Chresten Sommer is the man behind several of Spring Copenhagen’s popular wooden animals. He originally trained as a boatbuilder, and although he still builds boats full-time, he dreams of one day being able to make a living from his design work. It is here, after all, that he can truly give free rein to his creativity.
Designer Chresten Sommer is actually a boatbuilder. He spends his days transforming flat, two-dimensional drawings of boats into full-size boats big enough for entire families. This is how he earns his living and puts food on the table on the former farm just outside Kolding, where he lives and has his workshop.
Design on his mind
Chresten Sommer enjoys building boats. Yet one day, 15–20 years ago, he was in his workshop – and instead of a boat, a little troll came into being. Over time, the troll became a kangaroo and the kangaroo a little wooden man – at the request of his sister-in-law’s grandchild. And before he knew it, he was spending most weekends in the workshop at the disused farmstead.
“When I go to work and build boats, I think about which design I’m going to make when I get home. The boats put bread on the table. But it’s the animals I love making,” says Chresten Sommer.
“When I build boats, there’s a set template. They have to look a certain way. That’s not the case when I’m at home in the workshop. There, I might sometimes turn 20 bodies before I get the one I want.”
Cake decorations are the source of inspiration
Chresten Sommer often finds his inspiration on the social media platform Pinterest. But it isn’t wooden animals he’s looking for. It’s cake decorations. Cake decorations are often more imaginative and ‘Disney-esque’, as he puts it. Just like the animals he shapes in his workshop. As well as cake decorations, he also finds inspiration in modelling clay, soft toys and crocheted animals. Once the inspiration is there, he invests in small, more authentic plastic animals to get the proportions and details just right.
The South Jutland-based designer and boatbuilder isn’t surprised by the success his wooden animals have enjoyed. “Because I think what I make is bloody good,” as he puts it.
But although Chresten Sommer exudes self-confidence, there have still been a few minor hiccups along the way. For example, in the form of animals that turned out to be harder to bring to life than expected.
“I once started designing a gorilla, but the head was simply too difficult to get right. I never really cracked that one,” he explains. Tigers and giraffes have also passed through the lathe in Kolding, but never really made it beyond the workshop. Patterned animals are difficult to carve in wood. It’s actually an art to make a tiger look like a tiger without its distinctive stripes.
Playing with colour and expression
These days, the boatbuilder’s thoughts revolve around one day designing a panda. Because it’s “a bit teddy-bear-like and chubby”. And also because the panda’s fur makes it possible to play with colours and combine different types of wood to achieve just the right look.
Personally, Chresten Sommer is a cat person. Because they’re independent creatures who one moment are curled up on your lap purring – and the next are darting out the door to catch a mouse.
“They’re fun to watch. A bit like a little tiger,” he says.
And speaking of tigers. Who knows? Perhaps one day he’ll crack the code and design a little tiger. With or without stripes.
See all of Chresten Sommer’s designs
