Methods for making shingles for weaving baskets. Weaving from birch bark, shingles, willow. Find a common language with nature

In the manufacture of jewelry and household items in the North, the bark of young birch was widely used - birch bark... Baskets and bowls of various sizes and proportions were made from it, which were decorated with embossing, openwork carving or painting. Bast barks were woven from barks, baskets, boxes, breadbaskets, bags - pestles. Weaving from birch bark and embossing - decorating the surface of objects with patterns stamped with a stamp - were developed everywhere in the North.

The material itself with its velvety, warm, slightly pinkish or yellowish surface is very beautiful, and in skillful hands an ordinary birch bark can turn into an amazing work. Birch bark was widely used in all districts of the Vologda Oblast, Veliky Ustyug and villages along the Shemoksa River were famous for "cut birch bark", where original centers of this art developed.

One of the examples of Veliky Ustyug birch bark is a small box with a picture of a scene. The facade of the house with windows on the first floor and big heads two people in the second. From the left, a man in a dressing gown approaches the house, with a pipe with a long shank. A dog runs at his feet. Flowers and branches represent the landscape. Big-headed characters are conveyed with humor, in a conventional flat manner, but with sufficient observation and accuracy in reproducing the costumes of the late 18th century. In the performance of this unique box, the master combined carving on the side with embossing, engraving and a kind of "shotting" of the background, more characteristic of artistic silver processing.

The collection of items made of cut birch bark in the funds of the Vologda Museum-Reserve numbers several hundred items. They tell about the development of this interesting craft for almost two centuries. The cut-through slotted birch bark, which was used to decorate chests, boxes, beetroots, bodies, was named shemogodsky along the Shemogse River, a tributary of the Northern Dvina. In the village of Kurovo-Navolok, the former Shemogod volost, ornamental carving on birch bark was developed. A pattern was applied to a sheet of birch bark with a blunt awl, which was then cut through with a sharp knife. The basis of the ornament of Shemogoda products was the motive of a spiral curl with a rosette inside and lush branches of wavy shoots. Variants of such patterns densely fill the surfaces of many peasant household items, which were decorated with such birch bark lace. And to make it easier to read, tinted foil or colored paper was placed under the birch bark.

Modern Vologda craftsmen do not paint over birch bark, but reveal it natural properties: texture pattern, pure golden color, as if radiating solar heat. Wicker birchbark bread bins and baskets find a lively response among our contemporaries not only for their expediency, but also for the enduring beauty of the material itself.

No less birch bark weaving was widespread weaving of baskets, boxes, pestles from pine shingles, vines, pine root. Pine wood, grown in a swamp, easily stratifies into thin plates and the material is quite suitable for weaving. Weaved "in a straight line" or oblique rows, the top was fixed with birch or cherry rims, decorated with birch bark fringe. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Plakhin basket-makers (Kirillovsky district) were especially famous. They sent to the auction in Nikolo-Volok a dozen wagons with tattered baskets a day. This craft was widespread in the villages of Leshchevo, Andronovo, Rusanikha, Alferovo until the 1970s.

learning craft

L. Zubarev

Shingles are planed and chipped. They plan shingles from aspen or linden square chocks 25 ... 30 cm long and 10x15 ... 20 cm in cross section.The chocks are fixed on a floor raised 1 m from the ground, in the same place they install a long lever from a pole that rotates on an axis, at the end of which they attach special knife. With the help of this device, shingles with a thickness of 0.5 cm are gouged. Of course, one shoulder at the lever where the knife is located is shorter than the other.

They cover the roof with shingles along a continuous crate in several layers, overlapping shingles of each layer (according to the principle of fish scales).

Chipped shingles are made exclusively from pine, and the wood from the blanks must

bosom makes up the bulk of the trunk timber. If there is no condo pine, and it is a rarity even in the taiga, shingles are made from ordinary pine, with a diameter of 40 ... 50 cm and more. It is not scary if the core of the pine has slightly rotted, since only the marginal part of the log is used.

