Detail of Woodwork Skills
Northern Russia 2009
A farmhouse typical of the region is now a museum on Kizhi Island. The island, on the northernmost tip of Lake Onega, was settled by Karelians, a Finnish people, who were masters at woodcraft. The inside of the house contained the items a family would have needed: spinning wheel, chairs, a table with a samovar, a corner with an icon draped with a linen cloth.
What was interesting was the use of birch or linden bark to make buckets, trays and shoes called lapti. I had thought that these shoes, called bast shoes in English, were sturdy but I learned that they only lasted two weeks. If a Russian peasant was going for a long distance, he would pack several pairs of bast shoes because they would wear out so fast. The shoes are easy to make and the Russians have a saying to describe a severely drunk person, “He was too drunk to make a pair of lapti.” Apparently, that’s pretty drunk.