Ulrica Hydman-Vallien, is one of Kosta Boda's foremost designers in glass, but one look at her portfolio reveals her passion for painting with oils and watercolors, a love for ceramics, and a spiritual union with nature. She paints in a variety of techniques, her signature style saturated colors painted resolutely and boldly onto the surface of the glass as thought it were a three-dimensional canvas. Stockholm native Ulrica was brought up in an artistic family and was schooled at the national College of Art, Craft and Design, as well as scholarship programs in the U.S. and Mexico. She joined Kosta Boda in 1972 and has been awarded major scholarships and prizes, exhibited in museums and shows worldwide, and has lectured at the Bildwerk in Germany and at the famous Pilchuck Glass Center school in Washington state.