PHOTOS YOU DIDN’T SEE
… in HÅNDVÆRK bookazine no. 3, the one with the cabinetmaker’s workshop on the cover
January 2021
When I visited cabinetmakers Sophie and Frederik Roth Clemmensen in spring 2020, they had recently moved from Copenhagen to the island of Bornholm in the Baltic and were counting down to the delivery of their first child. Now, the two who became three are well settled in their new home.
They generously let me use their guest cottage during my visit to the island, so we were able to spend some time together on and off over a couple of days. That resulted in more photos than I could fit into the bookazine, so I’m happy to share some additional shots with you here. It also resulted in some excellent meals – Frederik is a formidable cook, but that is a different story.
Among the photos I have posted here is one showing a table with a parquet tabletop. Parquet is the couple’s signature technique – initially, it was Sophie’s, now it is their shared one. You probably already know the story, from the bookazine, of how their joint cabinetmakers’ studio grew from Sophie’s project to a joint endeavour. Together, they have established Raadvad Møbelsnedkeri Bornholm (Raadvad Cabinetmakers’ Studio Bornholm). If you haven’t yet read the story and would like to, you can buy the bookazine here.
The table in the photo holds special significance: it is Sophie’s wedding present to Frederik. Over dinner, they told me about their romantic fairy-tale wedding. ‘He proposed to me on New Year’s Eve, six months after we first met,’ said Sophie, and the following summer, the summer before their move to Bornholm, they were married. The wedding was held on Bornholm, in the garden of Sophie’s parents’ summer cottage overlooking the Baltic Sea. The reception was carefully designed, the food, which came from the Bornholm restaurant Kadeau, was great, the speeches – their speeches to each other as well as all the other speeches – were warm, and the party lasted till dawn.
Another story that did not make it into the bookazine was Sophie’s story of her time as a cabinetmaker’s apprentice, some years ago now. It is not a pretty story; on the contrary, it is a story of a deplorable abuse of power and a master propping up his own ego by telling her how useless and stupid she was. She passed her final test with the finest acknowledgement possible, a medal. Clearly, she wasn’t completely useless.
Sophie is resilient, and I am convinced that she has never truly doubted her own worth, but why the heck do some teachers and masters think it’s okay to treat their students and apprentices with disrespect?
And don’t get me started on the whole #metoo issue.
‘If we ever take on an apprentice, we are going to do it completely differently,’ Sophie concluded, with emphasis, as she showed me around their workshop. And Frederik, who had much better conditions during his apprenticeship completely agrees.
In the photos from the workshop you can glimpse a near finished toy kitchen range for the child they were expecting at the time. Since then, they have made similar pieces for other lucky children, and judging by the interest in the comments section on their Instagram account, we have only seen the beginning of a kitchen adventure – another signature item for the duo and perhaps the basis for bringing in an apprentice some time in the future.
Da jeg besøgte snedkerparret Sophie og Frederik Roth Clemmensen i foråret 2020, var de få måneder inden flyttet til Bornholm fra København, og de talte ned til barsel. Nu er de to for længst blevet til tre.
Meget generøst stillede de deres gæstebolig til rådighed, og vi havde derfor lejlighed til at omgås til og fra over et par dage. Det resulterede i flere billeder, end dem der var plads til i bookazinet, dem får du her. Det resulterede også i nogle gode måltider, Frederik er en formidabel kok, men det er en anden historie.
Her ser du blandt andet et fotografi af et bord med parketplade. Parkettet er deres signatur, først var det Sophies signatur, nu er den fælles. Snedkeriets udvikling fra at være Sophies projekt til nu at være fælles har du sikkert læst om i bookazinet. Sammen hedder de Raadvad Møbelsnedkeri Bornholm. Hvis ikke du har læst og gerne vil, så kan du købe bookazinet her.
Bordet på billedet er helt særligt, det er Sophies bryllupsgave til Frederik. De talte over middagen med varme i stemmen om deres bryllup, et romantisk eventyrbryllup. ”Han friede nytårsaften, et halvt år efter vi havde mødt hinanden”, fortalte Sophie, og den følgende sommer, sommeren inden de flyttede til Bornholm, blev de gift. Brylluppet blev holdt i Sophies forældres sommerhushave på Bornholm. Festen var scenograferet ned til mindste detalje; maden, som kom fra bornholmerrestauranten Kadeau, var fantastisk, talerne var varme – både dem de holdt for hinanden og alle de andre – og de festede med udsigt til Østersøen til den lyse morgen.
Noget af det, som heller ikke kom med i bookazinet, var Sophies fortælling om sin tid som snedkerlærling for snart en del år siden. Det er ikke en køn historie, tværtimod er det en historie om kedeligt magtmisbrug og om en læremester, som hævdede sig selv ved at fortælle hende, hvor dum og uduelig hun var. Hendes svendeprøve afsluttede hun med den største anerkendelse, man kan opnå; en medalje. Helt uduelig var hun tydeligvis ikke.
Sophie er sej, og jeg er overbevist om, at hun aldrig for alvor har været i tvivl om sit eget værd, men hvorfor pokker er det ikke en selvfølge at behandle sine elever pænt og med respekt?
Og så har vi slet ikke talt #metoo.
”Hvis vi en gang skal have lærling, så bliver det på en helt anden måde”, konkluderer Sophie med eftertryk, da vi går omkring på værkstedet, og Frederik, som har haft helt andre og bedre forhold i sin lærlingetid, er helt enig.
Man aner på billederne fra værkstedet et næsten færdigt dukkekomfur, det er til det barn, som er i vente. Siden har også andre børn været heldige og at dømme efter interessen i kommentarfeltet på Instagram, har vi kun set begyndelsen på et køkkeneventyr, endnu et signaturitem og måske et behov for en lærling en gang i fremtiden!
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