Slöjd

Starting out with some history and ending up with a few opinions...

I had a conversation a few months ago with a spoon carver on Rise Up and Carve; the go-to place for virtual spoon carving. If you aren’t familiar with it I encourage you to check it out. The concept bubbled up in the mind of Chuck Trella during the 2020 lockdowns as a way for green woodworkers and specifically spoon carvers to meet-up and support each other. The zoom meeting he set up is open 24/7 which allows people from all over the world to hop on and off whenever they happen to want company while carving. I’ve logged on a few times, had fun, and made a few friends at the same time. Anyway, I had a conversation with someone on RUAC and I was talking about historical figures in the US associated with green-woodworking/slöjd and made the assumption that the person I was speaking with knew who I was referring to. As it turns out, that was false and also what has spurred this essay into fruition. I’ll note that this is in no way a comprehensive account of the history of slöjd, nor green-woodworking. This is a pocket reference for those who may have seen the term “slöjd” thrown around here and there and want to know a little more about its origins and my opinion on the current state of slöjd.

As with most things, one must first consult the internet to get an idea of who a slöjd practitioner is because it’s become quite the hashtag in the past 10 years. If Instagram is any measure of pop culture (however algorithmically curated) it would tell you that slöjd is synonymous with wooden treen. Images of wooden bowls, plates, spoons, and kitchen accoutrements abound.

Most of these items are made with tools that would have been common over a long span of history; tools such as knives, axes, adzes, drawknives, etc. Many people sell their work and most of it is gorgeous. I think it’s safe to say a modern slöjder praises utility and handwork. But where does the term slöjd originate? It’s certainly not an english word, even though most slöjd hashtags are associated with native english speakers.

In the 1960s a man by the name of Bill Coperthwaite was traveling in Sweden up north in Sami territory. Bill was a traveller and searched for handcraft techniques and traditions around the world within different communities. He designed wooden yurts based on woolen felted yurts used by nomadic herders in Mongolia and Tibet, something he’s very well known for.

The main yurt at ‘Dickinsons Reach’, Bill Copertwaite’s place in Maine. 2019

During this particular trip in Sweden he was investigating axes, and was pointed to the local Handcraft Consultant Willie Sundqvist, and from then on they were friends. When Willie was invited to the US to exhibit handcrafts in 1976, he wrote to Bill Coperthwaite about his plans. Bill insisted on giving him a tour of craftspeople on the east coast of the US and that’s how he was introduced to Drew and Louise Langsner and the meeting kickstarted Country Workshops. Willie and his son, Jögge ended up teaching Swedish green woodworking, or slojd, to interested folks at Drew Langsners for many years.

Jögge and Willie on my trip to Sweden in 2017

Some of the most influential green woodworkers got their introduction to this style of work at Drew’s; Peter Follansbee, Dave Sawyer, Daniel O’Hagan among them. Curtis Buchanan, if I remember correctly, learned a lot from Dave Sawyer. I’m not sure of the lineage and how all these men learned from each other but I know there was a lot of uncovering what had been lost in regards to understanding green woodworking and working with wood as opposed to machining wood. In the time between the 1960s and present day, many green woodworkers using this European approach would point to a lineage of teachers who started at Country Workshops. This is especially prevalent among Windsor chair makers.¹

Anyway, a lot of green woodcarving especially is based on the Swedish Slöjd (Craft) Tradition. It’s important to remember the current culture surrounding slöjd and how it is interpreted in the US. I know there has been a faint whiff of controversy around slöjd and “slöjd bros”. Honestly, I very rarely am on the gossip line so I don’t really know the details of how that started but I can guess, as I’m sure you can. That, I think, is purely American. The tradition of Slöjd is older than the current slöjd craze or the 1960s import, thanks to Bill and Willie.

Otto Salomon introduced “The Teachers Handbook of Slöjd” to the Swedish public school system in 1892. It was meant to help children grow mentally, develop problem solving skills, and become better people. Educational slöjd was not to be confused with “practical slöjd”; practical slöjd was taught to create better work. Educational slöjd was for better workers. Here’s a lengthy but excellent excerpt from the introduction of the book:

“By educational slöjd is meant the application of slöjd to educational purposes. Slöjd is not to be confounded with the work of the artisan- a mistake which may easily happen if the distinction is not sufficiently strong emphasized. Speaking generally, the ‘slöjder’ does not practice his art as a trade, but merely as a change from some other employment; and in the nature of the articles produced, in the tools used in their production, in the manner of executing the work, etc., slöjd and the work of the artisan differ very decidedly the one from the other. Slöjd is much better adapted to be a means of education, because purely economical considerations do not come forward so prominently as must be the case with work undertaken as a means of livelihood.

