Scandinavian Travels - Tartu Estonia

Our next big stop in Estonia was Tartu. It's the home of the only major university in Estonia, which happens to be one of the oldest in Europe. These guys welcomed us.

Oh hi, just some nightmare fuel coming through...

Because Tartu is a  College town it is well known for being the more liberal and progressive city, a haven for artists, innovators, and entrepreneurs. It also had some really great places to drink, all nice and centrally located.

No idea what that is, but it looks dangerous!

Up on the campus is the National Museum of Estonia, in the remains of the original church for the campus.

Dem buttresses! 

A reminder that we were there just after midsummer, all this nice golden sunset glow is happening late in the evening. Like 10:30 PM. No wonder we were out so long drinking...

Screw your gargoyles, we've got DRAGONS!

Each block seemed to have a new design of concrete block, apparently placed to be a traffic and parking blockade. Thus, much of the downtown of the city was pedestrian centric.

A number of monuments are situated on the hilltop in the center or town, mostly to scientists and educators. A nice break from seeing war monuments everywhere!

This guy studied embryos and shit.

And, the old ways still live in Tartu as with much of Estonia. This is an ancient stone, rumored to be used for rituals since time immemorial. While the pre-christian rites may be forgotten, each semester students gather to burn term papers and pour out drinks on the stone. A modern sacrifice in search of knowledge.

There is, however, one particularly notable war monument which we sought out. Barclay de Tolly is an ancestor of Mr. Crafty, and a noted war hero. What is more remarkable about the monument, is that it was not erected by a victorious state or a wealthy patron. The men who served under Barclay paid for it themselves!

Our last experience in Tartu has no pictures, because none would have come out. In the perpetual twilight and nearly totally dark skies of summer, we explored the ruins of the derelict soviet airbase. Also, photos might be considered evidence... or something.

Our tour of the northlands will continue, I've got plenty of photos still to share!

Craft Camp - Bone Carving

Greetings bloglanders, the madness has calmed a bit and I'm ready to begin posting more about our trip to Estonia and Finland!  First up, the meat of the experience - Craft Camp. Day one - bone carving!

The workshop is full of old-school tools for woodworking and such. Fortunately we were granted access to electricity and some modern pieces. These are the types of tools that require a class to use properly! We did, however use hand saws, a good arm exercise.

Our instructor had already done much of the prep work. She gets bins of bones from butchers and the like. She also told us that the hunting laws in Estonia stipulate that the right jaw bone of each elk killed is sent to the University for census purposes. After recording the info they are just given away, she has the hook-up!

She cuts the bones into pieces, and then places them in a metal basket. The whole container is left in a swift flowing river for three days and the bones are tumble to a smooth edge. Fucking Brilliant! (This is why she makes the big bucks, I suppose.) 

She had dyed some of the pieces with wool dyes.

 Good thing too, as the sanding process was most of the work we did! Here's a few antler pieces I sawed off to make into buttons. They needed plenty of sanding to become smooth enough for use.

I imagine our ancestors, lacking sandpaper, may have used the river tumbling trick for most things!

 My main project for the morning was a traditional needle case. The main part is a hollow leg bone, it was filed down inside and decorated. with a rune circle.

A dremel was used to create the indentations, and colored beeswax smeared on it to bring out the design. The top and bottom are jawbone segments, one with the tooth still rattling about. The needles go into the piece of felt, which is then pulled into the bone shaft.

 The afternoon was focused on a pair of bone needles and a brooch. The needle on top is the instructor's sample. The middle one has been thinned and shaped down. The bottom one is the fresh cut of bone.

I ended up using my knife to whittle the bones, as the sanding was slower and hurt my hands!

 Folks in the class made a variety of things, with different bright colors and carved patterns galore! (I am too practical for little bone trinkets.)

The circle with dot pattern is a traditional Estonian motif - the dot represents the self, the circle is the world around us. Sometimes simple designs are more than meets the eye.

I'll be posting, in the coming weeks, about my other three workshops and our experiences in Estonia!

EDIT - REGISTRATION IS OPEN FOR 2016 CRAFT CAMP.
You too, gentle reader, could enjoy the culture and craftiness of Estonia!

Estonian Craft Camp - Mulgi Embroidery

The second Workshop at Estonian Craft Camp was Mulgi embroidery. Mulgi is a region of southern Estonia, on the border with Latvia. The region has a distinct style of dress, handicrafts, and language. 

People in the area have long worn richly embroidered pieces, and each symbol is full of meaning and history. The base is usually felted wool, and wool threads are used. The traditional colors are red, blue, green, and yellow, on a neutral background.

The main motifs are Circles - the earth, the sun wheel, the cosmos; Crosses - balance and relationships; Tree of Life - fertility; and the Rose - different number of petals have different significance.

Our project is a game of tic-tac-toe, perfect since the common motifs are either round, or crossed!

The color pallette was a bit more expanded, to fit modern taste. But I still wanted to stay somewhat true to the origins! Many of these threads were salvaged from old knitwear, still a bit kinky and some knots in it. There were beads available too, very traditional with metal disc and the like.

During the workshop I was only able to complete eight of ten pieces during the workshop. Hopefully I will get to the board and the final two circles soon...  I used reds and yellows for the circles, and blues and greens for the crosses. The stitches are all simple - outline stitch, blanket stitch, and some french knots.

I purchased, on the trip, some embroidery wool dyed with plants, in the colors used for Mulgi style work. I'm not sure what sort of project I will use them for, felted bags? Shawl? The rich symbolism offers so many possibilities!

More posts on Estonia, Finland, and the experience at craft camp to come in future weeks!

EDIT - REGISTRATION IS OPEN FOR 2016 CRAFT CAMP.
You too, gentle reader, could enjoy the culture and craftiness of Estonia!

