After our recent Cordage & Containers course we had some spare sweet chestnut bark and so Nicola decided to make another folded bark container, this one rectangular in shape. We’ve made cylindrical ones before but this time Nicola wanted to make a recantuglar one after seeing a photo of one by Christian Meinhardt and thinking it looked great.
Nicola used the inner bark of sweet chestnut and lime bark cordage.
First off make a template for the container on a piece of paper. This allows you scope to play around with the dimensions, just make sure that it’ll fit on the piece of bark you have!
Once you’re happy with the template, transfer it to the bark. Then carefuly cut out the shape.
Gently score the places where the bark needs to fold.
Bring the sides up and hold them together with a peg.
Make some holes in the sides for the stitches. A hole punch for leather works really well.
Stitch the sides together.
Then fold up the semi-circular side pieces, stitch them and you’re finished!
You can see photos from our cordage and containers courses, as well as all of our other courses, on our Facebook page.
