Nordic Stella, formerly on the rue du Nord, moved into a custom-made workshop space on rue de la Fonderie in the centre in February. It’s a space its founder, Annika Lofqvist, says she was lucky to find, even if “it needed a lot of work.” 

Although Nordic Stella offers ready-made products available for purchase, it also provides a variety of ceramics workshops, plus walk-in hours, where old and young alike can try their hand at decorating premade cups or plates, be it with special paints, stamps, letters, names, messages--even imprints, such as baby hand- or footprints. 

Some of the ceramics available for customisation at Nordic Stella, plus tools of the trade 

Lofqvist says it normally takes between one or two hours to complete a piece, and then it gets glazed and fired, ready for pickup about one week later. 

In light of the upcoming holidays, Nordic Stella will be holding extra workshops for kids without their parents (ages 7+): “We’ll make sure all the kids make nice presents for their mums and dads.” 

Whether through these workshops, team building or birthday party events, Nordic Stella offers more than just a creative space for participants to create a personalised work of practical art. It’s also about the experience “for people to just come, be a bit mindful, sit and paint,” says Lofqvist. “It’s taking the time with your friends or children to do something together.”

Favourite personalised gift 

We turned the question around on Lofqvist to find out more about her own favourite personalised gift she received.  

“I have two very good friends who used to live in Luxembourg [but] moved back to Denmark,” she says. “I collect Christmas ornaments--whenever I go travelling, I buy a little piece from all over the world. [My friends] went to a designer market in Denmark and so I got this little hand-painted Christmas ornament. Every year when I take it out of the box and hang it on the tree, it reminds me of our friendship.”

This article first appeared in the November/December 2019 issue of Delano.