87-year-old Erkki Pekkarinen carves strips of birch bark with his knife before intricately weaving them into ‘anything you can imagine.’
He started practicing at the age of 10, and for 77 years he has been working with birch bark. He knows wood is usually considered an inflexible material, but he insist that it’s all about the right technique, according to The Star/AFP.
In Asikkala his gallery is filled with objects constructed of just strips of birch bark woven together – without glue or nails. The objects can be everything from wooden jewellery and handbags to backpacks. Even a suit.
Old but gold
It all started when he worked as a lumberjack in his youth. He remember birds gnawing through colleagues’ cotton backpacks to steal their lunch while they were felling trees. But his own food remained safe in his bark rucksack.
Although weaving birch bark might be an old tradition with origins to the Stone Age, the bark still serves as a great alternative to today’s usage of plastic. The material was once so valuable it even left its mark on the Finnish language. The expression “to collect bark” for instance means “to make money.’ Furthermore, clean and dried bark can last a long time.
Lastly, Pekkarinen said bark can removed from the trunk without killing a tree, if one has the right technique.
“And then you can make whatever your imagination will allow.’
