Magically beautiful carving on birch bark. Revival of ancient crafts

Fine carving. Slotted holes in the form of circles, ovals, half moons, rhombuses, in combination with various colored linings, formed an ornament characteristic of each region and region.

The word "ornament" comes from the Latin ornamentum - "decoration". This is a pattern consisting of rhythmically ordered elements. Patterns of ornaments are often built according to the principles of symmetry, and motifs and images are subjected to stylization and generalization.

The decorative beginning of the ornament is combined with the semantic one. Already in the Paleolithic and Neolithic eras, man created the first geometric ornament, consisting of zigzags, crosses, circles and straight lines. These drawings reflected the whole world around a person: sky, earth, water, the universe. In the future, animal and plant ornaments appear, in which stylized patterns, creating a kind of letter (pictogram), passed on from generation to generation a story about the life of our ancestors.

The difference in natural conditions led to the fact that each nation created its own ornamental language. But following the canon of the national ornament, the masters included elements in the patterns that convey the originality and color of their area. For example, people living in the northern, wooded regions of Russia preferred to use Christmas trees in the ornament, and the inhabitants of the Far North - deer, the Kirghiz and Kazakhs - the horns of rams, and the peoples of the Caucasus - bunches of grapes, various fruits.

Not only the pattern, but also the color has always played an important role in the ornament. So, for example, among the Chinese, red means south, black means north, green means east, white means west, yellow means center. And the Kyrgyz have blue - the sky, red - fire, yellow - the desert. Entire messages can be encrypted in ornaments. An example of such a peculiar letter is the ornament described in the work of G. W. Longfellow based on Indian folk tales - “The Song of Hiawatha”:

... He took out paints from the bag,
He took out paints of all colors
And on a smooth birch
Made a lot of secret signs
_________
The white circle was the sign of life
The black circle was the sign of death;
_________
He painted for the earth
Paint a straight line
For heaven - an arc above it,
For sunrise - a point to the left,
For sunset - point to the right,
And for half a day - at the top.
________
Trail towards the wigwam
Was the emblem of the invitation
A sign of a friendly feast...
(Translated by I. Bunin)

The Russian ornament is characterized by an exceptional wealth of geometric and floral forms, which is reflected not only in folk embroidery and traditional wood carving, but also in carving and painting on birch bark.

Perhaps the most remarkable is the slotted, or perforated, carving on birch bark, which is still found in the Russian North. Images of deer antlers and birds carved from birch bark were used to decorate the boxes of Western Siberian craftsmen. The ornaments of the northern peoples of Russia are interesting. The drawings in this article show a variety of ornaments. You can repeat the products completely or use only the ornament.

The beauty and artistic value of a birch bark product depends largely on the technique of execution, in which skills play an important role (for example, a steep hand movement during carving).

Before carving, the birch bark must be well cleaned on both sides and cut to a thickness of 2 mm. Of the tools for carving, a cutter knife (it is sold in stationery stores and comes with a hiding blade) and a small blunt and polished awl are used. To mark the picture, you need a ruler, square, compasses, transfer or carbon paper, a well-sharpened medium-hard pencil and an eraser. It is convenient to use pre-prepared templates for repeating ornament images.

Carving is usually performed on a flat, cleanly planed plank.
The prepared birch bark is cut out according to the product templates and a pattern is applied to the blanks. First, the border is cut, and then the central part of the pattern. Large parts of the drawing are necessarily cut out according to the applied office, and small ones, with a certain skill, can be cut by eye. After the entire drawing is cut out, its main parts are engraved with an awl and a small cut.

To develop certain carving skills, you need to start with simple tasks and simple drawings. To do this, on strips of birch bark prepared for carving, several parallel lines are drawn with an awl at a distance of 10 mm from each other. Inside these strips, simple figures are cut out, first cuts are 2-3 mm long and 0.3-0.5 mm wide, and then half-holes, rhombuses, "patties" and so on, gradually complicating the pattern.
Figures 92-94 show variants of products made using the cut birch bark technique with a colored lining and a combination of cutting with appliqué (or birch bark intarsia).

If a lining is made of foil or colored paper under the birch bark, then it is first glued to the lining, and then glued to the base.

But enough of the sad stuff...

