How To Process Cedar Bark For Weaving - Nick McMillen

Secure your copy of Nicks Cedar bark book - mcmillenart.co.uk/product/cedar-bark-craft/ Watch the previous video on Harvesting Cedar bark - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNoNkyV_gA4 Watch the next video on weaving a Cedar bark basket - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6fZDUs97eE

Glad you’re back with another series. Well done. Cedar is one of my favorite woods.

Excellent instruction. Great articulation of process and principles and goals. Thanks for the content.

Absolutely brilliant as always , well done Nick . Catch up soon 😎

I really enjoy your meet the craftsmen videos. You're really good at it. You should have your own tv series. It could be called "Zed gets crafty"

Great vid guys...looking forward for the 3rd part! :)

That's neat :) I'm almost surprised Nick hasn't made his knife sheath out of bark like the Laplanders do with birch bark. I've made a few out of cardboard the same way. Make an M shape with a strip the width of the knife/axe. Knife goes down the middle; weave a long thin strip horizontally around and down the length of the piece, alternating in and out of the outer layers.

Amazing videos Zed

Zed well I never did this guys a wizard of cedar bark makes magic with it some barks are edible if you look at wilderness bushcraft and survival guy had a video show you with his wife Lonnie These old crafts are dying out it’s very important to keep them alive especially in a throwaway society we live in especially as you get robbed of cash if it breaks you can’t repair it but toss it out I made most my carving tools and other items stay awesome dude 🇬🇧👍🇮🇹🐾🦊

If I may make some observations from a cultural/traditional perspective of what I'm seeing and from an Arborist's perspective as well...Any comments are more than welcome...The first thing worth noting is these are called "Cedars" but are not actual Cedars at all since that is a different Genus entirely and they do have different characteristics though similar in craft context of use where true Cedars (genus Cedrus) are found...When teaching these crafts I always make a clear distinction, as Cyperus and Juniper bark work is similar but different... I also noted that these trees had a huge amount of limb clusters compared to actual wild trees. Getting runs of 10 meters is not uncommon, so the challenges you face with such small bark patches are significant... I noted that many "modern" crafters seem to have forgone and/or never actually use all the traditional methods of retting bark splits...I saw no evidence or description of properly retting the bark roles which is typically done before ever trying to remove the shagging outer bark and always before storage if at all possible... There was no discussion of cold wetting, nor oiling modalities to soften the bark rolls prior to splitting or working, and the entire step of compressing and/or pounding the bark stripped before splitting seems to have been left out completely...The thick piece I saw in the video would/should have rendered at least 4 strips (or even more) if going for more detailed weaving...Thanks in advance for sharing Nick's methods of working on this material...

I do wood carving, some leatherwork, strictly a hobby these days although I was once a juried wood carving artist. When people at craft shows complain about the price I’d love for them to try to carve their own spoon, weave their own basket. THEN they’d understand! Most people have NO concept of the work and skill involved yet at one time in human history this was all common knowledge.