Atelier.Lignum - the story of how an engineer with a successful career became a carpenter who passionately tells the story of wood

I met Daniel Jolța at BIFE in 2019. He came to our stand to meet us and talk about his passion for wood. He was at the beginning of a journey based on his love for woodworking, discovered years ago. He had come from Oradea to the fair in Bucharest to find a machinery supplier for his new business. The visit paid off because he had already agreed in principle with Wood IQ for classic carpentry machines. There was a lot of passion in the way he talked about his projects, about wood and about his colleagues doing great things. Since then, I have followed his journey, appreciating his hard work and every success. The other day we met again and found the same determination to follow his path and a story worth telling.

A passion for wood changed his destiny

Daniel is a construction engineer by trade, but says he is a carpenter at heart. After college he worked in the automotive industry for 5 years. He was working for a large company with several businesses and at one point he was given a carpentry shop to organize and manage. He was so impressed with what was being done there that he felt that this was what he wanted to do, that this was his path.

You know, I loved it so much, I could hear a choir of angels in the background. I decided this is what I wanted to do with my life. That was the year I made my logo. I made it to have a visual identity, like an anchor to hold onto to create my dream. That was in 2014 and only in 2019 my dream came true.

That same year he decided he needed to gain experience in the field and decided to change jobs. He wanted to work in a furniture factory, to start from the ground up, to learn everything by making things himself. He sent his resume to all the furniture factories in town and before Christmas he quit a job where he had a high-paying management position for a laborer who would put hinges on furniture doors for half pay. Very important to this step was the support of his family, with his wife by his side at all times.

After 3 months on the job, however, he was offered to take over the Commercial and Logistics Department. Although he was again moving away from furniture production, he accepted because he realized there was a lot to learn. The company was Italian, and his task was to liaise between the Romanian and Italian companies. That's when he realized how important customer service is, he learned that it's not just about value for money. Service is also part of the equation, and good service means quality.

Service is basically the cornerstone on which I've built my business. For example, delivery time is sacred to me. I wanted to repair the reputation of the craftsman who is said to never finish the job on time. I also let clients know the status of the work so that they are also prepared in case it's interior design. This has resulted in me having repeat customers who come back for other orders. Someone told me at one point that he was racking his brain what to do with wood in his house. I have a small workshop, my mode of business is Business to Client and I see that service is very important. I learned this in the Italian company where I worked.

He worked in the furniture company for 3 and a half years, but the desire to start his own woodworking business never stopped. At one point he was offered to become general manager. He took a good look at the situation and realized that this was not the path he wanted to go down. He told his employers about his passion and they made him an offer. To work directly in the factory for 1-2 years, gain experience and then choose what he wanted to do. He accepted and took over the machine department where they worked on classic machines and CNCs. Here he learned about machines and saw how to work on them, but without actually working directly.

Start Up Plus gave him the opportunity to start on the road to entrepreneurship

When I was working in the car department, entrepreneurship courses were organized in Oradea within the Start Up Plus program. Unlike Start Up Nation, this is a program that grants non-reimbursable European funds by first analyzing the business plan. Daniel signed up for the course, attended and completed it, and then made a business plan for which he scored very well. He defended the plan in front of a panel of local entrepreneurs and representatives of the program, and in the end he received funding of over €30,000. It was the sign he was waiting for to choose whether to stay in the furniture factory or go down the entrepreneurial path.

Under this program, funding is received directly, in two tranches, not through a bank. The first installment, 75%, came 6 months after approval, with the rest to follow within a year, provided that they produce 25% of the full grant amount during that period. It was 2019 and as he was shortly to receive the first installment, he came to the fair to see what machinery he could buy.

Collaboration with Wood IQ

Of the entire funding, he decided to use most of the amount, 2/3, to purchase machinery, 20% for hand tools, and the rest to provide 5-6 months rent for the workshop as a safety net in case he failed to produce enough.

We went with Wood IQ primarily for the person Dan Pruteanu. For him the relationship with the customer is very important and I felt that we have the same way of thinking from this point of view. I needed the equipment very quickly and as the money was not yet in my account, I had to provide it from my own funds. Dan accepted an advance of 101TPTP3T of the value of the machines which was very important to me.

Bought a combined circular+brake machine Wood IQ model CF2300a straightening machine Wood IQ model MI 53Pro and one to slice to thickness Wood IQ model RG 53 - both with a maximum available width of 530 mm - one vertical sander Wood IQ model SC 2600 and an exhaust.

The abric and thickness I got them fitted with a helical shaft with pills. It cost me more, but I made the best choice. With a single row of pills I went more than a year machining in full oak and cer. It is easy to work and maintain, and if you have to change them, even if the price is 400 euro, you have 3 years to save that money. For hand tools we went with Festool.

