Tarja Tuupanen has always worked with stone, loving its versatility, hating its limitations. For her, idea and material go hand in hand, but sometimes the stone offers something unexpected and the story changes. More recently, she has worked with marble tableware, slicing and re-forming it into brooches and neckpieces. Intrigued by how a shift away from something natural might alter her preconceived notions of material value and the way she uses her stone-working skills, she focuses on the minutiae, using even the velour pads on the rough underside of these domestic objects. 

Tarja studied jewellery at college in South Carelia in Finland before completing her MFA at Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm. Along with Helena Lehtinen, Eija Mustonen and Jenni Sokura, Tarja is a member of Finnish jewellery group Hibernate. Her work is widely exhibited and can be seen in collections including the Marzee Collection, the Design Museum in Helsinki, the collection of the Finnish Jewellery Art Association, the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo and the Museum of Design and Craft in Gothenburg.