crafts, basket, root, with lid, dájvvelihtte låhkijn

Root bonding: In order to bind root, it is necessary to have steep support trains and thinner connective trains, which may be split in addition. The support trains can be twice as rough as the connective trains. The support trains build up the shape of the object. Around the support trains, the connectors are wound. Sami root technique is characterised by mostly tying over two support trains instead of one and keeping the object with the pattern side outwards during work. The bond is very dense. One has colored roots and used. A long way you have used plant colours, then came the aniline colours (later half of the 1800s). When tying with colored roots, one lets the train that is not used run together with the support train. It is then hidden and found in the right place when the latter is needed. The roots of the spruce can withstand a lot of wetting. Of spruce roots, it becomes strong rope and coils to nets and notes. Of the birch’s roots, fine items were made that lacked themselves well to food handling, since birch leaves no taste. Before the roots are used, the bark is scraped away. The root must always be softened in water before you can work with it and should be humid when working with it. When it dries, it becomes hard and can’t bend without breaking. During the days of self-catering, households made their own items for home use. Today, the height of root is mainly an exclusive craft, a handicraft. Source: Dájvve - about root and crafts and utensils/ruohttsasa giehtaduojen ja nävon. Ájtte 1995. Parallel text in Swedish and Lulesamic. Learn more about Sami root height in “Asa Kitok and her Daughters” by Tom G Svensson.