The log is cut into chunks 1.2 m long (slate length), pricked with an ax and wedges along the radius, then from the edges to the center (the size of the chipped chunks along the wide edge is 15 ... 20 cm).

To obtain chipped shingles, a special knife is required, which is usually made from a spring. The length of such a knife is 45 cm, width is 6 ... 8 cm, thickness is 3 ... 4 mm. At one end of the knife, a sleeve is provided (welded or bent from the same strip) (fig. For a wooden handle (handle diameter 4 ... 5 cm, length 50 ... 60 cm).

They prick shingles like this: they put a chock on the priest and, from

Puc. 1. Knife for getting chipped shingles

Figure: 2. Fastening shingles with nails (1) with wire (2)

be straight grained and free of branches (the butt of the tree is best suited). Note that the highest quality shingles come from condo pine. This pine tree in the forest differs from others in its smooth light yellow bark. The wood of the condo pine is fine-grained, resinous. Sapwood - the outer less dense layer of wood lying directly under the bark - is rather narrow, its thickness is 1.5 ... 2 cm.

learning craft

L. Zubarev

Shingles are planed and chipped. They plan shingles from aspen or linden square chocks 25 ... 30 cm long and 10 × 15 ... 20 cm in cross section. The chocks are fixed on a flooring raised 1 m from the ground, and a long lever from a pole is installed there, at the end of which a special knife is attached. ... With the help of this device, shingles with a thickness of 0.5 cm are gouged. Of course, one shoulder at the lever where the knife is located is shorter than the other.

They cover the roof with shingles along a continuous crate in several layers, overlapping shingles of each layer (according to the principle of fish scales).

Chipped shingles are made exclusively from pine, and the wood from the blanks must

bosom makes up the bulk of the trunk timber. If there is no condo pine, and it is a rarity even in the taiga, shingles are made from ordinary pine, with a diameter of 40 ... 50 cm and more. It is not scary if the core of the pine has slightly rotted, since only the marginal part of the log is used.

The log is cut into chunks 1.2 m long (slate length), stabbed with an ax and wedges along the radius, then from the edges to the center (the size of the chipped chunks along the wide edge is 15 ... 20 cm).

To obtain chipped shingles, a special knife is required, which is usually made from a spring. The length of such a knife is 45 cm, the width is 6 ... 8 cm, and the thickness is 3 ... 4 mm. At one end of the knife, a sleeve is provided (welded or bent from the same strip) (fig. For a wooden handle (handle diameter 4 ... 5 cm, length 50 ... 60 cm).

They prick shingles like this: they put a chock on the priest and, from

Puc. 1. Knife for getting chipped shingles

Figure: 2. Fastening shingles with nails (1) with wire (2)

be straight grained and free of branches (the butt of the tree is best suited).

A pine basket is irreplaceable in everyday life.

Note that the highest quality shingles come from condo pine. This pine tree in the forest differs from others in its smooth light yellow bark. The wood of the condo pine is fine-grained, resinous. Sapwood - the outer less dense layer of wood, lying directly under the bark, is rather narrow, its thickness is 1.5 ... 2 cm.

Shingles or shingles are one of the original types of roofing. This is a rare, elite and expensive material. It turned out that it was difficult to find a shingler-roofer. Therefore, I will share my personal experience of mining shingles with my own hands.

Instruments

To make shingles, you need a good tool. At one time, I did not find a suitable tool in the store.

Find a common language with nature

I had to make it myself.

Main fixture

Through trial and error, after studying a bunch of special forums and reviewing a ton of videos, I made three knives of different sizes.

Small, 20 cm long, I made from a piece of metal and sharpened on lathe... It is needed to remove small knots, bark.

I made a medium-sized knife from a car spring. Its length is 35 cm. It is the main tool in the manufacture of shingles. I used it most often. However, he could not stand the load. Since the spring design involves holes, plus the length of the cutter played a negative role.

