Happy New Year 2025
Thanks for everything in 2024, thanks for following, buying bookazines, supporting and cheering me on.
December 2024
Without readers, no HÅNDVÆRK bookazine.
‘No bookazines, no craft’ would be an overstatement. However, as I look back during these final days of the year, I am encouraged by the many comments I have received telling me that HÅNDVÆRK is making a difference – for individual makers and artisans as well as for the field at large.
Since 2019, the bookazine has contributed to growing respect for crafts and craftspeople, whether in independent practices or in collaborations with designers or architects.
The visibility provided by the bookazine has also led to cross-fertilization in several cases, as articles have resulted in new collaborations and opportunities.
I thank the Danish Arts Foundation, which in December approved a grant to support the publication of HÅNDVÆRK in 2025.
I also thank the private foundations the Beckett Foundation, Bodil Pedersen Fonden and Lizzi og Mogens Staal Fonden. Your support makes it possible for me to continue to produce independent and carefully reported content.
Thanks to everyone who has sent me tips about makers, artisans, designers, artists and products that you wish to bring to my attention.
I am not able to cover it all but I do appreciate all your helpful tips.
In bookazine no. 11 I included products by the Malmö-based designer Kristina Stark. Shortly after the release of the bookazine she wrote me, ‘I just entered into an interesting collaboration with Klippan Yllefabrik, perhaps you’d like to hear about it?’
Like Malmö, Klippan is located in Sweden’s Scania region and to use a Swedish expression, Kristina always ‘digs where she stands’, meaning that her design practice and, in particular, her aesthetic are deeply rooted in her local setting. Thus, one of the products featured in the bookazine, a mug, is made in the Scanian town of Höganäs. The other one is made in Portugal, and although that is further afield, its design expression is unmistakably Swedish.
For Klippan Yllefabrik – a family-owned company, currently run by the fifth generation, which has weaving mills in Latvia – Kristina designed a collection of woollen blankets. The series is a tribute to the architect Sigurd Lewerentz (1885–1975) and his final work, S:t Petri Church in the town of Klippan, which was completed in 1966.
On a personal note, Kristina mentioned in her e-mail that as a child, she had lived in Klippan for a few years and attended children’s activities at the church. Although she did not consciously notice the architecture at the time, it was a special pleasure for her to return to the place and draw inspiration from the magnificent space for her own independent creative achievement, the collection of blankets.
The blankets are made of 100% organic wool and felted after weaving.
Godt nytår 2025
Tak for 2024, tak fordi du følger med, køber bookaziner, hepper, og støtter.
Uden læsere ingen HÅNDVÆRK bookazine.
At sige uden bookaziner ingen håndværk, er nok at tage munden for fuld.
Jeg tillader mig dog her på årets sidste dage at gøre status, og at glæde mig over de mange tilbagemeldinger jeg får, som fortæller, at HÅNDVÆRK gør en forskel.
En forskel på individniveau, og på brancheniveau.
Bookazinet har siden 2019 bidraget til en udvikling, hvor håndværk og håndværkeren ses på med fornyet respekt, hvad enten håndværkeren udfører sit værk i samarbejde med en designer eller arkitekt eller for egen regning.
Synlighed gennem bookazinet har også vist sig at krydsbefrugte på en måde, hvor der i kølvandet på en del artikler, er indledt samarbejder og der er opstået nye muligheder for mange.
Tak til Statens Kunstfond, som i december meddelte at de støtter HÅNDVÆRK i 2025.
Tak også til Beckett Fonden, Bodil Pedersen Fonden og Lizzi og Mogens Staal Fonden.
Jeres støtte gør, at jeg fortsat kan producere uvildigt gennemarbejdet indhold.
Tak også til alle jer som tipser mig om håndværkere, designere, kunstnere og/eller produkter som I mener, jeg skal give opmærksomhed.
Jeg når ikke forbi alle, men værdsætter det hele.
I bookazine 11 viste jeg produkter fra den Malmöbaserede Designer Kristina Stark. Umiddelbart efter lanceringen skrev hun, ”jeg har indgået et interessant samarbejde med Klippan Yllefabrik, måske vil du høre om det?”.
Klippan ligger lige som Malmö i Skåne, og for at bruge et svensk udtryk, så ”gräver Kristina altid där hon står”, eller med andre ord, hendes designvirksomhed og navnlig hendes æstetik er forankret i det lokale. Således er et af de produkter, et krus, jeg viste i bookazinet fremstillet i Höganäs og et andet, nå ja, i Portugal, knap så lokalt, men formsproget er umiskendeligt svensk.
For Klippan Yllefabrik, som er en familieejet virksomhed, nu i hænderne på femte generation, og med væveri ikke i Sverige men i Letland, har Kristina tegnet en plaidkollektion.
En homage til arkitekt Sigurd Lewerentz (1885-1975) og hans sidste værk S:t Petrikirken i Klippan, som stod færdig i1966.
Som et kuriosum fortalte Kristina videre i sin mail, at hun som barn boede nogle år i Klippan og deltog i kirkens børneaktiviteter, og selvom arkitekturen ikke på et bevidst plan betog hende den gang, har det været en særlig fornøjelse at vende tilbage og med udgangspunkt i den kraftfulde arkitektur, skabe sit eget selvstændige værk, plaidkollektionen.
Plaiderne er fremstillet af 100% økologisk ud og efterfølgende filtet.
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