Josefine Toft was actually a primary school teacher, but she followed her dream and in 2022 she trained as a cabinetmaker specializing in classical techniques.

Her apprenticeship was at the Amalienborg Carpentry Workshop itself, which is part of the Danish royal family's workshop building, located in the horse stables behind Christian VIII's palace. Christian X once rode out into the streets of Copenhagen from the horse stables, but today it is the Royal Family's painters, carpenters and laundry assistants who do their work in the former horse stables.

The overall task of the Royal House's workshop is to preserve the cultural assets that the Royal House has in the form of furniture and furnishings. In the carpentry workshop, the carpenters work on restoring and preserving the many valuable pieces of furniture in the palaces. A particular challenge for the carpenters is that the furniture must be used in everyday life and not as museum objects. An important task for the workshop is also to produce new furniture based on old craft traditions, which Josefine Toft was trained in with a bronze medal.

Today, Josefine Toft runs her own furniture shop 'Hellotoft', where she creates handmade crafts in quality wood made using traditional carpentry techniques with hand tools and specially selected surface treatments.

Her work is rounded off by Scandinavian and Japanese design traditions with a feminine touch and is characterized by precision, carefully selected materials and a deep understanding of the properties of wood. For example, Josefine uses the special intarsia technique for her series of unique and aesthetic serving trays. The series consists of three trays, where the elements are cut and assembled by hand and adorned with motifs in hand-carved intarsia. The intarsia technique is used to decorate furniture and create lifelike images and became particularly popular during the Renaissance, where it was used for wall panels, furniture and works of art. To give the motif depth and life, the individual parts are shaded after they are cut. This highlights the details and makes the expression more vivid.

Another example of Josefine Toft's feelings for wood are the hand-carved signature bowls in Oregon pine and smoked oak. Elegant wooden bowls on a foot, with a Scandinavian/Japanese design language.

The feminine expression is always evident in her work. Josefine strives for the lightest expression and the most beautiful curve, and as she says “You should be able to feel it in your stomach”. This is Josefine’s way of creating furniture that is not only functional, but also aesthetically pleasing and built to last through generations.