The
Living
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what the archive is about

The Living Archive explores the potential of (post)industrial heritage to transform production in our cities. We collect stories with participatory heritage methods. The nodes for the local collection efforts are Fab City Hubs (FCH). The collection has been carefully assembled by FCH teams who have been learning about, co-creating and applying participatory heritage-making approaches, emotion networking methodology, oral history principles and creative perspective-taking.
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This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme under grant agreement n. 869595

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Boatbuilder Lizzie Clarjis

boatbuilder lizzie clarjis-hero-image

This story is about:

Subject:Lizzie Clarjis

Collected in:Amsterdam

Using:Interview (verbal)

Date of Events:2022

Related Locations:Amsterdam North, NDSM

Welcome to the Network

Our Living Archive is about connections. Each story entering it has been read through our 'one-sentence summary' lens to identify a group of tags. These tags make the connection between all stories visible, in our Network Graph. Use this as your navigational tool by clicking and holding the elements of your choosing. You can also drag and organise them in a way that better highlights their connections.

Boat building at NDSM

Lizzie Clarijs is a boatbuilder and works for Woodies aT BerLin. She studied design and woodworking at the Hout-en Meubileringscollege Amsterdam and has specialised in the interior building of boats. “I start from zero until I have built a home for somebody.” Next to her work at Woodies aT BerLin, she enjoys making artistic wall furniture for family and friends. She lives on a boat she built herself, near the NDSM Werf.

As her father is a maker as well - he creates constructions for artists - and inspired Lizzie to work with her hands from an early age. Seeing him at his craft piqued her curiosity and continues to influence her creativity to this day. Also motivating her work is Huib Koel, her boss at Woodies aT BerLin, where she once started as an intern. Huib made her feel comfortable in the workspace as a woman working in an occupation primarily dominated by men. She notes that her boss never treated her differently as she was a women and that “he just believed in me”.

Focus and meditation

Lizzie is conscious of her position as a woman working in carpentry and wants to use her work and voice to stimulate other women to do the same. She particularly hopes more women will learn the craft, so that the industry will become more diverse. She encourages women to join the profession as “any woman can do this if she really wants to”.

Shipbuilders still use techniques and tools that have been around for many years. While newer technology may be used to increase precision in the building process, it remains mostly manual work. It gives Lizzie great satisfaction to use tools that have made it through the test of time. “If you are working with your hands, you are still going to need a hammer and a chisel.” What she loves about craftsmanship is that you can really focus on the task at hand, ignoring everything else for a while. As such, carpentry to her sometimes feels like meditation: it’s just you, your tools and nothing more.

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Why is this story relevant?

Lizzie’s work as a boatbuilder shows the importance of increasing diversity in makership, particularly in trades that have been historically male-dominated. Her story also reflects a thread between past and present, how many elements of her trade seemingly have not changed and continue to be applied in modern circumstances.

Photographs by Joshua Abebrese.

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