Churches

As a young man, while at the Rijksakademie studying painting, Folke also attended courses on the making of stained glass windows and was greatly interested in the possibilities of the materials and how they could be worked.

Later, between 1950 and 1975, he designed and oversaw the making and installation of windows in many churches in Sweden, painting the glass himself, experimenting with different methods of mounting the glass, as well as producing varied and striking effects and designs in many different buildings.

This was a time of great activity in church building, restoration and additions, as state grants were freely available. Folke was working in his own studio and was fortunate in building relationships with a number of architects, stained glass workshops and many craftsmen and women who were so essential to his success. His experience brought him an increasingly free hand in influencing designs and choice of materials as time went on.

Folke’s early windows used the more traditional method of glass mounted in lead to create his striking and modern jewel-like effects. He later experimented with steel and cement matrixes before finally returning to glass in lead, made at his preferred glassmakers, Bogtman’s of Haarlem. Here he achieved his masterful expressions in the medium at Östertälje and Öglunda Churches and Berthåga Crematorium. Folke’s works can be found in over 30 churches today in Sweden.

Other church commissions used weavings to his designs made by Alice Lund Textilier, glassworks in collaboration with Boda Glass, as well as his own iron and silver work and limewood creations, many from his own studio.