At Swedese’s factory in Vaggeryd, Småland, craftsmanship is embedded in the walls. It has been that way since the 1950s, when Yngve Ekström, together with his brother Jerker, moved in with their newly founded furniture company, Swedese. However, Yngve’s journey as a craftsman began much earlier. Before Swedese, Lamino, and the factory in Vaggeryd, Yngve was a woodcarver. During the day he created ornaments for table legs, cabinets, and chairs, only to return in the evenings to the carving bench in the basement of his home to carve his own bowls, mirrors, and wooden sculptures, Brita-Lena recounts in the book In Search of Lamino.

To honour Swedese’s heritage and history of craftsmanship, a collaboration was initiated with another Swedish company with a strong devotion to craft: Morakniv. Together, they commissioned nine designers to use a whittling knife to leave their mark on a wooden stool. The stool the designers are working with is made from leftover wood—rough spruce beams previously used in construction, sawn into legs and seat and designed by Louise Hederström.

The nine designers come from different backgrounds. Some are craftspeople, others furniture, fashion, or industrial designers. The result is nine stools, nine stories, and nine completely different expressions.

The designers spent a day with us in Småland to finally see the stool they would be working on, learn how to care for their Morakniv knives, and enjoy food cooked over an open fire, served in our pine forest.

“It was nice to finally see the stool. I didn’t know if it had three legs, four legs? But it’s an incredibly nice stool as it is, so now it feels really exciting. Carving a stool isn’t something you usually do,” says Simon Mattisson, who normally 3D-prints wooden components for furniture sculptures.

“This feels really exciting! The material didn’t feel too hard, which is good. But it will be interesting to carve along the growth rings in the wood. They can vary a lot between the light and dark rings. I’m thinking about a connection to nature and patterns. I’m going to go all in with the knife,” says Molly Sjöstam, an experienced craftsperson.

“Carving is far from what I usually do, but that also means there are no rules—it’s very free. It could become anything. I have half a notebook full of ideas, some good and some bad. I’ll have to stare at the stool at home for a bit, walk around it, sketch some more, and choose one idea,” says Erik Nohlin, an industrial and bicycle designer.

Participating designers

Maria Erixson – Founder/Head Designer, Nudie Jeans
Rasmus Wingårdh – Designer
Erik Nohlin – Designer
Louise Hederström – Designer
Roger Persson – Designer
Simon Mattisson – Designer
Matilda Lindstam – Designer
Molly Sjöstam – Craftsperson
Jenny Soddu – Craftsperson