For the large knife I used a piece of hardened metal 12mm thick, 50cm long, 10cm wide.

Sharpening angle - great-grandfather's secret

The most convenient sharpening angle is 30 °. It is easy to splinter aspen, oak, spruce, pine and poplar with such a tip. I would recommend sharpening from one side. The word shingles itself comes from tearing, tearing off. And with sharp, sharpened on both sides of the tools, you will prick or cut it.

Percussion instrument

I don't use a metal sledgehammer or hammer for drums. Because with constant blows, the surface is broken, the knife will lose its plane. And this is not convenient when making shingles. I recommend using a wooden mallet.

Choosing a material

Making good shingles requires the right approach to wood selection. Pay attention to the butt and trunk of the tree. There should be no large knots, depressions or damage on the surface. The trunk should be flat, not rotten, the structure close to ideal.

The end or inner part of the barrel must also be free from defects.

Shingle making process

It should be said here that I mined shingles of the following dimensions: length 35 cm, width 5 cm, thickness 1 cm. Now I will describe the process in detail.

Step 1 - preparation

The first thing to do is to split the round timber. It is easier to do this not from the end, but from the side. I take an ax and gradually begin to hammer it in with a wooden mallet.

I spied on this method from Siberian hunters who go to the taiga for the winter and make skis from pine or Christmas trees.

Splitting the block in two, I examine it inside. It should be free of defects, large resin ducts, bark beetles. The structure should be flat.

Then, I split one of the halves of the log into two more equal parts.

Step 2 - making

Let's move on to making the records themselves. I take a large cutter and a wooden mallet. Smoothly tapping on the knife from one side, then from the other, I tear off the plate. Thickness is no more than 8 - 12 mm. You need to hit not just vertically down, but a little towards yourself. In order not to cut off but tear off. When mining the shingle, it is important to put the chubrak butt down. This will move the blade along the fiber growth line. The shingles will be smooth and not rough.

Step 3 - sanding

When making shingles, it is impossible to achieve smooth and flat surface plates. For a better fit, I use a two-handed knife, called struc. I put the plate butt down and begin to scribble all unnecessary things. I also remove the bark with it.

And for better water flow, I chamfer at an angle of 45 ° from the top of the plate.

Laying shingles

When laying the shingles, there is a rule - the butt should look down. As we made it, we put it in. If the plates are laid in the opposite direction, water and snow will linger, and the roof will leak.

Shingles laying methods

The first way is overlapping. The plates are placed on top of each other, about one third. This method is the simplest and easiest.

The second way is multilayer styling. The first layer is laid flat. The distance between the dies in one row is 3-5 mm.

The next layer overlaps the joints of the first row. Etc. In this way, four or five layers are stacked. This method can be used to make the roof of a house, terrace, veranda.

When making shingles for the first time, you need to be patient. However, having gained experience, you can make an unusual and environmentally friendly roof option with your own hands.

Scientists believe that people learned weaving much earlier than pottery. From long flexible branches of various thicknesses, he wove dwellings and outbuildings, fences, furniture, sleigh and carriage bodies, as well as baskets that have a wide variety of purposes.

A basket is the general Russian name for a container, which in each region had its own characteristics in manufacturing and appearance.

Without baskets, these universal wicker vessels, it is difficult to imagine the life of a Russian peasant. In the second half of the 19th - early 20th century. wickerwork was widespread. These baskets, various in shape and purpose, are containers with one or two handles for picking berries, mushrooms, vegetables, nuts, carrying and storing various supplies, as well as household items.

Weaving baskets from pine chips

They were irreplaceable in harvesting and storing food. Women carried in baskets to the river to rinse linen. There were also such baskets with which they went on a long journey.

