Fernando Toro is an experienced woodworker and, like his pieces, he is full of surprises. He begins his story by recounting that he was born in a temperate mountain area, among the rainforests of Palmar, Nariño, and that the first wood he cut was with a machete, back when trees were gigantic, and one could cut wood freely. Reflecting on his first piece, a slingshot used for hunting possums, doves, and toucans with stones collected from the river, he experiences mixed emotions—those of a past life filled with customs he no longer practices, including eating animals. As an adult, he became vegan, driven by the same grace, respect, and tenderness with which he views other living beings. His veganism is his definition of love.

He is also a mariachi singer, a skilled player of spinning tops, yo-yos, and baleros, and a passionate collector of woodworking tools. He says he could miss a flight just watching tools and proudly displays the wall where he has arranged them. He has accumulated these tools over the 30 years he has practiced the trade inherited from his father, Oliver Torres, a technical woodworking instructor at Sena. Following in his father’s footsteps, he ended up in Marinilla, Antioquia. On that same wall hangs the steel gouge his father gave him on his graduation day—his first tool, which reminds him of where he comes from and helps him understand his father’s skill, who could accomplish everything with a simple gouge that never kept a sharp edge. He has learned to read this serious and proud man who still works in his own shop and knows that, even without words, his father expresses love through the gleam in his eyes when he sees his son’s work.

Focusing his craftsmanship on technical woodworking, Fernando sees in his pieces the opportunity to challenge his own abilities. He creates everything from houses to tulips, and with the same respect he has for animals, he crafts exclusively with the remnants of larger projects. He is a vain man who cares about making an impact with his creations. This drives him to invent pieces that combine turning with carving—flowers that seem to have assembled petals but are carved and turned from a single piece, giant chess sets where the queen weighs 45 kilos and is made from comino wood, and enormous baleros, with which he once toured the country, demonstrating their use. He funded his travels with earnings from these demonstrations, visiting Antioquia, Cauca, Valle, and Huila, eventually reaching his hometown in Nariño.

He describes his workshop as a university because wood offers multiple options for working. If someone doesn’t like turning, they can carve, pyrograph, build roofs, or even sing! This is how he raised his own children, who were already involved in the workshop before finishing school. He has four children—three sons and a daughter. The three sons are woodworkers like their father. Seeing his children immersed in the trade reminds him of his own path, which began with a childhood of work, hunting, and fishing in the river, and continued thanks to his efforts when he managed to pass the entrance exam for the course his father taught, despite never having attended school. Because, besides being vain, he doesn’t give up easily.