Hand-Carved Elephant-Themed Raintree Wood Phone Holder 'Helpful Trunk' Item ID: 2671640742

“Hi! My name is Eed (Nongluck Cheananta) I was born and raised in Chiang Mai, Thailand. My family had been making furniture since my mother was young, but they ended the business due to poor management. But I’ve seen my mother doing wood carving since I was born.

“My mother didnt want me to work as hard as she had to, so she did not teach me how to carve but supported my study of other fields such as English. I chose to study management at Burapha University located in Chonburi, in eastern Thailand.

“I started earning extra money as a seafood salesperson and home tutor while studying. After finishing my bachelors degree, my intention was to let my mother retire from her hard work and I would work instead of her.

“My first career was as an assistant manager at a Thai silk company; I then moved to sales at a teak furniture manufactory. I worked in the wood industry for nearly seven years, and everything went well except for the distance between my house and my office. Due to my office location being very far from home, I had to stay near the office, but I worried about my mother living alone. So I resigned myself to opening my own shop.

“I ran a store with popular products among tourists at that time, but it did not match my image. A foreign customer from an old company told me I should do woodwork again, and he ordered a lot of pieces. And that was the beginning of the woodworking path.

‘Due to financial constraints, I had to close my store and relocate my carvers/carpenters to my home. Now I deal with 10–15 carvers. Most of them live in Lamphun (a neighboring province of Chiang Mai) and make a living through longan gardening. The problem is that when the price of longan rises, they have to work on my products later, which I understand. The style of my products has evolved with the times and the carvers’ competence. Art has evolved along with the times. Nowadays, simple openwork, embossed carving or a modern elephant with few details may suffice.

“I grew up with woodworking and didnt want it to disappear from our culture. Im aware of the cycle; there will be ups and downs. I will try to find someone to carry on for me. I wish to create a woodcarving museum for the next generation to visit. Id like to be a part of Thai folk art in terms of expansion.”