Let's talk about a very interesting and rare trade - about slotted birch bark.

Essay: "Touching the birch bark"

The Shemoksa River, a tributary of the Northern Dvina, slowly flows past birch groves and spruce copses through green water meadows. Sun glare shimmers on calm water, tall grasses are reflected in it over sleepy backwaters. The strong huts of villages with carved ridges on the roofs, lace trims on the windows look into these deep mirror pools darkened from time to time. The local inhabitants from time immemorial owned carpentry and carpentry skills. But the ability to carve a decorating ornament from birch bark brought them special fame. Shemogoda carvers, perfectly mastering the cutting technique, created the finest lace from birch bark.

Why did this art craft appear on the banks of the Shemoksy River? Researchers of northern folk crafts do not give an exact answer. But it can be said with certainty that the proximity of Veliky Ustyug had great importance for the origin and development of shemogokoy carving.

Veliky Ustyug, located on a wide trading river, has attracted the attention of foreign merchants since ancient times as a convenient transit and trading point. From here goods went to Moscow and the White Sea, to Siberia and to distant China. Already in 1618, the British and Dutch lived in Veliky Ustyug, who founded their trading offices on the Sukhona. The best craftsmen and artists came to this ancient city to decorate churches and cathedrals. Enamel, filigree and embossing, the production of glazed tiles, "perforated iron" and black work on silver - "northern black" - developed here.

The “perforated iron”, which is still found in the ancient buildings of Veliky Ustyug, has an ornament very similar to the patterns of the old Shemogod carving. This gives reason to think that in very distant years, an unknown master, perhaps by chance, wanted to try his art on another material that was in abundance at hand, namely, on birch bark. The experience turned out to be successful. And birch bark lace began to be used as a decorative material, mainly for pasting caskets.

And Veliky Ustyug has long been famous for its casket production. Local caskets, upholstered in "frost on tin", found excellent sales throughout Russia and in Eastern countries. They were made mainly in Shemoks, and they were upholstered with “frost” in Veliky Ustyug, where craftsmen lived who knew how to cover tin with a pattern similar to those that appear on windows in winter from frost. Hence the name "frost on tin".

Naturally, they began to carve birch bark where the material was at hand. In the village of Kurovo-Navolok, surrounded by birch forests, the first carver began to work. Hence, by the name of the river Shemoksy, the name of the Shemogod carving was established.

You can unmistakably name the name of the first master. It was Veprev. For a long time, only his descendants were engaged in birch bark carving here. After the revolution, there were ninety carvers in the Shemogoda promartel, and they all bore the same surname - Veprevy.

It should be noted that the Shemogoda caskets before the revolution were better known in Paris and New York than in St. Petersburg and Moscow. Parisian women kept gloves in Shemogoda caskets, Americans kept cigars and tobacco. At the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900, handicrafts made by Shemogoda craftsman Ivan Afanasyevich Veprev were awarded a diploma and a medal with honors. And at the All-Russian Exhibition in Moscow, he received a gold medal. The glory of Ivan Afanasyevich Veprev was inherited by his son Alexander Ivanovich Veprev and students Nikolai Vasilievich and Serafim Veprev.

There was a time when the inhabitants of Shemogoda, in order to make the boxes more elegant, put foil under the birch bark lace. She gave lightness and transparency to the products, as if enlivening the bouquet pattern with the reflection of an unquenchable fire. But at the same time, the foil gave the product a toy look, reduced the cost of artistic carving. Maybe that's why the best Shemogoda masters did not follow this path. Ivan Afanasyevich Veprev generally avoided using foil, preferring a simple dark matte background for his carving, which made birch bark lace acquire great artistic expressiveness and nobility.

In the early 1960s, the Shemogoda artel was merged with a local furniture factory. And then birch bark products were completely removed from production: they say that they did not find wide demand. It seemed that folk art, which had been developing for a long time, was about to die...

So one of the oldest masters of Shemogoda carving Alexandra Yegorovna Markova told me, a plump, round-faced woman with a quick, rolling dialect characteristic of northern women. Alexandra Yegorovna learned the craft during the war years from Anna Alekseevna Ryadovikova, who at one time took over the craft from the Veprevys.

