Reykjavík Grapevine - jun 2023, Side 8

The Reykjavík Grapevine 7 / 23 8
WORDS Iryna Zubenko
IMAGE Art Bicnick
Einar Vignir Vatneyr
Skarphéðinsson’s wood workshop
is located just a few steps from his
house in Patreksfjörður. It’s his pri-
vate sanctuary, a place where his art
comes to life. Although Einar feels
a bit uneasy during interviews, he
willingly showcases his handicrafts
– wooden bowties, chandeliers,
curtains, gifts for his partner and a
toy car for his daughter. Let’s take a
step into Einar’s garden to explore
where one can find driftwood these
days and uncover the story behind
the film award named for him.
I was born and raised in Patreks-
fjörður and lived here my whole life
except for one winter in Reykjavík
and one in Eskifjörður.
I’ve been doing handiwork ever
since I can remember — for about
30 years. I am a carpenter, and I’ve
been a shop class teacher in the ele-
mentary school for 20 years before I
stopped last year.
Despite living next to the sea, I was
never interested in it. I worked in a
frozen storage facility, and I don’t
really know why I ended up working
with timber. I remember the first time
I went to a woodturning workshop —
I was in Reykjavík while waiting for
my wife to give birth and I used the
chance to go. Since then, I’ve always
been at it, more or less.
Although I learned the craft from a
relative, woodwork wasn’t a tradition-
al skill in my family. My dad started to
do some handiwork when he retired.
I teased him that he had gotten the
skills from me rather than the other
way around.
SIGNATURE BOWTIES
When I started using the woodturn-
ing lathe, I made a lot of bowls and
all sorts of things from worm-eaten
driftwood. Then I started making
pens and keychains. These past
few years, I’ve mostly been making
wooden bow ties. I developed them
from scratch, and they have been
the most popular things I make.
I advertise by putting it on Facebook
and Instagram, and people call me.
I’ve sent my pieces all over the world
— the bowties are going pretty far
and wide. I think that the furthest I’ve
sold has been to Brazil.
When I started making bowties, I was
living with my ex-wife, and she was
crocheting bowties. I was observing
her, and I thought that if she could
crochet them, then I must be able to
make them. Getting the right bowtie
took a long time, but I got it down
with time. It is going well — there
are at least two presidents and one
prime minister who own bowties that
I’ve made.
DRIFTWOOD CRAFTS
When I’m making bowties using
driftwood, the biggest challenge is to
see the pattern emerge and remove
parts of the wood so the pattern, the
veins can look their best.
There used to be a lot more drift-
wood here a few years ago, and then
the driftwood left Russia, got stuck in
the ice near Greenland, and was 3-5
years on its way before I could pick
it up here and then I had to dry it. I
don’t see much driftwood in this area
now, so I’ve been using it much less.
My favourite places to find drift-
wood are between Látrabjarg and
Rauðasandur. When I need more and
larger pieces, I go north to Strandir,
there’s a lot more of it there. Once,
many years ago, I needed to send
the driftwood to Reykjavík, and the
guys in BYKO helped me to dry it
in their kiln, which took quite some
time.
THE EINAR’S AWARD
This is the 16th Einar Award I’ve
made for the Skjaldborg Documen-
tary Film Festival. [Einar holds up
the award he’s made for this year’s
festival] It started 16 years ago when
a good buddy of mine, one of the
founders of Skjaldborg, approached
me and asked if I could fashion some
sort of trophy. Out of that came the
Einar as it is today. I joked with my
friend that this film festival naturally
couldnʼt give out an Oscar, so it has
to be called the Einar instead and
that just stuck. That’s pretty fun.
The motif is always a camera, but I
allow myself to play around a bit with
the implementation of the idea. The
combination of this year’s Einar is an
oak plaque with a plywood camera
covered with a copper film.
I usually participate in the festival a
little, go to see a few movies and visit
the Plokkfiskur party and the fish
feast. I enjoy it a lot.
TOOLS OF THE TRADE
There are always kids who are in-
terested in all sorts of handicrafts. I
know of some kids I taught in shop
class that have gone on to learn
carpentry or all kinds of related pro-
fessions.
For those interested in starting out
doing carpentry, the most important
thing is to have quality tools. That
makes a big difference. You need to
have an interest in it. I don’t think it
will work out if you go into carpen-
try without really being interested.
You should sign up for a workshop,
and then you’ll pick it up quickly. I
just want to keep growing and going
forward to make as many pretty
things as possible. There is always
something to do, like, for example,
chandeliers and curtains that I made
out of worm-eaten driftwood. That’s
the most fun, to do things differently
than others!
Islanders The Wood Master Of Patreksfjörður
Einar Vignir Vatneyr Skarphéðinsson crafts stories with timber
My dad started to do some
handiwork when he retired. I
teased him that he had gotten
the skills from me rather than
the other way around.
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