Simó Tortella
Furniture for life
Simó Tortella (Mallorca, 1972) has been working with wood for more than 30 years – a lifetime. His grandfather taught his father the trade, and his father passed the same skills down to him. His increasingly sought-after creations travel to homes all over the world, to fill up spaces with personality, from New York to Germany, Denmark, Switzerland or France and naturally, Mallorca.
text César Mateu Moyà
photography Grimalt de Blanch
Unlike other children, when he was small Simó Tortella had more fun at his father’s workshop, playing with bits of wood, carpenter’s squares, handsaws and hammers than with a football. “When I was 13 or 14, during the summer I was already working at the family workshop, and I started to do it full-time when I was 19”, he says.
The Germans Tortella joinery, established in 1967 in Petra, a small village in the centre of Mallorca, has been producing furniture – tables, chairs and canteranos (dresser desks) – by hand for over 50 years now. “More visibility is given to handmade work nowadays, as a result of Nordic influence in particular, because it’s a hallmark. There was a move to promote a distinction on the island 25 years ago, so that people would learn to value local, artisanal work more, and it has gained momentum again over recent years”.
Every time Simó makes a piece with his own hands he feels a deep sense of gratitude and responsibility. “When I create an item of furniture I know it will last for several lifetimes, at least a hundred years; there is no expiry date. When you finish it and send it to the customer, the furniture starts its own history and I know that whatever happens, I form part of that history”.
According to him, working by hand is not based on a single secret, but “on a series of aspects that transcend your actual hands. The body is important, for example. If you don’t feel good, you won’t create a good piece. It’s also very important for the wood to be of good quality, and to provide the conditions is needs. Seven or eight years may go by from when you begin working on a clean piece of wood. There will never be two identical pieces, because no two trees are identical”.
For Simó, “the canterano is the most emblematic piece of traditional furniture in Mallorca; you can put it anywhere in the house – in the entrance hall, a bedroom, the lounge or the dining room”. The canterano evolved from the caixada (literally, a series of boxes). Centuries ago, when somebody got married [...]
--------
Read this article in full in IN PALMA 71. And if you like, subscribe to IN PALMA for 1 year and get the next 4 issues of the magazine delivered to your home.
