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SCANDINAVIAN MONTHLY | DESIGN
365 Daily Norwegian Wooden Spoons Text Tor Kjolberg
The young Oslo-based designer Stian Korntved Ruud (one half of the naturalist design duo Kneip) invested his energies for one whole year into a singular project – hand carving a wooden spoon each day – resulting in 365 daily Norwegian wooden spoons. Stian Korntved Ruud is an active part of Norway’s thriving design scene. He uses wood and various natural materials in his craft; his varied projects demonstrate what is undoubtedly an intuitive as well as learned understanding of materials and how they can be worked. Hailing from a family of wood lovers, he gets back to basics with a very Norwegian skill indeed; Norway is a country where people have carved in wood
Stian Korntved Ruud uses wood and various natural materials in his craft
and sculpted wooden objects for many generations. His project from 2014-15 consists of 365 unique hand carved spoons made from various types of wood gathered around the world. The Daily Spoon is a meditation in material – by adding functionality to a piece of wood, Ruud is exploring the boundaries of the material itself while refining his craft. Related: A Norwegian Artist Reviewing the Magic of Norwegian Stone Stian Korntved Ruud has ”always experimented [with], modified, repaired and destroyed the objects around him.” With a BA in Product Design (Akershus University College,
Norway), a MA in Industrial Design (Oslo School of Architecture and Design, Norway) and an internship at Tom Dixon in London, Ruud has a rather formidable academic grounding which he has used in building an assorted portfolio, manipulating materials by employing differing forms and concepts, including video, lighting, product exploration and woodworking along the way. “By repeating the production of a spoon every day for a longer period of time (365 days) I wanted to challenge and explore a spoon’s aesthetic and functional qualities,” he says. Related: The Classic Norwegian Sweater That Became a Fashion Hit
