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A woman working on a piece of furniture in a workshop

Sofia Brandt

Furniture maker, Bergen — “Wood tells you where it wants to be cut. You only have to listen.”

Photo by Bob van Aubel / Unsplash

Sofia Brandt’s workshop is a former boat shed on the edge of the water. She makes tables and chairs from trees that fell in storms, and only from those: she has never cut down a tree for a piece of furniture.

Each table takes about a month. Most of that time, she says, is spent looking at the wood, finding the line where it wants to be cut, the knot that should stay visible, the crack that will become the most beautiful part.

A table should last longer than the person who made it. That is the only rule.

Her waiting list is two years long. She does not plan to hire anyone.

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Tom Hartley

Makes bowls, mostly badly, and writes about making things by hand and the ideas that come with them.

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