I never left the profession — I still practice law today. But these days, more than four days a week belong to a small, quiet workshop instead of a courtroom.
Woodworking was never new to me — for years I'd been making small things on the side: tables, stools, shelves. Nothing serious, just something to do with my hands after long days spent shaping words on paper.
When the world shut its doors, building furniture stopped making sense — no room to work, and no easy way to ship a table. So I started searching for something smaller. "Small wooden objects" led me down a rabbit hole of bespoke pen-making videos on YouTube, and somewhere in that rabbit hole, Vanagas quietly began.
What began as a search for something small enough to make at home is now a proper, dedicated space in Kocaeli, İzmit — where every Vanagas pen is still hand-turned, one at a time.
