Andrea Brugi - Woodworking: Traditional Craft for Modern Living

TRADITIONAL CRAFT FOR MODERN LIVING

Samina Langholz and Andrea Brugi

With photography by Ditte Isager

WE WORK CLOSELY ON EVERY IDEA. Our ethos is very simple: do more with less; let each project unfold organically; always be open to possibilities; welcome mistakes and learn from them; let simple, found and readily available materials embolden your design and decisions.

Montemerano is located approximately 300 metres (984 feet) above sea level, in the Maremma area in the south of Tuscany. The village on the small mountain is exactly placed between the Mediterranean Sea and the mountains of Mont Amiata. Its the perfect climate for the 400- to 1,000-year-old olive trees and their fruit, which grow on the slopes and in the valleys around the little town. This is where Andrea grew up, surrounded by nature, craftsmen and the simple things in life; among people with a passion.

Today we live in one of those seventeenth-century houses in Montemerano. Ours was built in 1678 and we have renovated every square metre with our bare hands absolutely nothing has been left to chance. Living in a village with 350 people might seem boring or uninspiring, but for Andrea it is all about the nature, the smells, the past, the stories that inspire him. He is a product of his village. He wouldnt work as he does, think as he does or be who he is if he was born anywhere else, he says.

I used to be the old-fashioned girl, living in Copenhagen, on my bike, enjoying flea markets, collecting antiques and just loving my home with crystal wine glasses, colourful oil paintings and oriental rugs from floor to ceiling. Then we met, in his beautiful medieval village, and this genuine, authentic craft slowly took over our lives. It is all about good memories. The life here is very simple. And it has always been that way. We hope that we will be able to bring up our daughter Gloria in the same spirit.

Samina Langholz

BROKEN IS BEAUTIFUL

Wood is such a huge part of our lives. I would almost say, wood is our life, it has become our partner in life, and we have such a passion and respect for all its vagaries and complexities.

We like to keep things simple; we dont like to overdo an idea. Andrea has always felt that our work should be something every person needs in their home. A piece you enjoy using and which gets more beautiful the more you use it. Without doubt, each finished item has its own distinctive character. As you work with natural wood you will never achieve a polished, perfect result. Every piece is unique in its own way. Two chopping boards of the same size and shape will never be exactly the same. This unique expression is in stark contrast to that achieved by advanced technology and mass production, which automatically generates perfect, identical products. And we believe this is our good fortune. The proliferation in new technology has created a new need in people an obsession for the opposite; a strong desire for something imperfect, warm and human, which adds that final personal touch to their modern home.

We are all so confident in our own tastes and how we want to live now, and it somehow makes a product less attractive, less representative of who you are, if anybody can just go to a store and buy the exact same thing. You could almost say that the imperfect has become the perfect and that there is a new pursuit for true craftsmanship. Our work just feels very natural we do not spend too much time thinking about it.

From the very beginning, everything happened a little by coincidence, and wed like to continue working in this spirit. Neither of us has a background in design, and we dont set out to create a specific object; our new pieces usually pop up while we are working on something else. This process never feels like work, and this is truly a privilege.

Our work today still contains elements of the traditional, but is more creative and contemporary than our previous work. This is not something we set out to do intentionally. In the end it is always about the right confluence of minds. The right match. Like finding your soulmate. What is it that brings out the best in you? When we met, we never made a conscious decision to go into business. It all started in Easter 2005 while we were restoring some pieces of antique furniture for our future home together.

They were abandoned pieces from Andreas workshop, and as we started restoring them we just slowly got to know each other. We didnt even have a common language; he only spoke Italian and still does and I was desperately trying to add an Italian accent to my basic English.

But we learned that what we do together is simply special. As Andrea always says, he couldnt do this without me and I certainly couldnt do it without him. We didnt have a choice, Andrea and I. It was just meant to be. We never made a business plan we are still learning every day. Its never easy, and never boring.

This is how Andrea describes his work and our collaboration: I just do what the wood tells me to do. Perhaps it also has something to do with the close relation with my Danish wife. She definitely has a great influence on my work. Her Scandinavian touch together with my organic rustic roots. Perhaps this is our secret. All of our designs come from the heart and have a story they are simple ideas, which we execute as honestly and cleanly as possible. We believe that this is a part of our success. Before our work was more controlled and structured. We worried more about what others thought and wanted. But with time and experience, we have reached a place where we understand that each piece of wood tells its own story. And the stories we see are never the same as those our clients see, which is beautiful. This acknowledgement is extremely interesting, liberating us in our work and challenging and inspiring us to create new designs. Previously, we would have been concerned about the smallest crack in a chopping board not because we couldnt see the beauty in it but because we were unsure what our clients would think. Would they appreciate and understand the will and character of nature?

Happily, we are learning that people are brave; they understand and accept much more from nature than we could ever wish for. They are the ones who are re-setting the standard for what is perfect today. The twenty new ideas we are sharing here are all very much related to our existing designs, their stories and techniques. There are egg cups inspired by our wedding, ladders to help in the olive groves, and entire mini creations made from the leftovers from earlier refurbishment projects. We hope this book will inspire you to create some of your own unique, individual pieces, which represent you and the effort you have put into them, and that you will be encouraged to find your own stories and ideas when working with different types of wood. We know they will be objects that will be used and admired for many, many years to come.