‘In many regards, my work with the bookazines is not dissimilar to the way furniture designer Thomas Woltmann approaches his work, as he describes it here: ‘I am convinced that the more local you can make your production, and the more we know about materials and the production of a given piece of furniture – or any other product, for that matter – the greater value it will hold for us, and the better we will look after it. My own practice unfolds at the intersection of this local outlook, historical knowledge and a modern design vision. That is the case whether I am working on art and communication projects, small-scale production in my own workshop or the design of items to be produced by a manufacturer.’

In the article Thomas speaks highly of his collaboration partners, including Thor Grabow, owner of the paint company Linolie & Pigment. Thor is portrayed in bookazine no. 4. I also speak highly of Thor. He has played a key role in raising awareness of the qualities of linseed oil paint. Perhaps not surprisingly, this applies to the renovation of historical buildings, but Linolie & Pigment has also become a valued partner for many artisans, designers and architects working on contemporary projects.

 Speaking of historical buildings, in this bookazine you can meet house painter Astrid Ellen Cramer Magnussen, who works with linseed oil paint, traditional Swedish rödfarg paint and buttermilk tempera. You can also meet architect Frants Frandsen of Realdania By & Byg for a talk about the renovation of a house on the island of Lolland with a carefully designed colour scheme.And apropos of colour design, the bookazine opens with a conversation with Margrethe Odgaard.

For the past 20 years, she has been designing colours and colour palettes for companies in Denmark and abroad, held workshops about colours and maintained an independent practice as a textile artist with colour as her key focus. During our talk, she presents a brand-new colour tool. Margrethe trained as a textile designer, as did Astrid Skibsted, whom I visited in Aarhus, in part to hear about how she combines colours on her loom. Anne Sofie Slot Thybo also works with textile, using yarns that she dyes with plant-based dyestuffs. Plant-based dyeing is the main topic of the article ‘Alchemy’, where you can meet visual artist Cecilia Westerberg.

 She makes her own artists’ colours based in part on pigments extracted from plants grown in the Pigment Garden at the Rønnebæksholm art centre. Sara Gade, who is the main person in charge of the Pigment Garden says, ‘I would like to raise awareness of what artists have to offer. Often, artists seem to be assigned the role of mere entertainers. But we really need artists. Not least in relation to the climate issue and the biodiversity crisis and the sense of defeat many people feel, as we see the failure of the structures we have developed and struggle to imagine what to put in their place.’ ’