Press release February 2001

Turner and designer on pins

A Danish wood turner is to produce furniture designer Hans Sandgren Jakobsenīs "crazy idea" - a stool with 37 pins, which look like a midwife's auscultator.

It all started in 1999 when furniture designer Hans Sandgren Jakobsen was challenged to go where he had not gone before, and he never really imagined that his movable stool some day would go into production. In a very different part of Denmark a young and self-employed wood turner, Lars Werner, was considering how he could get started on something more special and unique than his usual products. And in a completely different part of the world, Nils Robenhagen, the Danish export assistant of New York in New York, was looking for a special piece of furniture, which could represent the courage and modernity of Danish sitting furniture at a travelling exhibition in 2001.

These exceptional circumstances led to the fact that the stools "Movable" and "Immovable" are now being produced by the small one-man firm HB Wood Turnery which so far has worked as sub-supplier for large furniture factories. "Movable" consists of a round foot with 37 pins that are 43 centimetres long and form a convex seat. The pins resemble a midwife's auscultator or the androecium of flowers. The principles of "Immovable" are the same but it has a rectangular foot and a concave seat.

"Almost the entire stool is turned and it is an enormous challenge to make the holes fit. This stool shows what we can do and it demonstrates the quality we stand for. I do not believe it will be a bestseller, but hopefully, we will be able to catch peoplesī attention. This is a great way to get started if we want to make new innovative products", says Lars Werner, who has run HB Wood Turnery in cooperation with his wife for almost two years.

Lars Werner is 26 years old, the father of three children and a very courageous man - because it is quite a risk for a small company to take on an assignment like this - the large furniture companies have not exactly been fighting to get their hands on the stools. Hans Sandgren Jakobsen designed the stools for a project called "Walk the Plank" which to place at Kunstindustimuseet in Copenhagen in 1999. Forty designers and cabinetmakers were coupled and received a plank of which they were to make a piece of furniture for sitting. "It was a luxury to be able to develop a product without any consideration for commercial interest. It was a playful assignment -and it was a great chance to go 'all the way' - to go crazy", Hans Sandgren Jakobsen explains. He does not really remember how the idea with the pins occurred.

The designs from "Walk the Plank" were sold at an auction and the surplus was donated to a fund, which is to support further development of new furniture design. In connection with "Walk the Plank", a catalogue was made and it was here the Danish export assistant of New York in New York saw "Movable" for the first time. "I had not thought of the stool as an idea for the exhibition myself, but I am glad Nils Robenhagen noticed the stool", Hans Sandgren Jakobsen says.

Besides "Movable" two other designs ("Victor" and "Dialog 1") from Hans Sandgren Jakobsenīs hand will be shown at the exhibition "Danes on the move". The exhibition presents 15 pieces of Danish furniture design for sitting, and it will travel around America visiting at least 15 furniture stores. The exhibition will start in New York on March 6th 2001.

Further information:
www.hans.sandgren.jakobsen.com/presseservice
Designer Hans Sandgren Jakobsen, tel. +45 8632 0048
Wood turner Lars Werner, tel. +45 6473 1822

Sincerely yours

Hans Sandgren Jakobsen