During the war, little was done with carving, they mainly decorated school pencil cases, - said Alexandra Yegorovna. - And after the war, the masters completely diminished, and life went on differently. Many have completely abandoned the craft.

Markova got married, moved to Veliky Ustyug, worked for a long time in kindergarten. But the skill was not forgotten. It just so happens that, for various life circumstances, the master can part with the craft, perceived in his youth. But memory keeps in its pantries the techniques of drawing, carving, and many other little secrets. And the hand does not forget once acquired skills.

So it happened with Alexandra Egorovna. In her free time, she was drawn to carving, and she harassed a long-standing supply of birch bark for tueski, mugs, caskets. I made them for myself, gave them to friends, lovers of folk art. Gradually, her skill was noticed, orders for exhibitions, museums, and private collections appeared. In the late 60s, Markova began working in Kuzin, where a Shemogoda carving workshop was opened at a mechanical plant, and soon she was invited to start the production of caskets at the Veliky Ustyug factory of artistic brushes. The industry, which had been stalled, began to revive little by little.

The tart smell of wood and birch bark filled the room, evoking a picture of a hot summer day, when birch trees, pierced by the sun and full of sap, smell especially sharp and spicy. They softly knock on wood (hammers - this is at the far end of the workshop they collect caskets. At the tables placed along the windows, the girls work intently. In front of each craftswoman is a stack of birch bark strips-ribbons. On the one hand they are matte, velvety, white-pink, on the other - shiny, dark yellow. Barely noticeable convex "needles" do not spoil the polished surface of the tape. This is the main material for birch bark lace. There is also a simple tool: a blunt awl, a compass, a ruler, a short sharp knife blade on a long wooden handle and a smooth beech board the size of a notebook page.

The assortment of modern Shemogoda products mainly comes down to caskets of different sizes and shapes, - Markova explained. - We place the main thread pattern on the side of the box. She dictates to the carver the ornament of the pattern, which is necessarily included in the frame of the border. This gives the ornament a strict finish.

Alexandra Yegorovna puts one of the birch bark strips on the board, takes an awl and gently touches the center of the ribbon with it. Under her hand, a sinuous line appears - the main stem. And now the first trefoil grows on it, the second, the third ... Smooth, rounded stems with branches diverging to the sides, gradually braid the surface of the birch bark, revealing the contour of the future pattern.

The craftswoman does not have a finished sample in front of her. She does not draw or copy, but creates an ornament that she remembers all her life.

Shemogodskaya carving has historically developed three types of ornament - without interrupting work, Alexandra Yegorovna explains - vegetable, we also call it a "bouquet", geometric and genre. We love the “bouquet” the most.

Having marked the border with a ruler and scattered strokes-stamens in flowers, veins in leaves, the craftswoman lays down the awl and picks up a chisel. Dexterously, she holds the long handle of a knife. The chisel precisely touches the places known only to the craftswoman, takes out the birch bark in tiny pieces, gradually turning the birch bark into intricate lace.

Here, under the quick and confident hand of the craftswoman, the leaves of some fantastic plant appear, resembling either viburnum or wild grapes, which suddenly turn into a dodder stalk. I strive to trace the lush branching of the stem, and it ends even more unexpectedly in flowers similar to cornflowers. I peer into the carvings of the girls working nearby and recognize snowdrops, bluebells, ferns. And in all of them, the floral ornament is distinguished by the harmonious development of the composition, the correct layout and the symmetry of the repetitions of the individual elements of the flower.

For each craftswoman, the main motif is a wavy shoot with full, round, repeating curls. Among these curls, the craftswoman, using every centimeter of free space, places rosettes, clusters, like fruits in fancy foliage. The undulating, with curls shoot has many options, but they all differ in the correctness of the complex pattern, a clear free outline of the leaves and flowers.

Each girl has her own handwriting, - explains Alexandra Egorovna. - Galina Vologdina likes to cut these fresh mallows, and Luda Bazhenova performs these lush sunflowers - you immediately recognize her hand, you will not confuse it with any other.

Marvelous birch bark lace grows right before our eyes. Craftswomen carve confidently and quickly, keeping the pattern in mind. There are many little secrets in their work. It is important to hold the knife correctly, at a certain angle, so that the cut is slanted. Then the texture of the birch bark will decorate the drawing, and in order for the cut to be equally even, you need to work out a certain pressing force. The hardest part of the job is wiring. The craftswoman needs a good eye so that there is balance in the drawing, so that nothing falls out and does not overload it.

