Marieta
Langeani

Woodworking (2017)
One-to-one dialogue.
Wood (Freijó).

Morito Ebine was one of the most important mentors in my development. I took two foundational woodworking courses with him: one focused on hand tools and the other on a combination of hand and power tools.

The chair and stool presented here were designed by Morito and made by me during these courses. The chair was built entirely with hand tools, using joinery techniques rooted in Japanese woodworking traditions, while the stool combined manual and power-tool processes. A significant part of the training was dedicated to sharpening and tool maintenance, not simply as technical preparation, but as a way of developing autonomy, precision and responsibility throughout the making process.

Other than the technique, the experience profoundly changed the way I understood design. As I built each piece, I realised that I wanted to go beyond execution and understand how design decisions were made. At the same time, I learned that designing an object requires an understanding of the possibilities, limitations and consequences involved in making it.

One of Morito’s teachings has stayed with me in particular: some of the trees used in woodworking take 100 or even 150 years to grow. The least respect we can show the material is to make something capable of lasting just as long. 

I only came to understand many of his teachings with time. Some of them, I feel, I am still understanding today.