Designer

Paula Häiväoja

Häiväoja's ultramodern silver jewelry looks just as futuristic today as it did more than half a century ago

Paula Häiväoja (1929–2011) was Kalevala Jewelry’s first female head designer. She graduated as a fashion artist from the School of Arts and Crafts in 1953. She served as chief designer from 1963 to 1967, when she became a freelance designer and opened her own studio.

Häiväoja was also a pioneer of Finnish fashion design and a senior lecturer at the University of Art and Design Helsinki, where she taught a large part of the next generation of Finnish designers.

”I take what I have made my own, change its scale, and set it free” .

Häiväoja Collection — Himmeli

In Kalevala Jewelry’s 90th anniversary year, the Himmeli* necklace Häiväoja designed in 1964 returns to the collection in its original form. It is made to order by our goldsmiths in Helsinki, from 100% recycled gold and silver, in no more than 90 numbered pieces.

Häiväoja Collection — Kehät

Häiväoja’s design language also continues in two new collections. The Himmeli collection draws on the geometry of that same necklace, reinterpreted as pieces that come alive with the movement of the wearer. The Kehät** collection grew out of the avant-garde silver hair band she designed in the 1960s.

Bold and open-minded joy of form, fashion and design.

Häiväoja became known for ultra-modern gold and silver jewelry whose forms – realised by the skilled modelmakers at Kalevala Jewelry – defied all the laws of nature of their time. It was Sylvia Sarparanta, the company’s managing director at the time, who gave her a free hand to realise those bold, futuristic visions.

Häiväoja I and II

In Kalevala Jewelry’s 90th anniversary year, the Himmeli — meaning a traditional Finnish straw ornament — necklace Häiväoja designed in 1964 returns to the collection in its original form. It is made to order by our goldsmiths in Helsinki, from 100% recycled gold and silver, in no more than 90 numbered pieces.

Häiväoja’s design language also continues in two new collections. The Himmeli collection draws on the geometry of that same necklace, reinterpreted as pieces that come alive with the movement of the wearer. The Kehät — circles in Finnish — collection grew out of the avant-garde silver hair band she designed in the 1960s.