Valentina Usacheva and Lyudmila Melekhina prefer to cut geometric patterns. They carve caps, in which a richly dissected circle plays the main ornamental role. The decoration is built around this central motif. Triangles, rhombuses, circles radiate from the center of the circle.

The circle entered the Shemogoda carving as an ancient pagan symbol of the sun. Over time, it changed into a rosette with numerous options and became a favorite motif of Shemogoda carving. Various types of caskets, such as an oval tea caddy, forced carvers to look for new circle shapes. This is how the ellipse was born, which opened up new ways for craftswomen to create an ornament.

It is generally accepted that the old Shemogoda masters mainly carved shamrocks with a finishing border, but some especially talented carvers were also engaged in genre, silhouette drawing, decorating caskets with images of hunting scenes, carnival, introducing figures of people, birds, deer, horses into them. A characteristic feature of this carving was the rare ability to fit the conceived image into the allotted area of ​​the birch bark area and stylistically combine it with the general carving pattern.

The profile image of birds and animals by the Shemogoda masters is always very expressive. One of the best Shemogoda craftsmen, Nikolai Vasilyevich Veprev, liked to decorate caskets with plot ornaments.

Now birch bark boxes with plot carvings are collected mainly for exhibitions. Craftswoman Tatyana Vyazova created a panorama of Veliky Ustyug on birch bark, Markova's fairy tales are widely known.

Birch bark, you know, she also has character, - Alexandra Yegorovna continues her story. - On soft it is easy to cut, on hard and layered it is more difficult: the edges are lifted up, the purity of the background and subtlety will no longer be. That is why not the last thing is the procurement of raw materials. Every year, at the beginning of June, having received permission from the forester, we all go to the forest together. We choose birches no older than fifteen years, always in a mixed forest. Snow-white, smelling of birch sap, the bark is removed easily. Just cut a little from top to bottom of the trunk - and you're done. Trees do not deteriorate, they continue to grow. Then we dry the birch bark in the shade, press it, skin it, smooth it. Only after that we cut out the required sizes of blanks for caskets, tuesas, mirror frames ...

I wanted to follow to the end how the birch bark box is made. When the lace is ready for it, the craftswoman cuts out a “lock” at the ends of the ribbon and, carefully smearing it with glue, attaches it to the birch bark background darkened with stain. Then he trims the nutretso, also made of birch bark, and, having connected all three layers together, stretches them over sulagi, as wooden blanks are called here. Dry a little, then bend the edges, then dry again. When the birch bark takes the form of a box, the husks are removed, and the bottom and lid are inserted instead, having previously sanded and lacquered them. It remains only to glue a lace birch bark circle on the lid - and the box is ready.

Folders with sketches, caskets of different colors and sizes, birch bark tuesas, wooden handicrafts, souvenir bast shoes, wicker snuff boxes are stored in the workshop on smoothly planed wooden shelves...

I take from the shelf a light-yellow chest, warm to the touch, tightly tied with creamy birch bark lace. I peer into the lid of the box and see - the coachman drives the horses, and the troika rushes, rushes, whirling snow dust ...

E. Frolova

I also have a colorful book,

It contains information about all the surviving crafts of our region, brief, but very colorful. This is how Beresta is presented.

I would like to believe that Shemogoda carving will not disappear like a craft, and new works of masters will delight us for a long, long time..

Good luck to everyone and creative inspiration!!!

We have such masters in Russia who throughout their lives carry deep reverence for their roots and the entire history of the Russian land. How much love and devotion is hidden behind their ordinary appearance and hard-working hands, we often cannot even imagine. Our story is about an amazing craftsman from the Arkhangelsk region, whom we were lucky to meet this winter.

How it all began

Alexander Shutikhin was born in the city of Kotlas. He graduated from high school there, served in the army and then plunged into a string of rapidly changing professions: builder, plasterer, plumber and many others.

