Ordinary Russian bast shoes - a wonderful souvenir with a Slavic spirit. They can become an original decor item, have a functional purpose as a convenient pocket for small items or household items, be an element of the interior in the Russian style, and also become the basis of a children's costume for a festive matinee.
Traditionally, specially harvested, processed lime bast or birch bark was used for weaving, and in every family from childhood they instilled the skills of how to make bast shoes with their own hands. Today, such shoes can only be seen in historical museums, at costume performances, in movies, theatrical performances, in interiors designed in the old Russian style, in costumes for dolls.
A bit of history
Along with many household items (furniture, toys, baskets and bast baskets), shoe weaving is one of the oldest types of Slavic needlework. In the old days, this type of activity still had a sacred meaning. It was believed that any thing made with your own hands and with love,serves as a guardian. Mothers embroidered, knitted, wove toys for children.
The most common, actively used items in everyday life in Ancient Russia were wicker things, and everyone knew how to make a bast shoe. The first mention of this shoe in a literary source dates back to the 12th century ("The Tale of Bygone Years"), although their history is much older.
These are light, simple shoes, but not durable. On average, each of the family members wore out about 5-6 dozen bast pairs per year. Families in those days were usually large, parents took care of how to make bast shoes for a child, and old and young were engaged in harvesting bast, birch bark. It was in those days that the saying appeared: "Lyka does not knit." Then she was one of those who could not perform elementary actions.
Product description
Many historians, local historians claim that the bast craft has more than one millennium. This is confirmed by archaeological finds related to different time periods. Bast shoes were simple and accessible to everyone.
Shoes were woven from materials of plant origin, which began to be harvested in early spring during the period of sap flow near the trees and continued until mid-summer. Bast shoes were called birch bark, linden, broom, oak, depending on which tree the bast (thin long strips of bark) was obtained from.
Elm bast shoes were recognized as the most valuable - they served longer. An interesting fact is that for girls and women, shoes were woven differently. Girls' festive bast shoes were neater and were made of narrow bast.
Shoes were fastened with a linen fiber rope like Greek sandals: it was wrapped around the legs over footcloths (onuch). In case of getting wet in spring and autumn, special wooden blocks were hemmed, and for strength, the sole was woven with a vine, rarely hemmed with leather.
Materials and manufacturing specifics
It took a lot of bark to make. But our ancestors were able to collect it carefully from young trees, without damaging the trunk itself. Before weaving began, the bark was pre-soaked, crushed on a pulper, processed, removing the top brown layer, rolled up and tied. If the bark was removed closer to the top of the tree, the brown layer was not removed, since it is much thinner from above. Only irregularities were eliminated.
The technology of how to make bast shoes is identical for different materials. But in different parts of the country, shoes differed in appearance. Therefore, by the style of the bast shoes, one could tell where its owner was from. They were woven according to the same pattern, differed in the number of strips involved in the manufacture (5, 6, 7, etc.), and in shape. Each master knew the schemes by heart.
Weaving bast shoes until the 30s of the XX century was considered a prestigious skill. At this time, only lovers of folklore and participants in costume activities can wear these shoes.
Tools and improvised means
Before you make a bast shoe, you should choose the most suitable material and prepare the necessary tools:
- Knife.
- Kochedyk is a tool with a metal rod and a wooden handle, a flat horizontal end, somewhat reminiscent of a screwdriver, but curved in the horizontal plane. Designed to lift the loops of the woven part and push the free bast end into them.
- A block (if the bast shoes are versatile, then two blocks - right and left), made of wood, foam plastic.
You can make decorative models or make bast shoes for a matinee for a child using improvised materials. Pages of old newspapers and magazines, plain paper, sheets of old notebooks, posters are perfect for this.
How to make a bast shoe - job description
Manufacturing technologies are different from each other. They start with both the toe and the heel. Traditionally, weave from the heel, initially using only 5-6 bast strips, 7-8 can be used. The execution technique is quite simple.
Stripes of a bast ribbon cross each other like a pigtail. Each bast tape alternately first presses the next one and remains on top, then it is pressed against the next one, remaining already below. So along the entire length. The whole technology, in addition to the preparatory one, includes several stages. This weave:
- soles;
- heels;
- sock;
- side pieces;
- tops for lace (govennik).
It is important that the interlaced strips fit snugly together, without gaps, but do not pull together.
Main stagesweaving
For weaving, you need to take two basts in each hand and cross them exactly in the middle of the length. Then bend so that all eight ends are at the bottom, four for each hand, and weave like an ordinary pigtail, alternately on the right and left, capturing only the extreme strips. So continue to work until the formation of the insole of the desired length. The length of the sole is always 5-6 mm longer than the last size.
For further weaving of the toe and heel, place the sole on the block: on the right and on the left, four bast strips are obtained. We begin to form the front. Now weaving does not start from the extreme, but from the central stripes - we cross them with each other. The first four "cells" are the designation of the sock. Then we continue to work in the same way until all eight ends are intertwined, evenly and tightly pulling the bast.
Having made the toe, move on to the heel. All eight bands must be collected in a handful at the site of the intended heel. Separate the upper right and left bast one by one and weave them exactly in the center of the heel with the help of a kochedyk. Weave further in the same way as the sock, crossing the middle stripes. Then all the other stripes are woven. Just like when braiding a sock, you need to take the middle four basts and twist with each other, followed by the rest.
Now move on to the side pieces. We unfold the upper extreme bast strip 90 degrees and intertwine with the other three, weaving a kochedyk along the insole. She should lie next to the strip that went to the other side of the heel and is also ready to intertwine with the other three and go toinsole. The second strip is intertwined in exactly the same way, only between the remaining two, and goes to the insole next to the first.
Here it is important to make sure that the stripes take their place, because the third is intertwined with the fourth, also stretched from the toe to the side and goes into the insole. The last bast strip will be intertwined with a kochedyk already stretched from toe to heel, and not with free ones. Having finished from one side, we move on to the other.
A second layer gradually appears on the sole. The toe and back are ready. On the sides, stretched strips may remain not intertwined obliquely. To finish, you need to weave another 3-4 basts. If the bast tape has ended prematurely, it is necessary to instruct it. A few steps before the end, we draw a new end. So that he hides inside the cage. Then the extension will be invisible.
When all the ends are intertwined from edge to edge, they go into the insole and can be intertwined there with a second layer. For greater strength, a small heel is woven from the place where the shoe has a heel. You need to choose places that intersect on the edge in the center of the heel.
At the final stage, an eyelet is made for threading a rope to fasten footcloths. To do this, a thin narrow bast strip is threaded along the top of the back and stretched to half the length. After that, it is twisted into a rope, and both ends are threaded in different directions in 3-4 steps with the designation of the ears, into which the frills are then inserted to support and fix the footcloths.
To make it even, do notskewed shoes, before making bast shoes with your own hands for a child (or adult), it is better to try to make a trial version of paper, paying attention to the subtleties and features of the work.
