Nattavaara Birch bark containers

As part of my new job, I have to make items to sell to tourists here in Nattavaara.  Just now I am busy working on the first of those items; Nattavaara Birch Bark containers.

I have used sinew to sew the containers and have burned “Nattavaara” into the bark.

While making a container I cut my finger.  I did not have any plasters so I took a piece of scrap birch bark and cut a slit into it

Then I wrapped the bark around my finger and pushed the narrow end of the bark through the slit to hold it in place.

An early Christmas present

Christmas came early for me when Teres bought me a pair of Reindeer skin trousers, something I have wanted for many years.

They are made to my specification by a friend of ours who designs and makes both traditional and modern Sámi clothing.

They are very warm and comfortable but one problem I have found is that keys in my pocket have stretched and discoloured the Reindeer skin, so Teres came up with the idea to make a special leather pouch for my keys which I have now made.

When I do not need my keys, I pull a leather cord which draws the keys up inside the pouch

The pouch is easy to make.  You cut out two bell shaped pieces of leather which are joined together at the top.  Sew both sides together

and make a small hole in the leather at the top, through which you put a leather cord (I used a four-strand round plat to make my leather cord).  Attach the end of the cord inside the pouch to your keys and make a knot or attach a metal ring to the opposite end and the pouch is completed.

The Mystery Braid

The Mystery Braid is so called because the leather is braided, but the ends of the braid have not been cut or separated – it’s a mystery how the braid is made without loose ends.

Many times I have tried to do a Mystery Braid, but failed every time.  I was at a craft fair in Lulea last weekend where a man was demonstrating and teaching how to do the Mystery Braid.

You begin with a piece of leather that has been cut two times to give three even strips (connected at each end)

Then you begin to braid, ensuring the braids are tight.

You can see in the above picture that as you braid, the opposite end of the leather also braids up and this must be undone by twisting the tab through the  slits

Continue braiding and then un-braiding the opposite end

When you have braided as much as you can, thread the tab through again to “lock” the braid and loosen the braids to even them out along the length of the piece of leather.

Here are some bracelets I have made using this method

There are other methods of making the Mystery Braid via instruction on YouTube and the internet, so do some searching.

Here’s the best YouTube clip I have found;

Tin thread armbands

Chaffinch started arriving back here yesterday after migrating south in early November.

Many people here wear tin thread armbands traditionally made by the Saami people from Reindeer leather, Reindeer horn and a silver and tin alloy thread.  Here is the first one I made

I began making the bracelet by doing a three strand braid with six strands of tin thread and three strands of cotton thread.

Once completed I stitched the braid to a piece of leather.

I stitched the edges of the leather together to form a tube, incorporating a leather loop and reindeer horn button as fasteners for the bracelet.

I cut small slits at either end of another piece of leather and inserted the leather tube through the slits, so that the loop and button protruded from the ends.

I stitched the edges of the leather together to form another tube.

Here is the completed armband

I have also made one for Emma using black leather and six strands of tin thread.

Woolen birds

I’m planning to spend some time at my cabin this week so this will be my last post until I return.

Teres is now a full-time day mum here in Nattavaara, looking after children while their parents are working.  We are testing activities for the children to do and here is the first one…….woolen birds.

Here are the items you require

You need three different colours of wool to work with.  Take a piece of card and wrap the wool around 50 times

doing the same with all three colours (for my bird black is the back colour, red the breast colour and white the wing colour)

Now cut through the wool and remove from the card

Lay the wool for the wings over the wool for the back  and then fold it around,

then do the same with the back wool and tie a piece a wool around to hold it in place

Next, place the wool for the breast on top and secure with another piece of wool

and then fold the breast wool in half (but not around the other pieces of wool)

Twist the wing wool a few times and then fold down to create the wings

Finally tie a piece of wool two-thirds of the way down and clip off the long strands of wool to make them even…and you are finished!

Here are some we have made

 

Moving to Sweden

I’m not planning to work at all during my first year in Lapland but will instead spend my time  learning to speak better Swedish, making new friends and contacts, making crafts to sell and I have applied to work as a volunteer for the Scandinavian Brown Bear Research Project but as yet I have had no response.

Although I do not plan to work full-time, in 2011 myself and Johan from Nordic Bushcraft are planning to run some courses together and I will be looking for other opportunities for part-time work, so if you have business in Lapland and you feel my skills and knowledge are  relevant please get in touch for a chat.

I will again be visiting Jokkmokk’s Marknard this year which takes place the same week I arrive in Lapland (that is no coincidence I can assure you!) to buy skins, leather and other goods for making crafts items.  If you will be there on Friday or Saturday  and are interested to meet up then please email me.

Companies I cannot recommend….

For some time I have wanted to purchase a pair of US Military “Mickey Mouse” boots.  These were first issued to GI’s in the Korean War and are designed to shield against water and extreme cold.  The boots are constructed of rubber and between two layers of rubber, air is trapped to act as insulation.  A valve on the outside of the boot means you can add or remove air to vary the degree of insulation provided.  In addition the boots are wool lined for increased insulation.

