I first saw the Call for the Denkstatt Residency on Instagram at the beginning of 2026, and applied with a proposal to create siblings and family members for Kiko (Puppie), the wooden chatbot I designed at Bona Mondo UG between 2024 and 2025.

Surrounded by a creative environment, kind mentors, and fellow residents, ideas kept flowing every day — I applied to the freiGEDREHT competition, made wooden jewelry from cutoffs in Denkstatt, fell in love with traditional Ore mountains' pyramids and tried prototyping my own, and produced small objects along the way ...

Ah yes, I practiced curving Reifen donkeys too.

I enjoyed visited workshops and a school for toymakers as a part of the residency program.

In the end, the possibility opened up of having Puppie's production in Seiffen, and since Denkstatt and Seiffen aren't too far from Leipzig where I based, there's also a chance to run workshops there. I'm looking forward to continuing to visit Denkstatt and Seiffen going forward.

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