My name is Ulfson. I am a green woodworker, aspiring woodsman and wilderness guide. I work mainly with wood sourced from deciduous forests in southern Sweden, near where I live. I have also worked as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist for the past two decades, which is something that informs how I approach and work with wood.

I carve spoons and utensils because I enjoy entering into dialogue with the natural material which, like any fellow human, should not be forced into some particular predetermined form. Rather I see it as my task to facilitate a form of natural becoming rather than driving towards fixed states and shapes. I believe that engaging with others in deep conversation is to similarly invite the eruption of something unexpected, traces perhaps of existential knots and swirls around which that particular life has adapted, adjusted and grown. When I axe billets and blanks out of a log the feeling is similarly one of anticipation and curiosity; what unique grain, figure and texture exists in there, underneath the gnarly bark and bland sapwood?

Why work with greenwood? I believe that it is the case for all of us that we tend to become the material we choose to work with, and to me it is clear that wood possesses many enviable qualities. It is a wondrous material; often soft and compliant enough to shape with hand tools yet simultaneously strong enough to be utilized in so many varied applications. It is a good material to use and surround oneself with. It is said that if one touches any body of water one is immediately connected to its farthest shore. The same holds true for crafted wood objects; use them in your daily life and be immediately connected to a vastness of natural growth and enduring strength.

All my work is done with hand tools only; axe, saw and a variety of slöjd- and hook-knives. Check out my Instagram @sloyd_ulv for more pictures.