Delicate details
- Katja creates beloved pieces and heirlooms
- Her mastery of the saw results in detailed pieces
- She worked as a cabinetmaker in Seattle
As a child, Katja de Vries dreamed of becoming a workshop teacher. As a student at the Waldorf school, she was particularly impressed by the many opportunities to learn crafts there. "You can already learn quite advanced woodworking techniques in the upper classes at Waldorf School, like dovetailing". Katja decided to train as a cabinetmaker after finishing school and came up with the idea of working abroad for a while. So she went to Seattle and took a job as a cabinetmaker. She was surprised by how freely people learned manual trade skills when she was there. Her own desire to learn and experience more about design led her to train as a designer at the technical school for technology and design in Flensburg, back in Germany. But woodworking remained her primary passion.
Interview
- How would you define what you do?
- My goal is to reconcile artistic design with professional craftsmanship. Function and form should complement one another and speak for themselves. My designs emphasize clean lines combined with carefully crafted details.
- What does “well made” mean to you?
- The aim of my work is to create objects that are very special for their owners and, ideally, can be passed down as treasured family heirlooms. In addition to the perfectly crafted work piece, for me "well done" means touching people´s souls with my work.
- What are your sources of inspiration?
- I am often inspired by the work of other people whose craft requires a high level of artistry. A professional acrobat can be just as much a source of inspiration for me as the creations of a master baker. In my work, I try to push the limits of what is possible.
- Why did you decide to become a freelance craftswoman?
- It wasn't a conscious decision, it just came about because I was always working on projects after my studies. As the years passed, the commissioned work I was asked to do improved and became more interesting.
Katja de Vries is an expert artisan: she began her career in 1998
Where
Katja de Vries