Baskets were made from bark, roots, branches, straw, stems. They could be rectangular, square, oval, hemispherical, with an open top and closed, with lids various designs or without lids. Almost every villager could, if necessary, weave a basket necessary for the household using the simplest weaving techniques. Individual craftsmen wove baskets for every taste and not only for themselves, but also for sale. Depending on the purpose, they were given a wide variety of forms, decorated with wicker patterns made of painted rods. Various weaving techniques, passed down from generation to generation, have gradually improved, becoming more rational.

Handicraft basket making was widespread in different regions of Russia. Weaving baskets from a pine torch (shingles) in the Olonets province is a very widespread activity in all districts of the province. The peasants of Kargopol and neighboring villages were engaged in weaving baskets from a torch.

The basket craft attracted peasants more than any other craft for its general availability. Almost exclusively men worked, women were engaged in weaving baskets only in isolated cases. In a peasant family, basket weaving was mainly an auxiliary occupation. Even the previously mentioned small number of handicraftsmen in the entire Olonets province (55 people), who specialized in weaving baskets, could not develop their business due to low prices for products and lack of time: being engaged only in weaving baskets for sale, they could not feed your family.

Peasants usually did basket weaving in winter. There were no special workshops, they usually worked in the house.

A brief description of the technology for making wicker baskets is given in the statistical collection “Handicrafts and handicraft earnings of the peasants of the Olonets province”: “… for a shredded product, you need a great deal of skill in choosing a tree, and then sawing it so that no core remains. For a successful business, the chopped planted pieces of wood are put into the oven, "to be crushed", in a day they are already perfectly split with a knife, and they rush to use the material, because it is easier to make baskets from “paired” material ”.

Thus, in the economic life of the peasants of the Olonets province, the manufacture of wicker baskets from pine splinters (shingles) as a type of traditional economic activity played an important role. Baskets were widely used in the everyday life of peasants; not a single peasant family could do without them. For many families, this craft brought additional income.

Word chips

The word chips in English letters (transliteration) - shchepa

The word woodchip consists of 4 letters:

The meanings of the word chips. What are wood chips?

Wood chips. Shredded wood of established dimensions, obtained as a result of shredding wood raw materials by chippers and special devices, used as a technological raw material or fuel See all terms GOST 17462-84.

Dictionary of GOST vocabulary

Chips - wood particles obtained in the process of grinding short-sized raw materials or sawn timber trimmings. Distinguish between technological and fuel chips.

Chips - shredded wood of established sizes, obtained as a result of processing wood raw materials with chippers and special devices, used as technological raw materials or fuel.

Dictionary of basic forestry and economic terms

Chips for smoking

Chips for smoking are wood particles of a regular rectangular shape, obtained in the process of crushing wood raw materials with a chipper and representing the smoking material used in smoldering smoke generators ...

ru.wikipedia.org

Wood chips, technological

Wood chips, technological. Process chips Chips for the production of cellulose, wood-based panels and products of wood-chemical and hydrolysis industries See all terms GOST 17462-84.

Dictionary of GOST vocabulary

Shchepa, Alexander Fedorovich

Shchepa, Alexander Fedorovich - the appanage prince of Rostov, the ancestor of the princes Shchepins-Rostovsky, according to some instructions - the son of Prince Fyodor Alexandrovich, according to others - Prince Fyodor Andreevich ...

Alexander Fedorovich Shchepa

Alexander Fedorovich Shchepa (d. 1442) - Pskov governor (1410-1412, 1421-1424, 1429-1434), a Rostov prince by origin, the founder of the Shchepin-Rostovsky princes.

ru.wikipedia.org

Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker on Shchepakh

The Church of Nicholas the Wonderworker on Shchepakh, the Nikoloschepovskaya Church is an Orthodox church in the center of Moscow, in the Arbat area, at the corner of the First Smolensky and Second Nikoloshchepovsky lanes ...

ru.wikipedia.org

Pozharsky, Prince Pyotr Timofeevich Shchepa

Pozharsky, Prince Peter Timofeevich Shchepa - the son of Prince. Timofey Feodorovich; in 1597-1599

Do It Yourself (Twinkle) 1994-06, page 80

i went around with my head in Moscow, successively: in China-city, in the New Tsar's city, from the Neglinnaya to the Moscow river, and in the Kremlin; in 1600 - voivode in Urzhum.