As Alexander himself says, in the difficult "perestroika" time, it was no longer enough just to work - you had to survive. Fortunately, people have the freedom to choose an activity that could earn normal money. It was during this period, in 1991, that he first picked up birch bark prepared in his native village house. "Sensations are important to me. As soon as I started working with birch bark, I immediately realized that I really like it to the touch because of its softness, smoothness and elasticity. Although many materials have passed through my hands in my life. So we are with birch found each other." Alexander, together with his wife Marina, who is engaged in Mezen painting, began to make souvenirs for sale, and after a month or two he decided that it was time to take self-study more seriously, and went to the museum to see what products were made before and repeat after the old artisans. Then he began to get acquainted with art historians and original masters, who immersed him deeper and deeper into the world of birch bark folk art.

creative process

"It is important to understand the technology, and then you improve yourself alone, experiment with different ornaments. For example, tuesok. Its shape is traditional, the technology is well known, including in terms of handles and clasps. But I can take an ornament for it, for example, from architecture, textiles, embroidery or clay."

Alexander does not sign his works because he believes that folk art is, by definition, anonymous. In addition, unlike many creative people, he does not experience the pangs of creativity or self-criticism at all due to mistakes made in the process of weaving. The only thing that can stop the process of his work is physical fatigue in his hands. A direct, easy approach to life and an incredible ability to work allow him to be above the many difficulties that artisans face in the process of creating and realizing their work.

Implementation of the finished product

"I don't feel any kind of competition. I produce about a thousand items a year, and all of them at fairly low prices, which allows me to sell very quickly. In addition, the human eye is very pleased to see something original, not a factory, made by hand, and ordered, as a rule, a lot.
Buy more often private individuals. There are individual orders and regular customers who buy 50-100 pieces a year. I developed my selling style based on old traditions. It used to be accepted that the master, having created his products, handed them over to a dealer who delivered them to the city. And already in the city they were transferred to shops where buyers came. It's the same with me. I don't trade. And in general, I think that the master should be engaged in his immediate business, and not combine several professions, for example, a marketer, manager and others. If we talk about points of sale, then resellers sell products, for example, in Nizhny Novgorod, Moscow, Arkhangelsk, Vologda, Surgut and other cities where the tourism business is developed. Now interest in folk crafts is gradually reviving.

About roots close to the heart

Almost simultaneously with the beginning of the birch bark activity, Alexander Shutikhin began to study his family tree and the origin of his surname. This search led him to official historical documents that mention his name as far back as the 15th century, and which allowed him to find the place where almost all of his ancestors lived from card files. Actually, it is in this area - the village of Bushmanikha, Podosinovsky district, Kirov region - that he spends half of his time.
“In our family there were wealthy peasants respected by all: church elders, coachmen with their sleighs and horses, hard-working, cultured people. Our house was with a mezzanine, quite large, with good decoration, large windows and beautiful mirrors. get an education. Many went to St. Petersburg, Moscow; few of my relatives stayed here. I feel very good in the village of Bushmanikhe, I love those people, they don’t even irritate the roads. I am very happy that I found my homeland. People often suffer, not knowing where their real homeland is, they are looking for where they will feel good ... But you have to look where their ancestors lived, and everything will fall into place. I stay at home in Kotlas for 5-6 days, then again I go to Bushmanikha for 5-6 days - I heat the stove there, work, go to the forest for birch bark. There is harmony."

life philosophy

“First of all, do not take the unearned, that is, a freebie is unacceptable for me. And also freedom and work. It’s better to live poorer, but freer. I recently leafed through Dahl’s dictionary and came across one of the meanings of the word “just” - freedom. - in simplicity and ... when you are not afraid of anything. It is very important not to depend on anyone, to do your job with high quality and take care of the family, fulfill all obligations.

… If you like to do something, then you must constantly work in this direction. And try to turn your hobby into a profession. My path was easy - it just turned out to be such a fortunate combination of circumstances. But it's often more difficult for many people. In no case should you think only about how to earn more money - the main thing is to do what is close to your heart and not pay attention to people who dissuade you from doing what you love."

Natalia Shumilova, Gayanat project

One of the favorite materials of the masters was birch bark. Baskets, salt shakers, boxes, shoes (bast shoes, feet) were woven from it. Of the combined products (wood and bark), the most common was the tues, consisting of layered birch bark and skolotn (birch bark cylinder).

