Elevate December 2017 | Air Serbia

Our pieces are intended for people who want to return to themselves, warmth and nature ljudima koji žele da se vrate sebi, toplini i prirodi Naši komadi namenjeni su

Skele to shed blood, tears and sweat. He didn’t sleep for two weeks, but that day dawned. Rok prayed that he would sell at least one piece, for it not to be all in vain... Then the jury decided that his stand was one of the five most beautiful at the fair, after which customers began arriving. Until the end of the Fair Rok had orders worth around 10,000 euros... - With my friend and partner Srđan Damjanac, now we have three service workshops and 12 employees, but then... Man, I was out of my mind; we didn’t man- age to make as much furniture as was be- ing sought from us. This concept turned out to be a total hit, especially when the Fair was attended the next year by Dutch people from one of the world’s largest fur- niture manufacturing companies who of- fered to be our dealers in the Europe- an market. I had to tie myself down to stop myself from flying away with happi- ness, but that’s how the dream I live to- day started. We ask Rok what the secret of the great success Hard stuff designe has achieved is, and he has no dilemma that this is a question of a broader picture, of

the need for man to return to the begin- ning, to his natural surroundings, to final- ly escape plastic... - We use only eco-material, with no synthetic additives, wax or oil, and no ni- tro. I love this raw design, clean material presented in its essence. We hone a table and my colleagues say to me,‘hey, Rok, the wood is splintered and the crack’s huge’. And I say ‘great, we will not lie to nature, if the wood is alive, it should also remain alive when entering someone’s home. We will not hide it, we want to accentuate it. If the wood has knots, let the knots re- main... Let the wood breathe...’ Everything is done by hand and with love, which is also Hard Stuff’s slo- gan (handcrafted with love) and all piec- es are unique; there are no two identical chairs just as there are no two identical pieces of wood. Speaking about their fur- niture, Skele says that, for him, the key is in using raw material from nature, but si- multaneously in the combination of these materials. He always combines warm and cold in order to create the right balance. Never metal and concrete, never metal and glass, but always warm wood with some

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