TABLET BANDS
Meshed tablet bands were made with the aid of small tablets perforated at the corners. This technique probably came to Finland along with settlers from present-day Estonia. Finland’s oldest tablet bands date back to the 6th century.The yarn was dyed with natural materials. The leaves of plants provided yellows and greens, bark gave brown dye, woad was for blue, and red dyes were obtained from bedstraw.
Photo: Suomen käsityön museo / Elsa Silpala
UPRIGHT LOOMS
Shaggy coverlets are assumed to have been woven on upright looms since the 9th century AD. The weaving began with the making of a reed the wefts of which provided the warps for the piece, which is woven from top to bottom, with weights hanging from the warps to keep them straight.
Drawing: Suomen käsityön museo / Tuula Ollikainen
MITTEN NEEDLE TECHNIQUE
The so-called mitten needle, an approximately 10 cm long flat needle of bone or antler was used for knitting socks and mittens, especially for men. At a later stage mittens of pig bristle or goat hair were made. They would remain dry in winter when fishing nets were hauled from under the ice. The mitten needle technique was already known in Egypt and elsewhere in the 6th century BC.
Drawing: Suomen käsityön museo / Tuula Ollikainen
FOLDED LEATHER SHOES
The single-soled beaked boot of leather derives from prehistoric times. It spread throughout the coniferous zone of the Northern Hemisphere, including parts of Asia and North America. The Estonian-Finnish kurpponen, a folded leather shoe made from a single piece of leather. This type of footwear is also known from Central and Eastern Europe.
Piirrokset teoksesta Karjalan kirja 1932.
FIRESTEEL
Fire-lighting implements changed. Striking stones were replaced by pieces of flint or quartz struck with a firesteel. These implements remained almost unchanged until the introduction of modern matches in the 19th century.
Kuvaaja: Suomen käsityön museo / Mikko Kalavainen
BLOCKWORK
Houses were built in blockwork, or corner-joining, technique. The carving of the wall logs required a good working axe and two-pointed tool used to mark the lengthwise joint of the logs by drawing parallel lines on two logs placed on top of each other. This marking tool was probably adopted in Finland along with the corner-joining technique, from Eastern Europe in the 9th-11th centuries.
Piirros: Suomen käsityön museo / Anne Saarikoski
JEWELLERY
The ornaments and jewellery worn by Iron Age women included finger rings, bracelets, neck rings, pins and brooches for affixing garments, chains worn on the chest, pendants and sometimes head ornaments and fittings. Male ornaments consisted of brooches and fittings for bearing weapons, the actual weapons and pins and brooches for the garments. Bronze was the most common material for ornaments, and sometimes bronze jewellery would be gilt or enamelled. Beads of glass paste were also worn. Silver jewellery did not become widespread until the Viking Age (800-1000).
Kuva: Suomen kansallismuseon kokoelma / kuva; Kalevala Koru Oy