Big biographical encyclopedia. — 2009

Russian language

Morphemic and spelling dictionary. - 2002

Chips, -y, pl. wood chips, wood chips, wood chips.

Orthographic dictionary. - 2004

Examples of using the word chips

Today, products such as bioplastics, wood chips, pellets and other biofuels are gaining popularity.

Manufacturing and installation of a shingle roof

Shingles are thin wooden plates that are used for roofing, as well as for cladding the facade. The raw material for the manufacture of shingles is coniferous wood:

• pine trees,
• cedar,
• aspen wood.

A variety of roofing made from shingles can be called differently:

• shingle,
• shingles,
• shindle,
• shingalas.

They differ only in manufacturing technology, as well as styling. To this day, shingles are made almost by hand.

Depending on the manufacturing method and the resulting shape, shingles are distinguished:

• chopped,
• sawn,
• mosaic.

Thanks to the use of special impregnations for wood, shingles can be given almost any shade (or, using a colorless composition, retain its original appearance). In addition, such impregnations significantly extend the life of these wooden products.

Installing shingles

When arranging the roof, the shingles are mounted with a slope of at least 12%. The result should be a multi-layer structure in which there are four to eight layers of wooden tiles.

Let's talk about the process of making and installing spruce shingles.

To make spruce shingles, you need spruce rounds. When calculating the number of round timber, it is necessary to take into account the quality of the material, the dimensions of the roof and the number of roofing layers.

First, churbaki are prepared. For this, round timber, on which there are no knots, is sawn into pieces 40 cm long. The sawn logs are put into the boiler ( metal barrel) and cook for about half an hour - this allows you to steam the wood a little. After that, the block is placed vertically and with the help of a plow they begin to peel the shingles.

The thickness of the peeled shingles should be no more than 1 cm. Then the still damp shingles are stacked. A gasket must be provided between the layers. After the shingles have dried out a little, they can be laid on the roof. First, it is advisable to remove the bark from the sides of the shingle (sand it).

Actually, you don't have to cook the block. Then all the chopped blocks must be immediately painted over from the ends with a thick oil paint - this will prevent wood cracking.

How and how to make shingles yourself?

After that, the logs are put to dry (also with gaskets) in a closed room or under a canopy.

Roofing

So, when the shingles have been cut, you can proceed to roofing works... First, you need to make a continuous crate. It is advisable to cover the made crate with tar paper, and only then take up the shingles. Laying is performed with an overlap layer or a butt joint, fixed with tattered nails (60 mm x 1 mm). You should start covering the roof from the bottom edge, while the upper shingles should overlap the end and side joints by 5 cm.

Fastening two or three lower layers, one nail is hammered into each of the shingles, and two nails must be driven into the shingles of the uppermost layer. The optimal dimensions of the shingles are as follows: 40 x 8 x 0.7 cm. The ridge of the roof is covered with a board.

Wood has a number of features, thanks to which the shingle roof is unique in its properties. Let's list these features:

• Aspen shingles are "canned" after prolonged exposure to open air. Thanks to this, aspen is recommended for arranging baths and other rooms subject to high humidity.
• When pine shingles are used, the resin released from its pores seals the microscopic gaps in the roof.
• Shingle roofing does not need additional waterproofing.

Articles about roofs in country houses

Wicker baskets from pine shingles (shingles)

Answer: SHINGLES

Suitable?

