Birka Bag

A leather bag with a wooden closure similar to bags found in Hedeby Germany and Birka.

For this project I was inspired by the excellent article A Wood and Leadther Bag from Birka written by Eithni ingen Talorgain (Jean Kveberg) for the Northshield Arts and Sciences Competition in 2016. The bag construction is different from the Birka Pouch that is often seen at events and I wanted to see how the closure on the design functions.

These bags were fairly common and constructed from a variety of materials. Examples with wood, bone, and metal closures fastened to leather, cloth, and sprang pouches are all discussed in the literature. This particular recreation is made from leather and maple with a wool finger-loop braid that Teagan of Anglesey taught me. It is small in size, designed to hide a phone at events, and hangs from the belt.