Saivo Bowl

[Wayland]

Many of you know I have a deep interest in Norse mythology. Over the years it has developed into a fairly solid working knowledge and understanding of the surviving stories, but I am also intrigued by it's relationship with the neighbouring Sámi world view.

I did a little Kolrosing on the eating bowl I'm intending to take on my upcoming Winter trip to Kittilä in the Boreal forest of Arctic Finland yesterday.

I've had this for a while but didn't want to add the drum symbols until I had a better understanding of their meanings.

It's always a little tricky when you are using iconography from a living culture. There can be a very fine line between seeking inspiration and cultural appropriation and I'm a firm believer that you shouldn't just use cultural symbols unless you at least try to have some understanding of them.

These symbols are all taken from Sámi Noaidi (Shaman) drums and relate to important figures and places in the Sámi mythology or cosmology, depending on your point of view.

Having done a lot more research I felt I finally had enough of a grasp to lay them out in a logical and sensitive manner.

Their use as decorative motifs on a bowl is rather out of context but as a story teller I want to use the bowl as an "aid memoir", that I could take on the trip with me, to a fascinating pantheon that I am not yet completely familiar with.

 

[Tony]

Very nice indeed mate, how long did it take you?

 

[Coldfeet]

Very pretty, well done!

 

[Broch]

I love that; the simplicity of the figures adds a definite cultural element I think.

 

[Wayland]

Very nice indeed mate, how long did it take you?

Drawing out the design and kolrosing it was a couple of hours I reckon.

Research? About a month and a dozen or so books.

 

[Wayland]

I love that; the simplicity of the figures adds a definite cultural element I think.

It's interesting how much expression the original Noaidi managed to achieve with the minimum of lines.

Took some work to match it.

 

[Wayland]

The original drums were coloured with pigment made from chewed alder bark.

I normally substitute cinnamon for the traditional powdered alder bark when kolrosing ( or more strictly barkrosing ) but in this case I used a little pot of alder that I was given years ago for the job.

Seemed right somehow.

 

[brancho]

Very nice

 

[crosslandkelly]

Stunning.

 

[TLM]

Just a useless snippet of information: "saivo" means a spring with a false bottom and a second part under that. Various spirits lived there. The word is of Sami origin.

How accurately I look, I can only see one bottom on the nice bowl.

 

[John Fenna]

Outstanding - as always!

 

[Wayland]

Just a useless snippet of information: "saivo" means a spring with a false bottom and a second part under that. Various spirits lived there. The word is of Sami origin.

How accurately I look, I can only see one bottom on the nice bowl.

But in the third picture you can see the lake between the reindeer and the Saivo world beneath the opening in the bottom of the lake.

Everything is done with an economical minimum of lines but it's all there if you know what you are looking at.

 

[TLM]

Everything is done with an economical minimum of lines but it's all there if you know what you are looking at.

Ah, missed that but the final bottom is kind of missing. Not my specialty but saivos were mostly local access points to a limited part of the underworld not global doors to all of it. There probably are other interpretations. People who would know have long since departed.

I have a (modern) Lapp drum made to old specifications by a quite native Sami lady, must take a pic of it one day.

 

[Wayland]

Ah, missed that but the final bottom is kind of missing. Not my specialty but saivos were mostly local access points to a limited part of the underworld not global doors to all of it. There probably are other interpretations. People who would know have long since departed.

I have a (modern) Lapp drum made to old specifications by a quite native Sami lady, must take a pic of it one day.

I'd be interested in seeing that.

Most of the accounts I've come across so far seem to suggest they are a gateway but it is very subjective.

Water has often been seen as such a gateway because of the reflection, showing another world but inverted. Many mythologies touch on that idea.

Historically, before the common availability of glass and mirrors, such a quality could have seemed quite special.

The whole lower level on the bowl is Saivo world ( underworld ) populated by supernatural beings. The "real" world is the top tier and the wings are the realms of upper and lower gods and goddesses.

 

[TLM]

The double bottom was also used to explain why it was so difficult to catch fish in some lakes, they escaped to the lower part when somebody was fishing. There is always a reason why one does not catch fish!

 

[Tiley]

I love the economy of the representations, particularly the reindeer. Beautiful!

 

[Brizzlebush]

That's truly beautiful work, thoughtful and respectful.
I had to look Kolrosing up. Such a simple method that allows you to do some quite intricate patterns. What knife do you use?
Like others have said, I love the simplicity of the figures, there's something almost Neolithic about them.
How was the "little pot of alder" processed?
I also like how much attention to detail you have. From choosing the bowl shape, choosing the figures and how they would be laid out.

 

[Wayland]

Thank you.

I put a post up about Korosing a while back. The knife I use is a scalpel with a 10A blade in a retracting handle.

I've never made the alder dust myself, I've always assumed it was from sanding but I could be wrong.

In practice, cinnamon is functionally the same thing, powdered red bark, but someone has done the work for you very cheaply.

 

[Wayland]

I love the economy of the representations, particularly the reindeer. Beautiful!

That is one of the things I admire as well. They managed to capture the essence of a creature or object in just a few lines.

A masterclass in simplicity.

 

[Wayland]

The double bottom was also used to explain why it was so difficult to catch fish in some lakes, they escaped to the lower part when somebody was fishing. There is always a reason why one does not catch fish!

I think I've experienced that a few times.