About Lapponia

Learn About the brand

In 1960, in Finland, a new kind of jewelry company took shape. It was called Lapponia, and from the beginning it didn’t look or feel like the usual jewelry houses of the time. The man behind it, Björn Weckström, was already a sculptor and an artist, and he approached jewelry the same way he approached sculpture. To him, silver and gold weren’t just materials for decoration but a way to carve out pieces of the wilderness he grew up around.<br><br> Weckström’s designs were jagged, textured, sometimes rough, echoing frozen lakes and wind-shaped rocks rather than polished symmetry. They felt closer to landscapes than ornaments. This way of thinking caught on quickly. People who wanted more than sparkle recognized that Lapponia was doing something different: turning jewelry into small-scale art.<br><br> As the company grew, other designers joined and carried the same spirit forward, building on the idea that each piece should reflect Finland’s stark and striking natural world. The boldness of this approach eventually carried Lapponia far beyond Finland’s borders. The most famous example came when one of Weckström’s necklaces was chosen for Princess Leia in the original "Star Wars." That single appearance put Lapponia into the eyes of millions, linking Finnish artistry to a global pop culture moment.<br><br> Even after that, the company didn’t drift toward trend-driven glamour. Its pieces continued to draw on the north’s silence and severity, as if each bracelet or necklace were a fragment of forest or ice cast in metal. For those who wear them, Lapponia jewelry carries that origin story: a sculptor who wanted jewelry to be more than adornment, and a brand that tied itself to the land that shaped it.