Island artist enlists help of woodshop students

At Bergstrom’s former home in Frankfurt, Germany, she made thousands of the fuzzy creatures

Sonja Bergstrom’s house is filled with sheep.

They are not sheep looking for grass to graze on, but handcrafted sheep suitable for a footstool, a place to sit or even as a furry companion for a child.

At Bergstrom’s former home in Frankfurt, Germany, she made thousands of the fuzzy creatures from simple wooden pieces and sheep pelts. On Vashon, where she moved last summer, she has continued to build and sell the sheep, now with help from what may seem like an unexpected source: Vashon High School’s woodworking classes. Last week, pieces of wood were stacked in her kitchen, waiting to be sanded and transformed into the animals Bergstrom calls SheepPALS. Bergstrom, who has a bachelor’s degree in industrial and production design and a passion for welding, held up some of the pieces, pointing out their quality.

“These parts are better than I have ever had. They are so precise,” she said.

At Vashon High School, longtime woodworking teacher John Burke said the partnership with Bergstrom has worked out well. He stressed that his students learn valuable skills from the project — skills that someday they might use in the workplace.

“We are not trying to make sheep.” Burke said. “We are trying to teach kids how to use woodworking machines. It lended itself to the skills I was teaching.”

Bergstrom agreed.

“It is not just all about fun and making a jewelry box for your mom,” she said. “That’s crafting. This is about teaching woodworking as a profession.”

Indeed, Burke said that creating the seven pieces that make up each sheep — body, legs, ears and a seat — gave students a variety of valuable experience, and all with wood that Bergstrom provided. The students learned to rip and crosscut on a table saw, use a thickness planer and work with both table and hand-held routers. Additionally, they learned how to set up for a project, including how to make jigs to help make several of the same parts, and they gained experience hand-shaping on a vertical drum sander. Finally, the students had an introduction to CNC (computer numerical control) machining, which involves the use of computers to control machine tools. Burke noted that about half the students that worked with this process learned the programming language well enough to make another project.

These are all important skills, Burke added, stressing that industry leaders, including those at Boeing, say that in the current digital age, entry-level employees do not have the necessary manual dexterity skills to do the work. As a result, it takes businesses a lot of time and money to get those employees up to a basic skill level. Classes such as this one — Basic Woodworking — are meant to help address that.

All in all, he said, the project served the class well and even provided the mid-term exam.

“Other people have brought projects in, but none have fit as well as Sonja’s,” he added.

Bergstrom’s tale of how she began creating the sheep dates back to 2004. She owned a welding shop in Frankfurt and wanted to open an art studio there as well. She and her business partner wanted people to come lounge with them in the space and brainstormed how to create a buzz about what they were doing. Following their “lounge-with-us” intent, her first idea was to create lounge chairs that she would display around the city. But the mayor of Frankfurt said no permits would be given for lounge chair displays, so Bergstrom kept thinking — and came up with something smaller. She made 100 sheep and took them— not just to displays around Frankfurt — but from city to city. A postcard she has from that time shows a flock of her sheep on a train platform, passengers hurrying by. Another photo shows them along a river, the Frankfurt skyline rising behind them.

“That’s how we became the sheep footstool business,” she said.

During that time, whenever one of her employees had a quiet moment, she told them to build a sheep, taking full advantage of the labor resources available. She stopped counting sheep when she hit 10,000.

Last summer, after running her business and working as a construction manager, she was in search of a quieter professional life. That desire led her to follow in the footsteps of a friend and move to Vashon. In one of her suitcases, she said, she packed the materials for 20 sheep.

After she assembled them, she approached island business Kronos; the owners took them in and sold 20 right away. Another small business made her the wooden parts for 100 sheep, but closed shortly afterward. Then, she said, she worked hard to find someone on the island who could make the pieces to no avail. She was close to ordering the parts from the East Coast and giving up her desire to have them fully made on Vashon, when someone suggested she contact Burke. Once that partnership was in place, the students made her 100 sets and had the opportunity to make a sheep for themselves for their efforts. Bergstrom is also making a donation to the woodworking program.

Now, Bergstrom is also expanding where her flock of sheep are available, including Kronos, three stores in Seattle and the Made in Washington store at the Alderwood Mall. She donated one to the Vashon Allied Arts art auction and in recent months, her sheep have been for sale at the sheepdog trials, the garden tour, the Strawberry Festival and the farmers market. In fact, a former Vashon High School graduate — now the editor of New York Family magazine — spotted Bergstrom and her sheep while she was home this summer and included the animals in the magazine’s current holiday gift guide.

Coming up, Bergstrom will be part of the Art Studio Tour in December. The Land Trust is partnering with her for the tour and will also have a presence at the home. The house she is renting belongs to the organization and used to belong to the Matsuda family. It is a part of the island’s history and will be open for guests to see its renovation.

On the tour, Bergstrom will also offer pottery — a medium she is exploring and enjoying after taking a class from well-known island potter Liz Lewis. Currently, bowls, cups and candlesticks line shelves next to her sheep in a room full of the fruts of her labor.

As for Vashon itself, Bergstrom said she is happy to be here.

“I love it,” she said. “I think it’s my answer.”