About Me

Welcome, I’m Sebastian Ungh.

A Swedish green woodworker, carving teacher, and lifelong lover of making things with my hands.

I’m very glad you found your way here.

This website is a place where I share my work, my teaching, and my ongoing exploration of carving, slöjd, and traditional craft.

It’s also a place for curiosity, creativity, and playfulness, because I believe craft should be enjoyable, expressive, and deeply human.

I was born in Stockholm, Sweden, but when I was seven years old, my family moved to a small farm in the south of the country.

Suddenly, my world became forests, animals, treehouses, muddy boots, and endless time outdoors.

We had sheep, ducks, chickens, pigs, and woodland to roam freely in.

Looking back, I think that environment shaped me more than I realised at the time.

My grandfather was especially important in my early life.

He built his own cabin and sauna and was always repairing boats, carving, or making things with his hands.

Summers with my grandparents smelled of birch tar, wood shavings, and old tools.

He gave me some of my earliest experiences of carving and woodworking, and I still carry many of those memories with me today.

As a child, I was endlessly curious.

I spent huge amounts of time reading books, visiting museums, listening to music, and obsessing over whatever fascinated me at the time.

Medieval history, pirates, films, art, instruments, nature, or stories from different cultures.

Music also became a huge part of my life growing up, and for many years, I was convinced I would become a professional musician.

Life had other plans.

Although I always enjoyed making things, I didn’t truly return to carving until adulthood.

In 2015, on Midsummer’s Eve, I stumbled across a spoon carving video online while sitting at home with my young children asleep nearby.

I picked up an old Finnish puukko knife that my grandfather had gifted me, and tried carving for myself.

That was it.

From that moment onwards, carving slowly became an obsession.

I carved constantly, at the kitchen table, late into the night, whenever I could find a spare moment between work and family life.

Eventually, I retrained and became a woodworking teacher, and today I teach woodworking full-time in Sweden alongside running workshops and carving courses in different countries.

What I love about green woodworking is how accessible and human it feels.

You don’t need giant machines or a huge workshop.

You can carve outside, around a campfire, at your kitchen table, or sitting quietly in the woods.

A simple knife, a piece of freshly cut wood, and your own hands are enough.

For me, carving is part craft, part meditation, part storytelling, and part play.

I’m deeply inspired by Swedish folk art and slöjd traditions, but I’m equally inspired by music, film, architecture, museums, painting, gardening, and everyday life.

I love expressive decoration, colour, experimentation, and finding new ways to push traditional carving techniques in more playful directions.

Some people approach woodworking with strict rules and perfectionism.

I tend to approach it with curiosity instead.

I believe handmade objects should feel alive.

I want a spoon to feel beautiful in the hand.

I want carving to feel expressive rather than rigid.

I want people to feel encouraged to experiment, make mistakes, and discover their own style rather than simply copying someone else.

Teaching has become one of the most meaningful parts of my work.

Whether I’m teaching children carving magic wands or adults carving spoons and bowls, I love seeing that moment when something suddenly clicks for someone.

When they realise they are capable of making something with their own hands.

That feeling is important.

In a world that often feels fast, noisy, and disconnected, craft offers something slower and more grounding.

It reminds us to pay attention.

To create rather than simply consume.

To value beauty, process, and human connection.

Through this website and my social media, I hope to share that journey with you.

Here you’ll find my carving work, workshops, events, tools, tutorials, thoughts on craft, and glimpses into the process behind what I make.

Over time, I’ll also be sharing more educational material, videos, and writing related to carving, chip carving, decoration, and slöjd.

Whether you’re a complete beginner, an experienced carver, or simply someone who enjoys handmade objects and traditional craft, I hope you’ll find something here that inspires you.

And if nothing else, perhaps this website will encourage you to slow down a little, make something with your hands, and enjoy the process.

Thank you very much for visiting and taking the time to read this page.

I truly appreciate it.

Sebastian Ungh