Zdenko sawing with a backsaw in the workshop at Fornebu

Zdenko Tudor

I make lamps and furniture in wood, at Flytårnet, Fornebu.

The light comes through the wood — something happens to the room. I also teach classes here.

Classes →

Split

I was born in Split, a few years before Yugoslavia broke apart. I spent my first years with my grandparents. My grandfather built a windmill to make his own electricity.

The windmill my grandfather built, in front of the house in Split
Zdenko as a small boy at the pillar drill

Norway

The circuit board from my master's thesis, with microcontroller and connectors

I moved to Norway at twelve. I didn't speak the language and was bullied. I withdrew behind the computer screen.

I started studying electronics at NTNU because I wanted to build things. The first was to be a motor with a clock that raised the curtain in the morning. It was never built: before Arduino, it took a lot of setup just for the circuit to know what time it was.

I took a master's degree in engineering cybernetics. My master's thesis was about stopping a satellite's spin when it is released into orbit, using magnetic coils. After my studies I started as an IT consultant.

Zdenko in a suit and shirt, from the office years

At 29, I left the office for the last time.

  1. Grønland, Oslo

    I bought hand tools the way Paul Sellers recommended: first a used pre-war Stanley Bailey plane and a set of chisels. I clamped the workpiece to the dining table with four clamps and planed in the living room.

    Planing at the dining table in the living room at Grønland

  2. Ekeberg, Oslo

    My first workshop. I cleared out a tonne of rubbish and built my first workbench. It was finished on my 30th birthday. Three months later I had to move out.

    Zdenko shaping a curved piece in the workshop at Ekeberg

  3. Porsgrunn

    I moved there for a partner. There was a workshop there too. I made stools, spatulas, travel chairs that come apart, guitar hangers and clothes hangers, one simple project after another.

    Zdenko drilling with a brace in the workshop in Porsgrunn

  4. Tessungdalen, Telemark

    My landlord's garage.

    Sawing with a Japanese pull saw in the garage

  5. The van, Tessungdalen

    In winter the garage was below freezing. I insulated and panelled a VW Crafter with standing height, put in lights and a heater, and moved the workbench in.

    Zdenko at the workbench inside the van

  6. Tessungdalen

    A disused workshop in the valley, with proper machines. I had learned from woodworkers on YouTube who worked by hand. What I hadn't noticed was that the timber had often been machine-planed before they started filming. I've used both since.

    Zdenko drilling into a board at the workbench in the workshop in Tessungdalen

  7. Fornebu

    After the time alone in the valley, I moved back among people. The workshop is 170 square metres in Flytårnet, the old control tower at Oslo Airport Fornebu. This is where Echo One came about, and where I teach classes.

    Sanding in the workshop at Flytårnet

The lamps

I built the first prototype of Echo One myself, the electronics too. I want a lamp to have the light, the form and the function I'm after — all three, not two of them. For Echo One that meant a dimmer in the lamp itself, and there was no ready-made solution for it.

Hand on the slider dimmer in Echo One
Hand-soldered circuit board for the first prototype
My room in the evening, lit only by the lamps

The name

Way of Wood is named after the Way — Dao, as in the Tao Te Ching. The same tradition as dō in judo and kendo: not a skill, but a practice that shapes the one who practises it.