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1st letter D; 2nd letter P; 3rd letter A; 4th letter H; 5th letter K; 6th letter A;

• planks for wall lathing before plastering
• wooden roof tiles
• wooden roof tiles
• slats for lathing walls for plaster
• thin wood plates
• thin wood plates
• roof board
• roof board
• plasterboard for walls
• plasterboard for walls
• Building material, wood planks (planks) for wall and ceiling upholstery
• sheathing strip
• sheathing strip
• thinly chopped plates of aspen, pine
• slats for walls for plastering
• slats for walls for plastering
• thin wood chips
• thin wood chips
• Thin wooden plates for upholstering walls and ceilings for plastering and for roofing
• slats for plaster
• slats for plaster
• thin (3-5 mm) wooden strips (planks) for wall and ceiling upholstery
• thin wood plates
• thin wood plates
• thinner than shingle
• thinner than shingle
• and for lathing walls for plastering
• roof strip
• roof strip
• thin wooden plank for roofing
• thin wooden plank for roofing
• roof planks
• roof planks
• thin plate
• thin plate
• "Skeleton" for plaster
• "Skeleton" for plaster
• plaster
• plaster
• thin wooden plank for plastering
• thin wooden slats
• thin wooden slats
• wooden plank
• wooden plank
• roof chips
• roof chips
• thin wooden plank
• thin wooden plank
• river in Kamchatka
• river in Kamchatka
• lathing piece of wood
• lathing piece of wood
• plaster die
• plaster die

Weaving baskets from "shingles" (from ribbons) is a very interesting activity. Wicker baskets are convenient for berries, mushrooms, for the market and for dishes. They are lightweight, durable and comfortable. Let us examine the stages of weaving from shingles in more detail.

Let's select 22 such shingles so that everyone has the same width and length: the two largest have 24 times their width, sixteen have 16 times, and the other four have 10-12 times more. The longest ones go on board, the middle ones go to the body, the short ones go to the handle. If they meet longer, it's okay, as long as they don't turn out to be small.

We begin to weave (fig. 184).

We put medium-sized shingles as shown under the letter a, and continue to weave a new ribbon to the left and right of each row until we get a "matting" out of all 16 shingles (b). Then we outline a rectangle of the bottom with a pencil (shown by a dotted line) and nail it to a thick board with wire clips or small nails, on which, as on a working machine, we will carry out further weaving. Before nailing, all tapes must be "pushed", that is, moved one to the other as tightly as possible and any gaps and cracks between them must be eliminated. If the basket is large and the shingles are thick, then such "pushing" is done with a hammer, and the corners are nailed with eight nails, that is, two nails in each corner.

The dotted lines in Fig. b - these are fold lines. We bend all four sides one by one so that they are not on the board, but protrude perpendicular to it. At first, they will not hold in this position; hold them with your hand. Then, thanks to friction, they will maintain the given shape of the wall. We start weaving the walls from some corner, while remembering the basic rule - alternation: each ribbon goes over - under - over - under ... so that they lie bound all the time. Under the letter (c), we see such an angle so that the woven ribbons do not diverge, when we are occupied with the other ends of the ribbons, we interlock them with wire clips at the top (shown by the arrow in Fig. C).

Initially, the basket turns out to be all in cracks, since the bent ribbons tend to part in different directions. Now you need to "push" again, but not the bottom, but the corners and sides. If the basket is still not "calmed down", you will have to put permanent hairpins on the upper corners instead of temporary clips, but we will do this after we have evenly trimmed the entire edge around. We lay outside and inside along the edge of the two longest ribbons, starting from the middle of one side of the basket and going around. We attach with wire pins, piercing the tapes with an awl.

It remains to make the handle of the basket. Fold all four short ribbons (d), fasten them with one hairpin in the middle. The shortest tape will be on the inside, the longest on the outside. Using an awl and pins, we attach the handle to the basket (e).

Our basket is oblong. If we take shingles not of the same length, but select so that in the matting (b) the middle ones are the longest, and the outer ones are shorter and shorter, then we can weave a basket with a square base.