Educational slöjd differs from so-called practical slöjd, in-as much as in the latter, importance is attached to the work; in the former, on the contrary, to the worker. It must, however, be strongly emphasized that the two terms, educational and practical, ought in no way be considered antagonistic to each other as frequently happens in popular language; for, from the strictly educational point of view whatever is educationally right must also be practical, and vice versa. When the educational and the practical come into conflict, the cause is always to be found in the pressure of adventitious circumstances, e.g., the number of pupils, the nature of the premises, and above all, pecuniary resources, etc. To make educational theory and practice coincide is an ideal towards which every teacher must strive...”

As Salomon makes quite clear, educational slöjd is more concerned with the person than the object or speed at which the object is made. Learning through educational slöjd should help in technical proficiency and becoming a better tradesperson- but you would probably not see a less efficient use of hand tools in a modern trade context. Are you going to build your house with a handsaw instead of a circular saw? Yeah...probably not. Ask a professional carpenter what they’d use? Sometimes, because of time concerns, physical concerns, economical concerns or any number of reasons... you use a plugged in tool.

It’s important to point this out, because is the craft community and particularly in the ‘fresher’ slöjd community if you tell someone you used a band saw to cut out your spoon blanks you can be judged. I think there is a confluence of ideas around what is authentic slöjd and what isn’t. The problem is some people don’t want to recognize you cannot compete with machines, not in speed, not in accuracy, and not economically. This, I think, flies in the face of the idea of a “professional slöjder”. And, remembering that Slöjd means Craft, I think it also points out something no craftspeople talk about on social media. There are very few craftspeople who can support themselves purely by creating, let alone the ‘slöjd way’ of using only knives and axes. Can you be a professional slöjder and hold on to hand tools and handwork only..like no chainsaws no plugged in tools what-so-ever? Chances are, probably not, unless you become a slöjd educator. I’ve watched the slöjd movement over the past 10 years and the vast majority of slöjders has one or a combination of the following in order to make ends meet (honestly this also applies to craftspeople and artists as well):

1. a partner who works and also contributes to income

2. an additional full-time job

3. a part-time job

4. teaches their craft, sells it and probably sells the tools, or is making moves to become a craft school.

5. is independently wealthy

6. lives in a van/for free/on the road/ or in someones shed to cut down expenses

7. is young enough that stability doesn’t matter

This is not meant to disparage the slöjd or craft community in any way. In fact I wrote a whole essay on what handwork actually does for us personally, here, which is probably why people make concessions to have craft in their lives. The point I’m trying to make is that I’ve heard people say- “I just want to quit my job and become a professional spoon carver.” And if they don’t say it, they look at someone they believe to be “living the dream” and judge themselves for not being able to. None of that judgement is necessary. Very few people are looking at you with your normal job that actually pays bills and murmuring under their breath that you sold out. If they are, who needs them? Just flick that opinion away like the pesky fly it is. Conversely, please don’t take this as doom and gloom if you had a glint in your eye about living in the woods and becoming a hermit slojder.

Photo by m wrona on Unsplash

You can still do that, but I suggest you keep your day job and make slow decisions. Everything you love and enjoy about slöjd and craft can co-exisit with a wildly different career. You don’t have to become a professional slöjder to impress instagram, or yourself. Do it because you love it. Full stop.

On a personal note, truly, it’s taken me years and years of angst to figure this out. I always felt that I must be doing something wrong, until I got a job to take the pressure off, only to realize (again) that I love carving not for the money but because of the intimate relationship I have with the land because of it. I have always been worried about becoming a professional woodworker because I use the wood from the land I live on. What would happen if I build a career around woodworking and misuse the woods because I need to pay the bills? What would happen to them? What are my motives? How am I giving back?

Otto Salomon might say the more you engage in handwork, the better thinker and problem solver you may become. Slöyd was my teacher. Insurmountable obstacles in my life have transformed into challenges to overcome with skill and patience. Slöjd should be about the joy of creating and the accumulation of skill whether or not you are professional.

Ultimately labels and categories can be a double-edged sword. They can help you know more about something, but if you aren’t careful they can become weighted with dogma and quite constricting. Don’t lose yourself by adhering to an idealized version of who you need to be. We should all be making by heart.

Heart Shrinkpot. 2022

1. Also, some of my empty spaces in the “History of Green woodworking” were filled with the help of Peter Lamb, who kindly gave me a quick run down of the chronology. He’s part of a group of Bill’s close friends who were trusted with the legacy and land that Bill stewarded in Maine. If you have a chance, please visit the website. There is a residency available for those who are interested! Dickinsons Reach