Over the years of being fascinated by bushcraft I have often found myself in a state of mind where I am totally absorbed in the task or subject matter at hand. I find myself obsessed to the exclusion of all other things that I should or could be doing with my precious time. I call this being in a state of flow. I must clear my mind of all distractions and concentrate on the task or subject that I want to perform, begin working in a deliberate fashion and as if by magic I lose all sense of time as I disappear into that perfect moment where nothing else can reach me. It has taken time to develop the concentration, dedication and single-mindedness but it is a very rewarding place to get to.
Recently I have found this on a bark craft project that I was learning how to make. It was the spring in West Sussex where I was lucky enough to be taught the process of harvesting and then making a container from the outer bark of sweet chestnut. I had made the odd thing before but never anything on the scale of a container that I could use to go foraging with.
What follows is my experience of this process and how It drew me in.
It is May in West Sussex; the birds are singing and the sap is rising in the trees. John has been out and cut young sweet chestnut and willow poles about 150 mm in diameter in selected areas in the woods in alignment with the woodland management program. The wood has been selected for its long, straight sections which suit the project we will embark on. We gather the resources and bring them back to camp.
There is much excitement and anticipation in the group as we discuss the elements of the day’s craftwork and review examples of previous work. Then it is time to begin.
I set about removing the outer bark from my Sweet Chestnut pole with the back edge of a Bacho Laplander saw as my scrapper. I sit on a stump and clamp the pole between my legs and begin scrapping. The bark comes away nicely with the downward strokes. I rotate the pole and work around the workpiece. After I reach the extent of my reach, I turn the workpiece over to work the remaining area.
I then have a clean pole of sweet chestnut that I need to remove the bark from. The bark is in a moist state at this time of year with the sap rising and this tuning into the season and thinking deeply about connection to the resources and wider landscape is for me an important part of my approach.
I ring the bark at the top and bottom of the workpiece and score a vertical line to join them. Very carefully with the tip of my knife I start to tease the bark away from the wood below along the length of the line. Once I have a small flap along the length I swap to a “spud” which in this case was a short length of hazel with a chisel point. The spud is great for working along the bark and gently peeling it off.
Once the panel is off, I place it bark side up on the workbench, find the midpoint and draw a pencil line across. I then indent the width of my thumb from the edge and mark the line and repeat on the other side. This then allows me to cut a bird beak section away to allow the bark to fold over. Next I pencil a rugby ball shape onto the bark that will be the shape of the base of my container and gently score the bark to help it to fold.
I then very carefully start the folding, pegging the first side in place with a simple hazel peg, whilst I do the same on the other side. I wanted the top of my container to have a bark band to hold everything in place and to look decorative, so I used a piece of willow outer bark.
The simple hazel pegs are a fantastic way to hold the pieces together and an additional support bar helped keep everything in place.
We had made willow bark cordage as a binding by cutting the inner bark of willow into thin sections. These worked well for binding the top band and the sides of the bark container together. The reamer blade on the trusty swiss army penknife was great for making pilot holes for the willow binding to push through.
There is little doubt in my mind that this was one of the hardest parts of the project as it required a lot of patience and attention to detail. The spacings for the holes became important, as I wanted them to all be a similar width apart so that the finished item looked attractive. I found myself taking pride in the aesthetic of the project, so much so that when I got it home, I took all the stitching out and did it again. I wanted all the stitching to be one continuous piece of willow on both sides and the top rim.
I then set about the task of fixing the shoulder strap to the container using lime cordage as I knew that this would be strong and look good. It also gave me the opportunity to revisit my cordage skills. Having made two suitable pieces I began to imagine how this could be used to fix the strap in a visually pleasing way on the side of the container.
I decided to feed the pointed end of the strap under the top rim of bark and down the plain bark side. I wanted three fixing points to give it strength and to be visually pleasing.
I made sure that the two lengths of lime cordage were long enough to stitch both sides of the shoulder strap in one length. This made it look neat on the outside and inside too. I find that it is important to think ahead with these details. I learned so much from this first attempt at making a foraging container and look forward to making another when the sap rises next spring.
Learning this precious skill would have been a very important part of community living for our ancestors. A container is a game changer in so many ways for a group of hunter gatherers and would have had a huge impact on the resources they could gather and process. Containers of all shapes and sizes would have been made in the spring time for gathering and this humble craft would have been a highly prized skill to have.