How does a whip differ from a stuffing

Weaving boxes for him is a hobby. About 10 years ago, he says, he saw how his grandfather weaves boxes and asked to teach so that this skill would not go away. Weaving boxes turned out to be easy, the new business was so much to my liking that it took a long time.

From his grandfather he took over not only practice, but also theory. It turned out that the name "box" came from the word "jar", since during the manufacture of wood chips were bent and jarred.

A hundred and even fifty years ago, boxes wicker from chips were used more widely, respectively, and there were much more types of them than now. Our ancestors used boxes made of pine splinters everywhere, they also made them from bark, roots, branches, shingles, straw, stems. They could be rectangular, square, oval, hemispherical, open top and closed, with lids of various designs or without lids. There were, for example, special "models" for grass or hay - "whip", for picking berries, mushrooms - "stuffing". Boxes with a handle were intended for transporting fruits and vegetables to the bazaar, two-handed boxes - for carrying firewood. Other boxes were woven specifically for storing linen and even for ... sprouting potatoes!

The scourges were comfortable because the things that were stored in them were very well ventilated, - says Sergey. - And this one - the largest box - a measuring basket. How much hay can fit in this basket, so much one cow per day should be given. These baskets were used to measure how much hay needed to be stocked to last the whole winter ...
In the summer, the wood chips were not jarred, it was a winter activity and - mostly for men. They worked in a residential building, near a stove, or a bathhouse. The master's tools were an ax and a knife. And only then they brought the crafts to the Pancake Week.

The boxes, as mentioned above, were different, and sometimes the master wanted to move away from his grandfather's canons and come up with something of his own. For example - a decorative bast shoe box! Isn't it a decoration for a hut? Yes, it would look good in a modern apartment ...

What could be easier than going to the store and buying yourself a brand new bucket of any size and heading into the woods. But after many hours of walking through the forest, you can see that almost a third of the mushrooms suffocated and crushed. And this will not happen with boxes-stuffers.

In general, our ancestors were very smart and practical, - says Sergey. - And everything was thought out to the smallest detail. Think for yourself how pleasant it is to pick up a brand new basket-box for a trip to the forest, smelling of pine resin ...

"Agree" with a tree

Now a little about how such boxes are made. A pine, like all other trees, has annual rings, each such ring is plucked off with a knife - that's what chips are obtained.

The main thing here, according to Sergei, is to choose the right pine. You have to walk many kilometers just to find a tree suitable for making, because not all of them will work. There are many secrets of choosing pine, but the master discovered only one: if the crack is straight on the tree, then the chips will turn out to be excellent. If the crack goes at random, it is better not to take such a pine tree for crafts. Amazing fact: pine chips bend only in one direction, just like a palm. And in the other - it breaks.

In general, one must be able to "negotiate" with a tree, find a common language with it, - continues Serey. - If you do not find it, read the missing material, everything will go to waste. You need to understand that wood is warm, lively, soft ...

Photo: Annette Tatarnikova. Sergey Kuznetsov

In short, he first chooses the right wood, and then cuts it so that no core remains at all. Punched pieces of pine, a little more than two meters long, are put on the stove for a day, "to be crushed," and then pinched with a knife. Sergey also makes handles for boxes from pine. Sometimes decorates with birch bark and painted wooden figures - for mood ...

Some, seeing my work, became interested, asked to teach them too, - says the master. - So I'm teaching ...

How many boxes he has woven in 10 years, Sergei Kuznetsov himself does not know - he did not count. It takes an hour and a half to weave the box. Weaves a measuring basket from morning to yesterday. And the birch bark girdles take less than an hour.

But at home, on the farm, it is recognized that there is only one pine box, and even then woven by one of the students. It contains carved linden toys, because the second hobby of the master is wood carving.

I now have a sled for a horse in my head, ”says Sergey. - I really want to cope by winter. Pulls me towards antiquity. Everything was correct and measured there. Not like now ...