Birch bark has antiseptic properties, which allows you to store food in birch bark dishes for a long time. In addition to utilitarian items, in a peasant hut there were toys made of birch bark - wicker balls, rattles (shamblers), "bark" figures. Simple musical instruments were also made from birch bark - horns and pipes. A birch bark ribbon was wrapped around pots, glass bottles, handles of tools.

Birch bark crafts, once widespread throughout the country, have been preserved in the northern, northeastern regions of the European part of Russia, in the Volga region and Siberia. Bodywork from elm bark is made only in the Bryansk region (Small Polpino). Unfortunately, at present, the craft is not so widespread, and only individual craftsmen make boxwork.

If you have been in the forest, then most likely you have seen a rotten birch stump at least once. If you hit it with your foot, it will crumble into dust, but the birch bark will remain strong. Birch bark is durable and does not rot, and people have long understood this. In huts, it was placed under the lower crown of the hut so that moisture would not penetrate into the house. Birch bark was used to create moisture-resistant shoes, sheathing birch bark boats, making tuesas that kept their contents cold even in the heat. One of historical sources birch-bark letters became widely known, bringing to us samples of ancient Russian writing. Birch was used as paper due to its elasticity.
Birch bark products used in everyday life were often decorated with a welt pattern. Veliky Ustyug was the city where more birch bark was carved than in all other places.
Birch bark is easy to process, even using simple tools, you can perform various decorative works.

The most important tool in creating slotted birch bark is a cutter. You also need punches (Hand tools for punching small holes in various materials) - they are made of sheet steel, rolled up in the form of tubes of different diameters. The profiles of such tubes can be made in different shapes: oval, square, triangular, round. The tubes must be driven into wooden handles and sharpened on the outside.
Chasings and a blunt awl are also useful in work. The more different instruments the more interesting the drawing will be.

Birch bark preparations should be planned for the end of May / beginning of June, it is at this time of the year that the birch bark has a particularly beautiful shade and is easily removed. Remove birch bark only from already fallen trees!

You should clean off the outer white layer with sandpaper and remove the remnants of the bark from the front (inner) side.
Fresh birch bark exfoliates easily, but dried birch bark will need to be steamed hot water and separate into layers with a knife.
To make the birch bark straight, put it between two boards and press down with a load.

To process birch bark, you need a board (preferably linden or aspen). The birch bark is attached to such a board with the help of pushpins, and a sheet of thin paper with a pattern applied to it is fixed on top, then the pattern must be traced along the contour with a hard pencil so that the imprint of the pattern is visible on the product, in the future it can be circled with an awl and directly on the birch bark .

Complex parts of the pattern must be cut out with a cutter, and punches are well suited for small, frequently repeated elements. In order to make the pattern even more interesting, chasings are used, they are lightly tapped with a hammer so that a depression or bulge appears in the birch bark. Be careful, if you are not sure that you will get exactly a recess, and not a through hole, it is better to practice chasing on a trial piece of birch bark. Chasings and punches serve to simplify the same elements on the product. An awl is used to depict short lines and dots.

After your work is completed, you need to carefully remove the birch bark from the board and glue it to the background - smooth birch bark, colored foil, etc. For gluing, you must use wood glue and do it under pressure. If during operation it loses color and freshness, then it should be wiped with oil (sunflower or linseed) with a soft sponge or rag.
The finished product can be used to decorate a pencil case, bookmark, pencil holder, glasses case and many different items that we encounter in everyday life.

So, our master class on making a pattern on birch bark by slotted carving:

Instruments

First, we need a joint knife and a feather knife as the main knives. These are the main knives, and we will use them most often. Professional craftsmen usually use in general, only a pen knife.

We also need a set of chisels for wood carving

Since I used to study wood carving at Tatyanka, I have such a set of chisels in stock.

We also need an awl. The main thing in working with birch bark is that the awl does not scratch it, so take yourself a couple to work with birch bark and blunt / round off a little.

For slotted carving, we need first-class, high-quality birch bark. With a joint knife, it is necessary to remove all growths and stratify the birch bark, removing the white layer. As we remember, birch bark is compressed layers of the thinnest outer bark, so the separation will be easy.

