A Polar Bear's Tale has two posts on the subject of bast shoes.
Bast shoes are shoes made primarily from bast - fiber from the bark of the linden tree or birch tree... Bast shoes are an obsolete traditional footwear of forest areas of Northern Europe, formerly worn by poorer members of the Finnic peoples, Balts, and Slavs. They were easy to manufacture, but not very durable.Top photo: Suomen kansallismuseo. Painting via. Bottom via Pinterest.
Bast shoes have been worn since prehistoric times: wooden foot-shaped blocks (lasts) for shaping them have been found in neolithic excavations... Today bast shoes are sold as souvenirs and sometimes worn by ethnographic music or dance troupes as part of their costumes.
In Russian, they are called lapti... used as a derogatory term for cheap and short-lived footwear and also for uneducated people.
These kind of shoes were quite common in eastern Finland in 1920 and - 30 ies. After the World War II lot of finnish people had to leave their homes and move to western parts of Finland, because we lost quite a lot of our land area.
ReplyDeleteBast shoe knowledge came by that way also to western parts of country and one old refuge - man teached also my father to make bast shoes. He is now 83. Tiem is running fast and I am wondering, should I also learn that ? Maybe .
You should learn it, and make sure you write it down! Who knows how many people are left who know how to make them?
DeleteI already know the technic. The spring time is the right time, you can take the raw material from birch tree. Later , during the june and august it is very difficult to take the skin of birch tree away. And in wintertime it is impossible.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I will ask my father
Re Finland, here's a relevant link -
Deletehttp://paleoplanet69529.yuku.com/topic/39556#.T6bFhr9EOoG
Thanks.... nice link. ´
ReplyDeleteThank you also of your nice own blog side !
The wooden shoes of the Dutch were their version of cheap footwear. They could be carved easily and were much more durable. But their average lifespan was still only about 6 weeks, when they were worn all the time and doing heavy farm labor.
ReplyDeleteIn Latvia these bark shoes (sometimes made from hemp rope) are called vīzes [vi:zes].
ReplyDeletehttp://pedas.lapamuzejs.lv/?page_id=392&lang=en
Similar shoes from leather are called pastalas.
http://www.meistardarbs.lv/pastalas
Pastalas are still used in ethnographic folk dancing and you still can buy them.
Video of bast shoes being made:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eziHys0lce4
Thank you for finding that link, Aleksejs.
DeleteAll the old crafts need to be kept alive.
DeleteI would rather bio friendly products than plastics.