Norwegian Wood
by Bonnie Alter, London on 09.27.07
There is something so northern, and well, Canadian, about these Norwegian lights. They are made of thin birch strip veneer mounted on white paper, and held together with natural leather lacing. The motif is a forest, with pine trees and eagles and wolves laser cut into the wood. When the light shines through, it almost looks like snow. The lights are produced and hand assembled by a group of local artisans in Oslo so they maintain a personal quirky character.
They look wonderful in groups of two and three or could stand alone. The other model has a base that is made of steel, and wound with natural leather.and could sit on a table. Are they craft or are they design? They are at the London Design Festival and apparently the biggest fans are Canadians who are drawn to the lights like homesick moths. :: Cathrine Kullberg Lighting Via :: London Design Festival
Strangely enough, this story about Norwegian and Canadian loggers tumbled into my inbox today!
There were 2 finalists at the world logging championships, a Canadian and a Norwegian.
Their task was straightforward. Each had a sector of the forest to clear. Whoever could fell the most timber between 8.00am and 4.00pm would be the winner.
At 8.00 am the whistle blew and the 2 lumberjacks set to work. It seemed that they chopped stroke for stroke, until at 8.50 the Canadian heard the Norwegian stop. Sensing his chance, the Canadian redoubled his efforts.
At 9.00 am he heard the Norwegian start again. Once more they chopped stroke for stroke, until, 50 minutes later, the Norwegian stopped again. The Canadian continued , determined to make the most of his advantage.
At the stroke of 10.00 the Norwegian resumed, only to stop again 50 minutes later.
And so it continued throughout the day. Every hour at ten to the hour the Norwegian would stop for 10 minutes while the Canadian continued, always with an increased sense of confidence.
Imagine the Canadian’s surprise at the end of the day, when the felled timber was counted and the Norwegian was declared the winner.
“How did you do that” asked the Canadian. “Every hour I heard you stop for 10 minutes. How on earth were you able to cut more timber than me?”
“Its really very simple,” said the Norwegian,” Every hour at ten to the hour I stopped. While you continued to cut, I was sharpening my axe”
I dread to think how many times in my life I have continued chopping when I should have been sharpening my axe.
So, a Norwegian woman in Norway designs traditional Scandinavian-style lamps, has them made in Norway using Norwegian wood, and decorates them with Norwegian landscape motifs, and calls them Norwegian Forest lamps, and displays them in her Norwegian studio, and then Treehugger says there's something Canadian about them. If it's a joke, I don't get it. o_O
The lamps are very beautiful, but I couldn't help noticing on her product sheet that her light source is the evil energy sucking incandescent. Not so treehugging after all.
Well, put in an energy saving light bulb into this Forest Lamp! I guess it is nothing stopping the user to choose the right kind of eco friendly bulb - having said that:
- interestingly enough, there is a qualified discussion on the sustainability of the energy saving bulbs - the level if silvery toxic/ mercury in each bulb is of many countries (surspise:Norway for example) considered a much worse environmental damage couse than the old incandescent light bulb. Paradox.