Mark Havens
Senior Jefferson ID student Alison Schlicher (BsID’19) used this past summer to gain invaluable experience in her concentration area of Furniture Design. Alison sought out and completed an internship at the Danish firm of Bruun Olsen Flet located in Hillerød, Denmark.
Alison initially approached the firm due to their world-renowned expertise in the art of caning. This ancient technique for creating chair seats involves weaving intricate patterns using rattan (strips of bark from the rattan palm). This was an ability Alison wanted to add to the furniture design skill set she’s been developing at Jefferson. Bruun Olsen Flet proved to be a great place to do just that.
During the course of here time there, Alison had the opportunity to work directly with the firm’s principal, Thomas Bruun Olsen. She proved a fast learner as evidenced by the project that she was soon given to work on: the restoration of an antique chair from the Danish Royal Court, one of the few with its original gold foil finish still intact. Alison wasn’t deterred by having the Queen of Denmark as a client and after finishing the first chair, also completed a second.
The internship gave her uninterrupted time to understand the nuance of working with rattan: from learning a variety of weaving techniques to accounting for outside factors such as humidity that cause the material to behave differently.
It was a well-spent summer that enabled Alison to expand her skills, her portfolio and her circle of professional colleagues worldwide.
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