Ann Sophie Qvarnström

Early years and education

Ann-Sophie Qvarnström was born in Gothenburg and grew up in Stockholm with her teacher mother, civil engineer father and younger sister. She went to the French School. and through one of her classmates she got to know the Swedish artist Einar Jolin who came to have a great influence on her aesthetics and her choice to live and work as an artist. She would often stay with the Jolin family and sometimes help Einar Jolin with household duties at his atelier, where they talked about art and he would give her advice in how to draw.

So in 1978 she attended The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, department of chemistry. She never graduated, but her studies there were of great help in her artistic works. She used lessons in blueprint drawing to make very accurate maps for the games she illustrated, and took techniques from the iron industry to make new and innovative jewellery in silver and gold. To help finance her studies she made illustrations, jewellery and worked as a seamstress. She is a self-taught silversmith. At the KTH she learned how to find facts on her own and the patience to try and try again. In 1979 she met Leif Eurén and they married in 1984, but were divorced in 1992.

Biography

While her studies declined, her small business flourished. She did illustrations, jewellery and props for films, commercials, historical societies and events. In 1984 she established the company Sophias Ateljé and opened a shop in Stockholm. About this time she came to the attentions of Äventyrsspel and Iron Crown Enterprises, she joined the motley crew of Swedish RPG pioneers and during the following years she made many illustrated maps for board games and role-playing games. In 1986 she made one of the first Swedish RPG maps in colour, the same year she was co-writer to her husband Leif as they made the first town module for a Swedish RPG, Kandra. After that she drew maps for most of the games by Äventyrsspel 1986–1991.

In 1993 she and her company moved to Visby, and she began to focus on jewellery design but she still did some props, patterns and garb for the Medieval Week on Gotland. In 2007 the company split up into two firms: Sophies Silver a shop and atelier where Qvarnström designs, makes and sell jewellery in silver and gold, and Sophias Ateljés Förlag KB a publishing house for medieval garb patterns. After 2000 she gradually went from drawing and painting to photography. In 2013 she was one of the winners in the Wiki Loves Monuments competition.

Illustrating

Since this was before computers became commonplace, all her maps and drawings were made to scale and totally by hand. She used dip pens with pigment ink for black and white drawings and gouache paints for the ones in color. When not making maps she did illustrations and satirical drawings for minor magazines and brochures.

Illustrated maps in publications

For Äventyrsspel

For Casper

For Iron Crown Enterprises

Jewellery

In her jewellery she is very much influenced by Japanese art. This she has from her early contact with artist Einar Jolin. She also uses the playing with textures which is common in the Japanese pottery technique raku ware. She uses clean lines and abstract shapes. About half of her production consists of unique, one of a kind piece of jewellery. Many of her customers are women representing Sweden in some way or other, who are keen to wear genuine Swedish design, such as Former Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden Maud Olofsson who often wore Qvarnström's jewellery while in office.