The Portable Rope Stool, Borne from a Swedish-Japanese Design Collaboration

Last year Oshinsha, a Japanese retailer that sells and promotes work by Japanese craftspeople, set up an interesting initiative: The Tottori–Gothenburg Craft Exchange Project, linking Swedish creatives from Gothenburg with Japanese craftspeople in Tottori Prefecture. After securing funding from both Japanese and Swedish groups, six Swedes were brought to Tottori to collaborate with local craftspeople for three weeks.

Swedish artist/designer Esbjorn Grip teamed up with Japanese chairmaker Junsei Fujimoto on this Rope Stool. Their brief: Create a piece of furniture from a single, repeatable wooden element.

The stool is constructed entirely without screws or nails. Instead, it relies solely on the precise tension of rope, joining flat wooden boards into a stable, functional seat. Minimal in form yet ingenious in structure, the Rope Stool reflects both the practicality of everyday tools and the creativity of experimental craft, bridging tradition and contemporary expression.

Here's how it breaks down:

The stool is now in production and sold by Oshinsha.