Muhu Island - Fishermen and Twilight

 On our jaunts around Estonia we had a quick trip to Muhu island. The island is noted for distinct cultural practices, and a very clear knitting style. (The drawings in that link? Those came from the students at the Heimtali School Museum.) Even the common colors, notably orange, were not used on the mainland.

 We stayed at a small farm house in the village of Koguva, an old fisher village that is well preserved and hosts the Muhu museum.

 As we walked the shores (late in the evening, as it goes in Midsummer,) we explored the old boats up on shore, and quietly watched a fisherman and a small child enjoying the peaceful evening.

 I love this little tiny boat! It's so tall!

 Koguva also hosts the oldest functioning windmill in Estonia (so said the local brochures, I've not been able to corroborate online.) It faced out on the Baltic, looking across to the island of Saaremaa.

 I found that the traditional housing style reminded me of Jomon Japan from my visits there. Many of these houses are listed as being hundreds of years old, with the usual thatching re-done periodically.

 What a wonderful way to end the day!

Stay tuned for more about our visit to Muhu, and the ancient cultural attractions there.

Estonian Travels - Ungru Manor

Right outside of the Kiltsi Airbase, just a short jaunt from Haapsalu, is the crumbling remains of an opulent manor with a strange history - Ungru Manor. (Lindenhof)

The manor land was gifted from a Swedish king to a German aristocrat in 1629, and it remained a German vacation home until the modern era. The early buildings, which are now gone, were considered unremarkable. However, the garden was said to be the most beautiful in Estonia. Presumably any vestige of said garden was destroyed with the construction of the airbase.

The curious story of this house begins in the late 18th century. The son of the Count Sternberg, Edwald Ungern-Sternberg, inherited the land. He had been to the famous castle at Meersberg, and fallen in love with the daughter there. She loved her home and did not wish to leave, so he promised to build a replica for her at Ungru.

Construction began in 1893 and continued for a few years. When it was nearly complete word arrived from Germany that the young lady had died. Finishing work on the interior continued for years, then in 1908 the Count died on a trip to St. Petersburg. He was brought back to the Manor and spent a single night in the house, as a corpse.

The Manor was more or less abandoned. It was looted in both World Wars, more heavily in the first, and then by the Soviet occupation. In fact, the local folk began systematically dismantling it for building materials after all the valuables had been pulled out.

 A local family, now the owner of the land, has been looking after it. THey are attempting to preserve it for historic and tourism value, and prevent further damage.

 The exquisitely detailed walls were hauntingly empty, memories of the opulence that they must have held.

 Nature had pretty well taken back the site. The floorboards were long gone and plants carpeted the rooms and halls. If there had been a cellar level it was long since filled in.

 Folk has left graffiti and etched marks in the stone. A large percentage of the marks were Cyrillic, and not all of them old enough to be Soviet era. There is still a difficult relationship between Estonians and Russian transplants.

 I have never been to the castle in Meersburg, but Mr. Crafty assures me that it is much larger! There are, however, many architectural elements that are copied from the castle.

 From here we turned back towards Tallinn, but this would not be the last set of ruins we explored that day!

Be sure to check out all of our Travels in Estonia with the keyword list below!

Estonian Travels - Kiltsi Airbase

 After a lovely morning in Haapsalu we headed to an abandoned Soviet airbase - Kiltsi

Officially it is closed, and one is supposed to check in the the Estonian military before entering! We simply left a detailed note with our rental car parked outside the gate. Mostly to avoid the expense of the phone call...

 There is a good reason for such caution, the buildings are the finest in Soviet architecture (i.e. they were thrown up quickly with sub-par materials.) Thus, the occasional collapse makes this a slightly risky venture.

 Look at that lovely map! The good ol' CCCP...

 The offices and barracks in this building may have once been rather nice, the remains of patterned wallpaper and floor tiles remained.

 The entire area had been well graffitied, and the site of some drunken benders (judging by the garbage left behind.) We were far from the first to poke around in these abandoned spaces.

 A hobbit hole? No! These are large bunkers, for 50s-60s era fighter planes. The bumps are intended to both camouflage and protect the planes within. However, since Estonia is about as hilly as Kansas they had to make artificial bumps which would be rather obvious. Not to mention the miles of runway...

 From the back of each bunker extended a small mechanics room which exited into the forest which had sprung up on the untilled land.

 Many such spaces appeared to have been the temporary homes of  folks with heavy drinking habits.

 Ammunition bunkers, a few hundred yards from the plane bunkers. These were conceivably more hidden, but still connected by a net of obvious roads.

 Nature was doing a good job of taking back her space, growing up and over the man-made structures.

 There was a profusion of herbs and fruits, and I did pick some. However, the Soviets notably dumped large quantities of chemicals while pulling out to prevent their use by other parties. I wouldn't source too much of my diet from this potentially tainted ground until it's had a few more years to clear out. Nature is good at that.

 The bunkers were situated in semi-circles, with four in each set. There were dozens of sets and we had only time to explore two or three.

 It turns out that we were not the only ones ignoring the closure. As we walked around there were several people driving the old runways, and it appears that impromptu drag races and rallies were held here. Several spots had spray painted marks for driving tracks.

 It was, in fact, a rather lovely afternoon. The sun and breeze was pleasant, the birds and bees had returned to the area. Alas, although the sun appears to be high noon in this shot it was in fact late afternoon, and we had driving to do!

 Oh look! Just when you thought you were off the base, here's a machine gun position to wave good-bye.

More post to come, we are almost the entire way thru Estonia! Then, it's back to Finland for the final leg of our trip. (We are already planning a trip for this year, whew...)