Birch bark can be harvested in spring or fall, when the sap is starting to flow or receding. The older the tree, the thicker the bark. When making baskets and canoes, thicker is better.
Jacques Newashish, Atikamek Nehirowisiw
Images : Carl Morasse
La Boîte Rouge vif archives, 2011
The bark needs to be laid flat with a weight on it before use so it won’t shrivel or curl as it dries, which would make it unusable.
Before the basket is made, the bark has to be scraped with a knife to get it to an even thickness. The thickness of the bark can also be adjusted by peeling layers off.
Collaborative Exchange workshop, “Entre le bouleau et le frêne” (From Birch to Ash)
Gérard Siméon, Ilnu
Images : Sarah-Emmanuelle Brassard
La Boîte Rouge vif archives, 2007
Black spruce roots are commonly used to stitch birchbark baskets. White pine roots are even better, but they grow in fairly hard-to-reach places. These two types of roots are used because they are flexible. We dig them up—avoiding roots on the ground which may be dry or rotted—and try to find sections at least 60 cm long.
The roots are then split in half, rolled up, tied, and soaked in boiling water for a day. Once they have been soaked, the tough outer surface is removed. This makes them flexible enough to be used for stitching.
Collaborative Exchange workshop, “Entre le bouleau et le frêne” (From Birch to Ash)
Thomas Siméon, Ilnu
Images : Sarah-Emmanuelle Brassard
La Boîte Rouge vif archives, 2007
The body of the basket is generally made from a single piece of bark. In the case of a cylindrical basket, the base is made using another piece that is stitched to the cylinder.
Before the bark is cut, lines are drawn on it to show where to cut and fold. Some artisans use patterns to standardize basket sizes, but in general the size of the finished piece depends on the dimension of the bark that is being used.
Collaborative Exchange workshop, “Entre le bouleau et le frêne” (From Birch to Ash)
Gérard Siméon, Ilnu
Images : Sarah-Emmanuelle Brassard
La Boîte Rouge vif archives, 2007
The bark is then cut and folded. The folding is done gradually, and a punch is used to pierce the bark in key places where small wooden pegs can be inserted to temporarily hold the basket together. Once the basket has taken shape, the pegs are removed and replaced with root. Additional holes are pierced as the basked is stitched together.
Collaborative Exchange workshop, “Entre le bouleau et le frêne” (From Birch to Ash)
Gérard Siméon, Ilnu
Images : Sarah-Emmanuelle Brassard
La Boîte Rouge vif archives, 2007
To make the basket rim sturdier, a crooked knife is used to carve a slender piece of wood that is stitched to the basket with spruce root.
The cover consists of a strip of bark about two and a half centimeter wide, attached to two pieces that are glued together back to back and aligned in the direction of the grain.
Collaborative Exchange workshop, “Entre le bouleau et le frêne” (From Birch to Ash)
Gérard Siméon, Ilnu
Images : Sarah-Emmanuelle Brassard
La Boîte Rouge vif archives, 2007
Baskets are decorated by scraping the bark. Using a pattern placed overtop of the basket, the basket maker can either scrape unmasked areas to lighten the bark and leave a darker pattern behind, or scrape only the patterned area to produce a lighter-colored motif.
In bygone days, you could tell which community a basket came from by the plants depicted in the decorations, which typically featured motifs derived from local flora.
Diane Blacksmith, Mariette Manigouche, and Thomas Siméon, Ilnus
Wanda Julian, Waban-Aki (Abenaki)
Collaborative Exchange workshop, “Entre le bouleau et le frêne” (From Birch to Ash)
Images : Sarah-Emmanuelle Brassard
La Boîte Rouge vif archives, 2007