Stories from the fair - From construction to furniture Arboritm

Cristian Tudor - Arboritm - I met him through Daniel Jolța (Lignum), a young, enthusiastic and voluble entrepreneur from Oradea, who came especially to our stand to meet us. Incidentally, this is one of the joys of being at the fair - meeting people who follow our work and see themselves in the topics we cover. Daniel noticed and appreciated the solid wood furniture that Cristian came to the fair with and came back to our stand to tell us about the shy young man at the far end of the pavilion. We hadn't noticed him - the fair was still in its infancy, we were very busy - and it would probably be a while before we got to know each other. Daniel hurried things along, making it easy for us to meet Cristian, but also Mihai and Ayakostories from the fair that I've already told.

Participation in BIFE-SIM 2019

It's not the kind of furniture you expect to see at this fair. A furniture in which you could feel the love for wood, a soulful furniture that reminded you of the past without necessarily being categorized as rustic furniture. The hand-crafted wood had traditional classic joints and fine, elegant, even delicate lines. No waste of any kind, just enough wood to be durable, the furniture useful for the purpose for which it was made.

Cristian is not the kind of producer who is present at such fairs. You'd expect to see him more often at guild fairs in medieval cities, because he works mainly with a chisel and hammer. Still, his furniture is delicate, and when he tells you he learned carpentry from Japanese books, you realize where the simplicity and finesse of the lines come from.

He came to the fair with the help of the Chamber of Commerce. BIFE-SIM is an international fair starting this year and so Cristian was able to benefit from a grant for participating in an international fair. Through the agreement signed with the Chamber of Commerce he received the space for the exhibition, all the expenses related to rent and participation fee were covered by this grant.

The transition from construction graduate to carpenter - designer

Cristian Tudor is a graduate of the Construction Institute, but he was never drawn to such a path. He tells me he made college to be made. He comes from a family of engineers and college was the natural follow-up after high school. Being in college, he got the idea to change the furniture in his house because he didn't like it. She had no knowledge of how to make furniture, but it was something she wanted to do.

The first object was a shoebox made of chipboard. But she didn't like it, she wanted to work with wood. In 2012 she finished college and started learning about wood and furniture. He worked in a few woodworking workshops, but didn't stay too long because he wanted something else, he wanted something more creative. That's when he decided to teach himself from books ordered online and tutorials. Slowly but surely he gained courage and started working on different objects.

"I started making furniture pieces with only hand tools and only traditional joints. Tools picked up at the fair, from ebay or inherited from my grandfather. I learned how to sharpen them, how to correct their geometry so that they function properly (I spent many, many hours doing this), I learned about wood species, about the particularities of each species." 

To learn the art of carpentry he bought books such as Shoji making, The Complete Japanese Joineryby Toshio Odate or The fine art of cabinet makingof Krenov. From them he learned the secrets of wood, and working with it became a way of expression.

Arboritm and the workshop in Blejoi

In the beginning it was very difficult because he didn't have his own space and the places where he worked didn't have the necessary facilities. It was hot in the summer and very cold in the winter and this made him stop working sometimes. In time he managed to set up his own workshop in Blejoi, near Ploiești. There he makes solid wood furniture for those who love wood and see it as a way of expression, not just a material.

He came up with the name of the company long before he registered it. It felt like a union between trees and the rhythm of life, of music, of the universe - Arboritm. He loves wood so much that he never wastes it. The objects aren't stubby, the wood isn't consumed unnecessarily. Only as much as it takes to make the furniture strong.

He works mainly with hand tools, which he likes to work with the most. However, he also has a lathe, an abricht Minimax Fs 30 Genius, a vertical circular lathe and a few power tools in his workshop. He uses oak, frasin, paltin, cherry, nuc, ulm. He finishes with oil and wax. He doesn't even want to hear about varnish, he says it takes you away from the wood, you can't feel it. He makes his own finishing materials from beeswax, carnauba wax and oils. Sometimes he colors the wood by burning, creating contrasts between the deep black of the burned fiber and the light color of the wood. "Everything should be natural, so the presence of the piece of furniture will be natural".

Unique handmade furniture

He works both with furniture that he designs himself according to the project and the client's needs, as well as with projects that have come about as a result of collaborating with clients, developing the design together.

"Sometimes the work I do doesn't have a clear definition from the start. I mean, I don't necessarily start from a drawing, rather I imagine it. If I see a plank that I think is special, I put it in storage until I know what I'm going to do with it. I then build around that plank, following both well-defined principles of jointing (a piece has to be sturdy) and ideas that arise spontaneously as I work."

The aesthetics of the objects Cristian makes are inspired by nature, tradition and the desire for innovation. He works efficiently and with precision making solid wood furniture. Each piece is crafted by hand, carefully choosing the wood and emphasizing its peculiarities. He doesn't want to do things quickly but to do them well. He is guided by the saying "The good thing you like, you don't ask how long it takes".

Cristian Tudor is another carpenter, as I like to call them. They are part of this young generation who choose to do what they love, to follow their passion. Young people fall prey their love for wood, and they enjoy making things of very good quality. We have talked about them and we will continue to talk about them because we consider them examples and inspirations for others. Daniel Jolța, the discoverer Cristian from the fair, told us that he had the courage to leave everything and start a business in the wood business by reading his story Dragos and Costi. We hope that Cristian's passion for wood will be such an inspiration.

Good luck, Cristian!