Beginning in his early teens, Daniel Wester devoted himself fully to photography: first experimenting, then studying the craft in art school, then working as a commercial photographer and design director for 22 years. “I thought I would love taking photos for the rest of my life,” he says. But in a painful turn, his passion for taking pictures eventually faded, and he found himself lacking a way to express his innermost creativity and curiosity. At that point, he hadn’t given a thought to working wood since doing a little whittling at age 7, but one day while trying to develop a new, more rustic look for a client hotel’s breakfast service, and failing to find the sort of bowl he had in mind, he decided to try making one. “The moment I felt the chisel on that wood,” he says, “I thought, ‘this is it.’ I’m not a religious guy, but it was a hallelujah moment.” That was eight years ago, and Wester now spends most of his work time making spoons and bowls with windfall woods like birch, cherry, ash, and hazelnut, from nearby farms in his native Sweden. He carves the wood green, starting with an axe, then shifts to a carving knife and spoon knife, works until the piece is nearly finished, then lets it dry a few days before carving to final shape. Having found a second passion, this father of two very young children says that “woodwork is like my third baby, or something. It’s even a little bit strange to talk about it because it’s so important to me.”

—Jonathan Binzen