A special technique of delicate, openwork carving known as "northern lace" was used to decorate small boxes and caskets made in Russia of carved birch bark. The art of birch bark was centered in several small villages near Velikii Ustiug. The birch tree, sacred in Russian folklore, was used for every conceivable purpose: the wood for tools and furniture; twigs for the bath; tar for soap and medicine; and thin strips from the layer under the bark for paper.
The process of making birch containers began in spring when villagers went into the woods to select well-grown birch trees. They cut sections from the upper layers of bark, always leaving a strip of bark wide enough to keep the trees healthy. When enough bark was gathered for a year's work, it was conditioned in water, dried, smoothed, and polished. Then two layers of birch bark were placed one inside the other so that the grain of one layer ran perpendicularly to that of the other. This laminating made the bark strong and watertight. To make a cylindrical container the artist fastened the edges of the birch strips with an ingenious "lock," somewhat like a zipper, made by cutting slits into one edge of the bark and forcing projections of the other end into them.
The cylinder was attached to a base of birch wood. Some containers were stamped or painted with geometrical designs or with flower, leaf, or bird motifs like those on many wooden vessels, others were carved shallowly in patterns much like the rosettes and fans found on chip-carved wooden objects.
