Carpenters we’re not, so we enlisted the help of Burt Durham to cut out the coffin parts.  The dimensions for the coffin were dictated by the length and the width of Ardella’s height and shoulder measurements.  After we finished “cutting up”, the boards were glued and screwed into place according to the blueprints from an article in Mother Earth News.   We divided the sides of the coffin into four 18” sections and assigned one section per devotee to create a birch bark interpretation. 
 

Ardella Hagen resides in Talkeetna , Alaska where she has been working with birch bark and creating some exceptional baskets for over fourteen years.  During this time she has shared her art and inspiration with a multitude of students who eagerly seek out her instruction.  Her signature baskets are delicately embellished with spruce root and birch bark leaves making a sturdy birch bark container a work of art.   Many of which have become a token of an Alaskan holiday by a visiting tourist.  Not to mention the Alaskan enthusiasts that hover around her booth at a variety of craft shows to add to their collection of her original baskets

 We are her groupies.   The students that she has taken under her wing and have stayed a while longer to learn a bit more.  Ardella is the best kind of an instructor.  She tells you everything.  How to fold a bit here, where to line things up, hints to make the job easier, when to harvest bark, and where to get supplies.   Once you’re on your way down the birch bark trail she encourages you to get out there and sell.  Like a mother hen with her chicks she has outfitted us in the mysteries of birch bark and then told us to fly.  Our gift back to Ardella was to make her an eternal resting place surrounded in the material she loves.

Ardella provided a stash of birch bark to work from and armed with loppers and pruning shears we hit the brush to come up with the twig requirements needed for the job.  Spruce root, animal silhouettes, pressed leaves, and antler buttons were used to embellish our birch bark masterpieces.  The results of each crafted block reflected the artistic endeavors of the participant with a story to accompany it.   If they didn’t have a story, we made one up to go with it after we figured out what it was.   Ardella’s Ascension is a block with three triangles that represent the mountains in Talkeetna, or her legacy of three children, (or both), and her ascension over the tops of the birch trees and the mountaintops as she waves us good-bye from above.  This is a much better eclectic statement than the block on one of the end pieces of the coffin.  It looks as though it represents Ardella’s staircase to heaven to avoid the pitfalls of hell where the salmon swim.  Go figure, its art. 

Two days worth of creative juices flowing can be taxing.  We decided to call a halt to our endeavors at the end of the weekend with three-quarters of the work complete.  The final touches of the coffin will be completed by other friends that were not in attendance at the coffin bee due to other commitments.  The coffin awaits its commerative send off with a “coming out of the coffin” party scheduled for some time in December.