Meet the artisan
Matteo Borgardt
Craft woodworking creator @whatza
Do you believe in the power of crafts?
We had an insightful chat about crafting with Matteo Borgardt, professional snowboarder and woodworker. Read on 😎
Hello Matteo, nice to meet you. Please, introduce yourself to our community of creative people! Who are you? What do you do?
Hi! My name is Matteo Borgardt and I am from Los Angeles CA. Thanks for hosting me TA-DAAN!
I’m still figuring out my purpose in life, I’ve done so many different jobs in this life, from being a professional snowboarder to film director, and I even worked a little at a fast food joint. But lately, I’ve been working in construction and craft woodworking.
We often say that manual activities are a powerful therapy, do you agree? Can you say that woodworking is your craft-therapy?
Absolutely! Woodworking has been a great outlet for my creative drive but it also helped me a lot with depression, anger, and my insecurities. I’ve learned that nothing will ever go as perfectly as you planned, and overcoming the mistakes you make along the way makes the final product that much better.
“Keep on creating. Even if it’s just for yourself, friends and family. We need more craftsmanship in the world and even on a local level. ”
Matteo Borgardt
When have you approached woodworking for the first time? Who introduced you to this activity?
My dad was always into making things himself. When I first got into skateboarding at the age of 11 we made a skateboard press with a concrete mold and used the only wood veneers we could find which were pine I think, and they all broke on the first ollie I would try, but it still was such a fun process.
Then in 2017 my friend built a surfboard out of wood and that got me back into building my own boards again. Since then I’ve shaped a dozen surfboards made out of wood and with foam and fiberglass.
I’ve always made little pieces of furniture or things I needed over the years. And a few years back started making it a habit to always collect nice pieces of driftwood or other wood from my travels or other jobs. I stuttered with cutting boards, coffee tables and wooden lamps using recycled electric components from old discarded lamps. I’ve been loving making these one of a kind pieces with the wood I find.
What challenge you the most: snowboarding or woodworking?
Woodworking has definitely been the most challenging. I was just having fun snowboarding and got lucky enough to get sponsored to do it. With woodworking I think its gonna be really hard to make a living with just the small pieces of furniture I make.
So I’ll have to continue working other kinds of jobs to pay the bills, but I will continue to make these pieces when I have the time because I love doing it.
What are, for you, the key ingredients for feeling good and accomplished?
To learn when to say something is finished. I have spent days trying to fill the cracks in the wood with epoxy and other products only to find that they didn’t fix the problem or make it look any better.
I’m always finding the smallest flaws in my pieces and then when I show someone else they don’t see it at all or aren’t bothered by it. It’s kinda what I was trying to say earlier, to learn to embrace the mistakes because sometimes they are just as beautiful with them. Then to finally put the first coat of oil on a new piece is a beautiful thing to see.
Would you like to send a message to our community? Or would you like to tell us something else?
To keep on creating. Even if it’s just for yourself, friends and family. We need more craftsmanship in the world and even on a local level. Do everything you can to make doing what you love your job.
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