Getting Started

The first thing we need to do is to prepare the drawing that we will cut out. To do this, it is quite enough to print the necessary drawing on the printer, attach it to the birch bark and with an awl (that's why you need a rounded awl) carefully circle the drawing, not pressing hard on the drawing, so that the outline remains on the birch bark.

You can use many different tools to emboss birch bark, but to get the full range of designs, I advise you to use a tool for embossing on leather.

Here are some examples of leather embossing:

The effect will be the same, only due to the fact that the birch bark is more fragile, calculate the force when hit with a hammer :) Practice on an unnecessary piece of birch bark.

The frame around the picture is outlined with a metal ruler, this is a completely proven way to make a straight line.

After that, take some rest.

In order to stick our drawing on the object to be decorated, we take PVA glue, a sponge for dishes, and apply glue with small light movements, the glue is applied both to the object and to the birch bark, remember you don’t need a lot of glue, otherwise it will leak out of the ornament and then all this will have a rather unpresentable appearance.

Good luck to YOU ​​in your endeavors!

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Revival of ancient crafts. Birch bark gives a man positive energy. People from time immemorial appreciated and knew medicinal properties birch bark. And now the birch is called a warm tree. Even in a cold room, a piece of birch bark or a piece of birch bark remains warm, as it has great positive energy. It is enough for an excited person to look at her for a while and hold her in his hands - and he immediately calms down. In Rus', they said that birch takes away pain and gives health. Many peasants in Russia wore tramps and bast shoes made of birch bark not at all out of poverty, but in order to be healthy and protect their joints from rheumatism.

The healing properties of birch have been known to man for a long time. This tree gives everything to a person for his health: bark, juice, buds, tender roots, leaves, young twigs, birch mushroom, tar, birch coal. It also has an excellent bioenergetic therapeutic effect. In a birch grove you will feel calm, cheerful, filled with the power of life. Numerous tips for the treatment of diseases are given in herbalists of the XYI-XYII centuries. With the help of birch bark, diseases of the joints, nervous and urinary systems were treated. Crushed birch bark was sprinkled on wounds so that they would heal faster and not fester.

Birch bark relieves headaches, heals wounds and puts blood pressure in order. Headbands and hairpins made of birch bark do not accumulate static electricity, and birch bark jewelry does not contain substances that cause skin irritation.

A healing extract from birch bark, which has been used for centuries in treatment and in everyday life, is a natural combination of various healing natural compounds - betulin, lupeol, betulinic acid, etc.
Betulin, contained in the upper layer of the birch bark (the protective substance of the birch itself, coloring its trunk white), is the main active biologically active substance of the extract.

A third of birch bark consists of betulin, which has another name - birch camphor. First in the USA, and then in Russia, this substance began to be called for its special biological properties.
Birch bark (birch bark) is harvested mainly from growing trees and trees after felling. At the same time, the upper white layer of the bark is cut to the bast. The best is birch bark from the middle part of the tree. The harvested raw material is dried in air. Raw materials are officially approved for use in medicine in Russia, the USA and many other countries.

Betulin
1. protects liver cells from damage by various chemicals.
2. prevents the occurrence of cancer cells, suppresses the causative agent of tuberculosis, helps to avoid the disease in close contact with patients.
3. contributes to the neutralization and removal of harmful substances from the body.
4. relieves manifestations of allergies: allergic rhinitis, lacrimation (hay fever), skin rashes, etc.
5. facilitates the course of the disease.
6. In birch bark tueska bread is preserved much longer than usual and does not get moldy for a long time.

7. a long-known method of air disinfection.
A few drops of birch tar, which is obtained from birch bark, drip on the coals and the air in your room will become almost sterile. So in the old days they prepared the premises for childbirth.

The history of the industry.

Birch bark is harvested at the end of May - at the beginning of June, during the active movement of juices inside the tree. Only the top layer of birch bark is used. The inner surface of the bark is sanded and made with the front side of birch bark products. This material has long been used for the manufacture of dishes due to its properties: strength, flexibility, resistance to decay. Birch bark does not let water through, in buckets and tubs made of birch bark, milk does not sour and is kept cold in the hot season. Birch bark boats, summer dwellings, hats, rugs, and many other products were made from material that seemed fragile at first glance in many northern regions. Since the 11th century, birch bark has been used for writing, centuries later the famous Novgorod birch bark letters have come down to us. The craftsmen of the Vologda, Arkhangelsk, Olonets, Vyatka, Vladimir, Nizhny Novgorod, Perm, Tobolsk and other provinces were engaged in the production of products from birch bark.

