Crafting with birch bark on labour day. John Zasada the bark master, giving an impromptu lesson.  Look at those sausages on the grill!

                                                                    Star, fish, bird

Garden harvest

 Heavy

 Fall is here.

peace

e

photo's by e

 

A sample of a few birch projects that i finished up not long before christmas; including N's new dough bowl.



peace
e

photo by eric berglund

Birch Bowl



Posted this bowl back in March. Finally got to sanding it, after fashioning my sanding rig, which helps to speed the task along. Pulled this birch off a friends property over in the Slate River valley, southwest of town, two summers ago. Grain came out really nice, especially after applying two coats of Clapham's Bees Wax Salad Bowl Finish.

peace
e

photo by eric berglund
bowl by eric berglund

hmm. been a few days. warm weather, no rain and very little water in the rivers. At this point we need some serious April showers to ease the situation. Perhaps mother nature will pull through and balance out this abnormally dry year. Surf to be had for those who are on it. Finished some more carving projects lately and plugging away at tying up some new flies.

A couple from the last few days.





peace
e



photos by eric berglund

Freeze, thaw, freeze thaw. Thaw. Thaw. Thaw. Thaw. Most, if not all ice and snow on land has disappeared, which is not totally the norm for these parts in March. It sort of feels like winter had just started to get rollin, before it was cut short by these temps in the teens.

Put this birch bowl aside to dry, several weeks ago now. I'll probably be able to pull it out and sand it later this summer, along with all the other projects that have been stockpiling on the drying rack.


Just another rad shot of the lakes from NOAA.


peace
e

photos: eric berglund

Download the full size satellite image from NOAA here.

Too warm for January in NWO. Rain to heavy snow, temp hovering around zero, strong east to ESE winds. Skiin' on month old snow up until now, so this should do something.

Break out the tools, quick tune of the edges with the strop and lay into some birch that has been sitting idle outside for the last few months. Fill the basement shop with the smell of fresh wood shavings. Oskar joins me for a bit and sits in his high chair to watch while he munches on an organic snack and smiles. Makes me smile.

Self shot


Tools- Mora, Ashley Iles, Granfors, and Hans Karlsson

In progress

peace
e

photos by e.

Boreal Birch Syrup

Check this fun vid from Boreal Birch Syrup of Thunder Bay, owned and operated by Dave Challen and Beth Kuiper. They make some mean syrup.

Made Nance a birch veneer book case for christmas. Dado joints, sturdy, custom spacing and french cleated to the wall to prevent child injury. Could have bought the special tool for trimming the edge banding but found that a sharp block plane and mora knife were more than sufficient. Not overly advanced but the first project of this scope.




Otherwise, good skiing, family skiing, Oskar bundled in sheepskin and down riding in the Chariot in tow.

peace
e


photo's by eric berglund

Had a wicked countryside road ride over lunch hour today and then hit the dirt and the woods this evening with j. and Lutsen for some knobby action. Got to be takin advantage of these nice days when the opportunity arises folks.

single trackin

geeked out scenic bike shot while Lutsen cooled down in the river

and yeah...a bunch of fine steel for workin some greenwood.
A couple Hans Karlsson and Ashley Iles gouges, a Mora knife and
Gransfors adz.


Oskar tossin a fist in the air and looking cute and cool all at the same time.


peace
e
photo's by eric berglund

Evening light poking through the greenness out there.





peace

photos by eric

Colorful birch, standing tall in Munkfors, Sweden- Fall 2008.




photo By: eric berglund

..."the thing about Nature: make one lousy rule to describe it and it'll contradict you even if it has to transmogrify and metamorphosize and bust its ass to do it. And so what? If anybody grew wise enough to grasp the real immutable laws of Nature, Nature'd only rear back and strike'em dead before they got anybody to understand them."
- Glum Gus, The River Why.



Rainin'?! What in the...February 9th in northwestern Ontario and rain. Explain that. See, how laser fast the skiing will be after this is done with.

peace
photo By eric berglund

I'm gonna start off this 100'th post with this super catchy track 'Around the Bend' by Danish pop/electronic/funk crew 'The Asteroids Galaxy Tour'. Supposedly this was used in some Apple iTouch commercial..unbeknownst to me of course...i'd say good use of blurppy horns, lasers, thumpy bass, grainy technicolor and organ...and a nice fur hat too.

Bump on the horizon. A couple of weeks ago before the mercury started to drop.

Celebrating Birch: the lore, art and craft of an ancient tree- put out by the North House Folk School down the road in Grand Marais, Minnesota, given to me by my wise and old uncle Erv. This book covers everything from birch biology and ecology to its practical and spiritual aspects in many northern cultures. Along with its step-by-step instructions for several projects it's definitely stoking the creative fires that are pouring through my axe and knives these days...oh, and the bathtub full of birch bark that i had to steam in order make it supple again. Check it, if this sort of craftiness is up your alley.

Lutsen pretty much beat me to getting first tracks yesterday. Shouldn't be long now till we're up to our eyeballs in the white stuff and sliding cross country and down hills.

Big dog- November 15th, 2008.

Little dog- May 15th, 2008.

And to keep things a little on the surfy side...i came across this gem while cruising the ever killer content at Shakas and Singlefins. Good surfing, nice boards and a fun musical selection.

Bing Surfboards and Chris Del MoroIII Present:
The Lovebird Colab Project
A film by J. Smart

Nunchuck attack-spring 2008.
(photo By: Thomas Jordan)



So yeah, keep on keepin on.

peace
e



photos By: eric berglund

Bull moose of the Swedish variety seen crossing while we were cruising up
to Sunne from Karlstad, just after my second cousin Stefan told us how they hadn't been seeing many moose these days.

Yesterday's meager windslop session, under sunny skies. Totally expecting more, we settled for what was there.

Trying my hand at some carving.





photo's by: Eric Berglund