at the Nuutajärvi glassworks in Finland to develop a new object for the Birds collection every year. More than 300 pieces have been created. The current collection still includes 43 different bird species.

In honour of the renowned designer, Iittala has offered a further Oiva Toikka collection since 2021. Called "The Curious Mind of Oiva Toikka", it features numerous products based on original sketches and designs that Toikka created during his time at the Iittala glassworks and that had remained unseen until then.