The most famous in Russia was the craft of the Shemogodskaya openwork slotted birch bark, which got its name from the Shemogsa River, on the banks of which the villages of craftsmen were located (Kurovo-Navolok, Pogorelovo, Krasavino, Bernyatino, etc. near the city of Veliky Ustyug). The craft arose in the middle of the 19th century (according to other sources, at the end of the 18th century). The best products of Shemogoda craftsmen are kept in museums (the most famous craftsman is Ivan Veprev). After the revolution, an artel was organized in the village of Kurovo-Navolok, numbering about 100 people in 1935. An art workshop was also opened in Veliky Ustyug, where birch bark was also cut, and in the 1980s, the production of carved birch bark was concentrated at the Veliky Ustyug Patterns experimental factory.

No less famous are the North Russian crafts for painting birch bark products. This is Permogorsk painting, named after the village of Permogorye on the Northern Dvina - on a white background, various plant motifs, fabulous birds, scenes from rural life. Uftyuzhsky craft in the villages along the Uftyuga River was famous for fabulous floral ornaments painted on bright orange-red, green or blue backgrounds. Large centers for painting birch bark products are known in the Urals (the so-called "peasant" painting stands out, which was used in Nizhny Tagil to decorate beetroot - a lush bouquet of three large flowers was depicted against a bright colored background) and in Siberia. At the end of the 18th century, natives of the Northern regions of Rus' (from the Arkhangelsk region) moved to the current Tomsk region, who gave rise to the now flourishing trade in embossed and carved birch bark products.

All birch bark products can be divided into several groups depending on the method of their manufacture:

Items made from a single piece of birch bark (Skoltni);
· products from variously bonded whole piece of birch bark;
wickerwork (very diverse in shape and size);
stitched products (utensils).

The main ways of decorating birch bark products are embossing, carving and painting. Already in the middle of the 18th century, embossing and carving on birch bark were well known. Andrei Bolotov wrote about this in his "Biography of Andrei Bolotov" in the appendix to the journal "Russian Antiquity".
Embossing is carried out manually with dies or chases made of wood, bone or metal. They hit the die (chasing) with a hammer - a drawing remains on the birch bark. In addition to embossed birch bark, slotted birch bark is used. With the blunt side of the knife or an awl on the birch bark, an outline of the pattern is applied, which is then cut out with a sharp end. The traditional pattern of birch bark lace is an openwork floral ornament: intertwining stems, leaves, flowers. Less commonly, images of animals and birds are introduced into the ornament. Sometimes thematic drawings are used. Strips of slotted birch bark are glued into recesses on the surface of wood products (caskets, dishes, etc.) or from two layers of birch bark (tuesa). To enhance the color play of the ornament and the background, a sheet of colored foil (paper) is occasionally placed under the openwork birch bark pattern or the background is tinted darker.

Painting on birch bark products is carried out using a primer (it has its own for each craft), coloring is done with gouache, tempera or oil paints (differently for different crafts). After painting, the product is dried and varnished.

In addition to the above methods of decorating birch bark, scraping and engraving are used, and in Yakutia, for example, they also decorate with beads, horse hair, and metal parts.

The range of artistic birch bark products is very wide: sugar bowls, candy bowls, tea caddies, coasters, caskets, pencil glasses and other items of a utilitarian and decorative nature.

From time immemorial, peasants have used birch bark to make household items. They made dishes, caskets, cradles for newborns, toys, boxes for picking berries and mushrooms, salted fish in birch bark dishes, and much more. used to write letters (from birch bark documents, historians learned a lot about our ancestors and their way of life), for the manufacture of tar. Siberian hunters made handles for knives (a knife with such a handle did not sink in water, did not slip in the hands, and did not cool the hand in winter). Fishermen made floats for nets, when building a hut, birch bark was placed under the first crown of the house to protect the building from dampness (still used by Siberian Old Believers), healers used it for medicinal purposes.