Sunday 17 June 2012

Birch bark boxes....





This post is really by way of having a bit of a moan about how difficult it can be to get materials for making stuff and how jealous I am of those who seem to have limitless supplies at their disposal -those fortunate enough to own a couple of acres of woodland, to have tree surgeons as neighbours or to live in Canada! Green wood is really quite difficult to come by when you live in a city and work full time so that, even when you happen to drive by a stack of freshly cut wood, by the time you get the time to go back for it, it's already been shredded/mulched or carted off to the tip.

For this reason, I have to make the most of every stick of wood that comes my way and can't really afford to discard any, despite it being twisted or knotty.

So where am I going with this? When Julian gave me a section of birch log the other week, I thought I should try and remove a section of the bark to make a container with. I really like birch bark items and figured I could make something nice for the up-coming craft fair. Great idea, I hear you say. Unfortunately, the bark available in this country is often too thin and knotty for stripping and this was certainly the case in this instance. Still, I couldn't bring myself to waste it so instead of one nice big container, managed to get enough for two very small canisters instead.
some basic tools
truing and cutting bark to size
cutting tabs for sewing
stitching tabs - a bit fiddly
finished boxes - just need leather pull-tabs on the lids

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