NWDC Living Treasures: Evert Sodergren - Master Woodworker

EVERT SODERGREN-Master Woodworker
2002, 28:35
"My father was only interested in traditional design and I wasn’t satisfied with that. I would like to make something that hasn’t been made before."– Evert Sodergren

Born in 1920, a fourth generation furniture maker, Evert Sodergren grew up in a family of Swedish immigrants in Seattle, Washington. From the age of 15, working alongside his father, he learned both the art and economics of building fine furniture. In 1939 he went to work at the Boeing Company where for eight years he built test model aircraft -- exacting work done to precise tolerances that was critical to the war effort.

In the 1950’s, Sodergren Furniture, the custom shop he founded with his father, began producing his original designs for modern furniture. From his sojourn in the aircraft industry, he carried a dedication to precision, advanced skills in metal fabrication (he creates almost all of the hardware for his furniture), and innovative ideas using techniques and materials developed for aircraft.

It was unheard of at that time for a custom shop to create work on speculation. The custom market was for kitchen cabinets and historic reproductions produced on commission. Evert’s pioneering efforts to get contemporary woodworking in front of the public grew into the acceptance of woodworking as an art to be displayed in galleries and exhibitions.

From 1952 – 1978 Evert taught furniture design and construction to architecture, interior and industrial design students at the University of Washington. But it is through maintaining the traditional apprenticeship system in his own shop, that Evert Sodergren passes on the skills, high standards, and survival techniques necessary for a life, lived well, in the crafts.

Evert Sodergren maintains his shop, Sodergren Atelier, where he prides himself on the ability to solve any design problem presented to him by a client. He has worked with some of the finest architects and designers in the region. For more information about his work, see his Web site: www.sodergrenfurniture.com

Interviewed in this profile:

Deloris Tarzan Ament, Art Critic/Author

Ralph Anderson, Architect

Jonathan Cohen, Furniture Designer/Maker

Edith Fairhall, Artist, Evert’s Significant Other

Damien Farwell, Custom Furniture Maker, Apprentice 1996-98

Cheryl Peterson, First Director, NW Gallery of Fine Woodworking

Neil Planert, Shop Foreman, 1978 – present

Evert Sodergren

Norman Warsinske, Interior Designer, Student 1957-58

David Weatherford, ASID, Student 1957-58

Thomas H. Young IV, Custom Furniture Maker, Apprentice 1992-96