Can you imagine what it must feel like peeling the bark from a tree and making it into these.
These gorgeous containers are the work of Jarrod Stone Dahl, they are a traditional basket design made by native Americans around the great lakes.
I have admired Jarrod’s work for a while everything he makes from birch bark canoes, to snowshoes, to turned bowls and carved spoons are just the finest craftsmanship. Take a look at his work here.
His partner April makes wonderful split ash baskets too.
Anyway back to the bark containers. I saw some of these a while ago on Jarrods
blog and loved them. We arranged a trade with me sending some of my forged hooks to use in his bowlturning. I like that whilst Jarrod has been inspired by my bowlturning he primarily makes forms that reflect his Scandinavian routes. The basket arrived several weeks ago, it was bigger than I imagined in the photos and it took me a few days to decide how it was going to work it’s way into every day life. It became the muesli container so I visit it every morning. I have a special spoon for muesli bought from a friend Peter Kohidi in Hungary more than 10 years ago.
Now it just happened that the spoon fitted perfectly over the rim of the basket.
I lived with it for several weeks before deciding I would make a little cut out in the rim and sit the spoon there permanently.
If you would like one of these baskets Jarrod sells them for $125-175 the lidded ones being top end. Mine is a “winter bark” basket, there is a very limited time when the bark peels and has the oxidised layer that can be scraped into the patterns. I know I will enjoy mine every day for many years to come.
wow that is beautiful!
Birch bark is really wonderful stuff ,thanks for sharing the craft 🙂
Thanks Robin, I like the addition of the spoon and love that it's being used.