glimpt: south africa project

as part of their final project from the carl malmsten furniture studies in stockholm, sweden tor and mattias of glimpt, wanted to utilize their woodworking skills and collaborate with craftsmen to create a collection of furniture pieces. this idea lead them to co-operate with craftspeople in south africa, giving them the opportunity to highlight their skills and cultural traditions, contributing to creating more work for the local people. they established contact with furntech -south africa’s centre of excellence for the furniture industry – who willingly accepted to work with the swedish duo. furntech focuses on skills development in furniture manufacturing, looking to improve the quality of the south african wood and furniture industry, offering accredited training programmes as well as support / incubation for small and micro enterprises.

‘sideboard’ is a painted drawer with a massive wooden front, milled grooves allow for easy mounting of the storage unit’s steel base

tor palm also established contact with a ceramics studio called potters workshop and found different metal workers who were willing to cooperate on the project. the swedish duo spent four weeks in cape town, south africa, working together with the various organizations and individuals they were in contact with, developing a number of prototypes which they wanted to carry a strong feeling of south african culture. the result is: a knock-down stool and sideboard, along with a selection of hand-decorated ceramic lamps. they combined materials and worked with colors and techniques similar to those in south african handicraft.

‘sideboard’