Art and Craft.

Craftsman! If you desperately need one you’ll be lucky to get an appointment some time next year. When (and if) they arrive -always late, obviously- they march over your new parquet wearing shoes that look like they’ve been used for the occasional swamp stroll. Half of the time they’re on break smoking and drinking coffee and the other half they busy themselves with loudly destroying your apartment. They are only quick when it comes to issuing ludicrous invoices. Rough fellows, always – one might think. Well that’s what the dictionary on cliches will tell you anyway.

We now have proof that there is a well hidden, subtle side to some craftsman! Morten Carstensen. The 39 year old from northern Germany was basically born a craftsman. Working with woody material was passed on to him – his father and grandfather were trained carpenters. We can only assume that there must have been painters or sculptors amongst Morten’s ancestry – his works, which he crafts in his free time, are a stunning mixture of art and craftwork. When touched by him, mundane fly fishing tools like bobbin holders, hair stackers and priests become tiny artworks. In his works you can spot expertise and inventiveness as well as a considerable affection to fine design.

“Tune out, relax and leave the stressful everyday life at the door…” as Morten describes it when he locks himself in in his garage and lets his creativity flow. And that’s how they are made. Impressive little gems like a detailed model of a fly reel. No real added value, just pleasure, just art.

Morten also “tunes out” when he’s fishing for sea trout on the Baltic Sea just outside his front door. But the fly fishing he only sees as a kind of footing for his more subtle free time activities. The carpentry and fly tying make his hobbies a whole.

We can only show you so much of Morten’s creative craftings but if you’re mesmerized and want to see more, it can be found on Morten’s very own website www.fliegenzunft.de which he is creating at the moment.