So I was really pleased to find a company in the UK advertising them, brand new for only £9.95 +p&p!  I ordered my a pair of size nines from Surplus and Adventure and 5 days later they arrived.  As soon as I unpacked them it was clear that these boots were not what they were advertised to be.  The label on the back stated “US style” and lacking two layers of rubber, a valve, and wool liner these were in fact just short, lace-up wellington boots with an incredibly heavy steel shank and I would require about 10 thick wool socks to to fill the boot with my foot.  The cost of returning the boots would have been almost as much as the purchase price so I have forwarded them for re-sale else where as a “safety boot!”.  My verdict…..DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY!!

“Googling” this company brings a lot of results from unhappy customers and in fact my colleague at work ordered some items from them three weeks ago and has not yet received them.  When he contacted them, he was told the items are not in stock and will hopefully be in within a week…..we shall see!!

UPDATE 16/12/09 – The items my colleague ordered have arrived today.

At the beginning of the year I was contacted by a representative from Fusion Productions in the USA, who explained that they were working on a new television series called “Hot on the Trail”, to be aired on the Veria Network in June 2009.

They contacted me because they wanted to use images of some of my crafts made from Cattail/Reed Mace for the Cattail part of the series.  The series sounded really good and after some exchanges of emails I agreed to supply images for the series, in return for a DVD copy of the programme.

Since providing some images I have heard nothing from the company and having emailed the two representatives I had been dealing with to find out if my images were actually used, I have received no response.

I would very grateful if anyone who has seen the series could get in touch with me if any of the images below were featured in the programme.

Willow and Cattail leave baskets

Cattail basket

Cattail leaf duck

Cattail Dolls

Thanks in anticipation.

UPDATE

After writing this post the production company contacted me and informed me that they did not use my images in the series.  My recommendation to others……if people seriously want what you have they will pay for it!!

Reed leaf boat

This is one that my mother taught to me and is always popular with children and adults.

Remove a long leaf from a stem of Common Reed Phragmites australis

Fold the leaf a quarter of the way along from one end and then make two tears to divide the fold into three equal tabs

Put one of the outside tabs over the middle one and into the fold of the opposite one (as shown below)

and then repeat at the opposite end

Now the boat is completed

The boat is ready to be floated on water and will blow around in the wind

Lapland Spring 2009 – 28th May

Still raining and also a very strong westerly wind today.  The rain cleared in the evening and it became sunny but with wintry showers and a temperature of 3 degrees, so I had a fire going most of the day

I spent the day carving and sanding the kåsa and also began making a smaller one from an off-cut of the bur.

I had purchased a nice Birch tanned Reindeer hide a few months ago and decided to cut out some pieces to make pouches for coffee, flour and so on.

I cut two pieces; a round piece for the base and rectangular piece long enough to go around the circumference of base

I intended to use a bone awl and antler needle I had made, with dental floss as thread

but it was not before I had broken the needle and then the awl, so I changed to a nail as a an awl and the needle I carry in my neck pouch as mentioned here.

Dental floss is a very good substitute for real sinew as a sewing thread and I use both sinew and dental floss double thickness.  I sew around the base first and then up the side with the leather inside

Once sewing is completed I turn the pouch the right way out, make a series of holes around the top and thread through a leather cord with which to close the bag

For a toggle for the draw cord  I  cut a triangular piece of leather, role it up and make a hole through it, pulling the tip of the leather through the hole to prevent the leather unrolling.  I make two holes in the rolled up toggle and thread the ends of the cord through.  To close the bag you pull the toggle and it locks the bag closed.

Then the bag is completed.

Felt making Part II

The weekend before last I was at the home of my friends John and Val Lord of http://www.flintknapping.co.uk/ and they were having a family gathering as their daughter Gina was over from Canada for a couple of weeks.

One of their other daughters (Steff) showed me a really nice felt bag she had made and I told her about my failed attempt to make a bag here. Steff offered to teach me how to make a felt bag and as it was something Gina had never done, she was also keen to give it a go. We would be using pre-died and prepared wool this time.

The first task was to design a shape and then cut out a pattern to work the wool around.

Once the shape was cut out, one side had to be lightly covered with wool, ensuring all the fibres were laid in the same direction.

Then using soap and warm water the wool was dampened

and bubble wrap placed over it and with soapy hands the bubble wrap was gently rubbed to start manipulating the wool.

The pattern was turned over with the first layer of wool now face down and the process was repeated, folding in any wool that overhung the edge of the pattern. Then the whole lot was turned over, but this time a second layer of wool was added with the fibres laid at 90 degrees the the first layer and again the wool was wetted, bubble wrap laid over and gently manipulated to start the process of interlocking the fibres and different layers. In total three layers were added and after the bubble wrap was removed for the last time, the wool (particularly the edges) was worked with soapy hands. At this stage we cut open the top of the bag and removed the pattern and continued to manipulate the wool to help the fibres interlock. At this point the wool fibre layers could still be pulled apart with the fingers and needed to be “hardened”.

To do this the wool was rinsed in clean water to remove all the soap, then put into hot water and then manipulated very vigorously which required great effort and concentration!

Being serenaded by John helped to relax us as we worked (more about John’s musical talents later in the week)

and the transformation in the wool during this process was quite amazing and at the end, it was impossible to pull any of the wool apart.

For some reason my bag shrunk considerably more than Gina’s and ended up more like a woollen cup than a bag!

I must concede that Gina made the better bag which isn’t surprising when she demanded most of Steff’s attention and in fact Steff did most of the work for her!! (though I’m not bitter), but I was still impressed with my end result and as you can see below our tutor was very pleased with our work too!!

(sorry Steff….had to do it!)