BirchBarkMosaics

An adventure in global birch bark

Many years ago, before ALS stole our aunt from us too soon, I’d “birched” – yes, this endeavor has its own verb – a wooden Easter basket, filled with daffodils and accented with plastic eggs also decorated with birch bark for her springtime table. My cousin pulled it out of storage last year, and I was glad to see that it had weathered the years beautifully.

When a recent trip to Kiwanis Thrift Sale yielded a similar wooden basket, I jumped at the chance to re-create the centerpiece for my own holiday table. I couldn’t be happier with the results, not just because of fond memories of that last Easter spent with Aunt Robbie, but because I often wonder if I can recapture the spark of an original inspiration. 

Another mini-triumph in my birch-barking adventure was when I mailed away for birch from across the ocean – Sweden – the furthest that birch bark has traveled to find its way to me. While elegant in an understated way, with pale lenticels that blend into the creamy, almost-grey-green outer bark, the pieces were chopped into two-inch squares that were almost too small to be useful. (To be honest, the dimensions given online were in millimeters, and I didn’t bother to do the conversion.) 

These pieces were also brittle and tough to peel apart, which indicated they had been harvested years ago. They weren’t going to be easy to work with, but I wanted to try something. I decided to make a few coasters from them because when I put resin over the top to seal, the undesirable thickness and unevenness of the pieces could be covered over, literally. 

Some smaller pieces from the Swedish stash made it onto one of the Easter eggs, and I couldn’t tell it apart from the US-grown birch bark. In this way, nature and art unite us. But next time, I will check the size and also inquire about the age of the bark before I hit “Buy.”

The coasters represent another moment of general artistic joy, crafting something in an unusual style (for me) and loving it! Should I keep exploring with this Swedish birch; this geometric pattern? Time will tell.

Happy Spring, my friends! As Emerson said, “The Earth laughs in flowers.”