Felip Martín arrived in Lanzarote from his native Catalonia when he was 13 years old and shortly after arriving he became passionate about the timple, he took several courses to learn how to make them, and finally opened the Estow Studio workshop, where he makes timples and kitchen utensils with the most resistant and sustainable woods in the world. A place where nothing is thrown away and each product is unique.
In an interview with the Radio Lanzarote program Más de Uno Gourmet, Martín explains his career and how he expanded his business from making timples to also include making kitchen products that "last a lifetime" and that are conquering the island's chefs.
- What is a luthier, an instrument maker, doing at a gastronomic event?
I build timples and also, I use the same wood to make kitchen utensils, tableware and boards for cutting and serving. The woods I use are very hard, high density woods, so they last a lifetime.
- What is your background?
I am Catalan and 11 years ago we arrived in Lanzarote and I was struck by the timple. Then I started playing in a parranda when I was 13 years old, I liked the instrument and the following year I started building them through a course that was given in the Villa de Teguise.
I have always liked working with my hands, although I had never worked with wood. After training, I set up a small workshop at home and refined my technique.
- What wood do you use?
Quality woods. Last year we went on vacation to Washington and brought paulownia, which is the most sustainable and lightweight wood in the world. It has a very fast growth, unlike traditional woods that are very slow growing.
Its versatility allows it to be used for all parts of the timple because it has very good acoustic qualities and a lot of resistance. Traditionally, different woods are used for the top, sides and back.
For the fingerboard, we use ebony, which multiplies the sound by four and the more it is used, the better it sounds and with more volume.
- Does it sound different?
People recognize the timple, but they are not used to these woods, so they say that they are not traditional timples, in which the sound sounds kind of broken (laughs).
- How did the idea of making kitchen utensils come about?
I started making some for home and one day, at a craft fair in Tenerife, a woman asked me if I could make her a cutting board of different colors with the woods of the timples. I made it for her, and since I thought it was a good product, I prepared a couple for the next fair and it was very popular. It is a board that lasts you a lifetime, it is an investment.
- And are they suitable for chefs, who cook many hours?
As they are such dense woods, so that the knives do not become dull, we use the side of the wood, the edge of the tree rings, which is called the end grain, because the pores are finer. Thus, when cutting, the fibers of the wood separate microscopically and then return to their place, so neither the board is damaged nor the knife is dulled.
- How do you join the different parts?
With a glue suitable for food, water resistant, and designed for cutting boards. It does not come off in life, it is more resistant than wood.
We have done all kinds of resistance tests and in the strongest ones the wood has broken but never where the pieces are glued.
- And do you recycle wood?
Yes, for example we have a table made of oak barrels from the island, which can no longer be used for wine. It looks like a chessboard.
- Doesn't it feel a bit of a shame to cut on such a beautiful board?
They always tell us that, but no shame at all. They are such hard woods that they do not cut and there is no wear of the material. Also the maintenance is minimal, just a little olive oil to nourish the wood.
- You also make other utensils…
We have started to make spoons, of different, organic shapes.
And as we have a '0 waste' workshop to take advantage of the smallest pieces we do other things. For example, with some pieces of ebony that we had left over, we made Asian chopsticks.
We also make bowls, each product is unique. They are handmade and each one has different grains.