The chance offered by Oradea City Hall

The dream had come true, and the visual identity it had been clinging on to until then had acquired legal personality - Workshop.Lignum. Before the machines arrived, he tried to get his hands on the machines in a friend's workshop. For sanding and all the manual labor, he had improvised a workshop in a disused kitchen at his grandparents'. He bought scraps from furniture factories, sorted them, choosing the best. That's how he started making shredders. It seemed to him that they didn't require precision or sophisticated machining, just creativity, so he made them as interesting and attractive as possible.

At the same time the Autumn Fair was taking place in Oradea. Although it was quite late I insisted at the city hall until they accepted me. I set up the stand as aesthetically as possible, with carpentry benches, old rhodies, hanging shredders and flowers. People were very attracted and in 2 days I sold everything I had made. I stayed all night in the workshop and worked on other shredders. In the morning when I arrived at the market, people came and took them from my arms, they were arguing over them. I couldn't believe it! It was great, I turned 500 lei worth of wood waste into 9000 euro.

After the fair, the city came to me from the department Visit Oradea and they told me that from now on I could participate in all the fairs organized by the town hall and that I didn't have to pay anything for participating in that fair. They just asked me to be as original for the next editions.

After the Fall Fair the machines came, so he could prepare even better for the Christmas Fair, especially since he had also moved into the rented and furnished workshop. He attended the fair, also with shredders and again it was a success. After the fair they contacted him again from Oradea City Hall and told him he had been appointed city promotion ambassador. He was going to attend all the fairs in the country as a representative of the city where, in addition to his own presentation, he had the task of finding equally creative people in this area of manufacturing, whom he would invite to the fairs to be held in Oradea. The idea was to change the face of the fairs, to make them more authentic and spectacular.

The pandemic halted some plans, but created conditions for others

In January and February 2020 I was working from 4 in the morning to stock up on shredders for the fairs. I had the whole year full of fair participations, some months I had 2-3 fair participations and I realized that with the road and everything, I would not have when to produce. So I made a big stock of shredders. And then came the pandemic! Everything was suspended and I was left with the stock. I immediately set up a website to sell them online. But when the lock-down period started, nothing was happening. The questions started: what do we live on, there were 2 small children at home (wife looking after them), how do we pay the bills? I would come to the workshop and do woodwork because I liked it. And at one point a friend called me. Are you making a meal? -Yes, of course! I had no idea how to make tables. I did, and a year and a half later it's still standing up very well. Then another phone call - Do you make dressers? Yes, the best! I hadn't made any. That's when I understood that saying about measuring ten times and cutting once. I'd measure and measure and before I cut, I'd stop and measure again. I did it and it came out really well.

In June he slowly started to gain courage again. At the height of the pandemic he was approached to set up a café in Cluj. There are several companies in the area where he has his workshop - wrought iron, panel processing, etc - and so he managed to bid for the whole job and to give work to other companies. There was a period when he was working very hard and fatigue built up. On one of those days, the cheekbone popped out of his hand and severed several tendons. He continued working with his hand in plaster. His wife helped him with the sanding. The plaster was taken off the day before the assembly in Cluj. But then he realized he needed people.

There are now 4 of us in the workshop. I have very nice and serious people. Lignum is a team result. We could use another one, I hope to find it soon.

Daniel was going to end up making furniture, but until the pandemic this was not a priority. The pandemic, however, sped things up and forced him to start down that path. Now he makes furniture and has no time for shredders. He's sorry he can't honor this request as well, but there simply isn't time.

Year 2021 is fully booked, the strategy for 2022 is done and already thinking about the development plan for 2023

Making solid wood furniture gives him untold satisfaction. She loves what she does and tries to involve others in what she does. She takes advantage of the opportunities for interaction offered by social networking and shows what's behind it, behind closed doors, as he puts it. Through videos and photos of the workshop, which he also takes, people can see how a table or a chest of drawers is born, from the rough plank to the final product. He feels that people get emotionally involved, and the customer, even if the object is not shown in its entirety, is very pleased when they recognize their work.

Setting off on the road of his dreams proved to be inspired for Daniel Jolța. Now 2021 is complete in terms of orders. Lignum has complete home furnishing projects for the whole year. As the projects are phased, to ensure cash-flow they supplement with small orders of tables or dressers. And for 2022 the strategy is done. He would like to materialize a few own furniture collections with the possibility of adaptation. To have a personal imprint, but also offer the possibility to adapt to the vision of designers or architects. And in the development plan for 2023 Daniel has included the creation of a new furniture brand.

Good luck, Daniel, good luck Atelier.Lignum! We promise to follow your projects from now on!