Marie Eklund, 2024, hand-carved wooden spoons; photo: Marie Eklund
Marie Eklund receives a Garland laurel for her wooden spoons that heighten the delicate act of portioning food.
In 2014, I graduated from Sätergläntan’s Institute for Sloyd and Crafts in Wood. Since then I have been experimenting with the elements a lot. Fire, water and soil give the wood different colour tones with time. I basically put the wood into a fire, place it into a lake, maybe a ditch or simply dig it down into the ground. Then I wait for the right look. The surface is affected in various ways. Different tones, colors and shades are formed, and small damage, blemishes and scars appear, which is part of the expression. A kind of natural surface treatment. Then I use nothing but an axe and knife to create different shapes.
I have chosen to keep everything very simple. No machines, no electricity = I can be anywhere doing this = free = happy. Not having so many choices has been good for me. I have to use what I have nearby. I try to keep my intuition as much as I can. I split my time between Stockholm and Tångeråsa in Sweden.
Tångeråsa is located in the countryside. There I have an old farm and some forest. I love the opposites between the countryside and the city, the calmness and the metropolitan pulse. I need them both for my temper. In Tångeråsa I do all the rough work like taking down trees, chopping them into smaller parts, deciding which parts of the tree are interesting, drying the wood properly, processing the objects in different ways and so on. I play around a lot. Back in Stockholm, I finish the work, I seem to be a bit more concentrated there.
Why wood? Well, for me it is a pretty hardcore material in a way. When you carve in wood there is no return of what you have done. Perfect. I guess that I always liked pieces with some kind of defect. Mostly the form depends on the figure of a branch or a tree, but quite often also by a mistake or an unexpected action, a crack or a hidden twig. Choosing a piece is very random actually. I use whatever I have. In the end, I would like the experience of my objects to remind us of the handmade. Each object with its own history, with respect for nature and commodity, with a sensitive and poetic context.
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- From my apartment in central Stockholm where I work in the wintertime when it is too cold in my house in the countryside.:) It is just a very simple room. And yes, there are wood shavings like everywhere, haha.
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- At my farm in Tångeråsa, 2.5 hours drive west of Stockholm. A very quiet place in the forest.
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- Workspace in one of the barns (cowhouses) at the farm.
Visit www.marieeklund.se/ and follow @marieeklundhandicraft/
