How it all began…
It all began in a Siberian winter in the small village of Istok, not far from the city of Irkutsk on Lake Baikal. More precisely, it was the winter, almost the spring of 2004. After a very long and very cold period, the previous year's brown-grey emerged from beneath the snow and ice, and deep blue, rushing meltwater streams gurgled towards the large rivers, which could no longer be travelled on or entered.
Every year, the birch trees are the first plants to carry a message to the world with a young, very light green: Winter is over!
Tim Mergelsberg did his community service at the small advanced disability project East. Istok means „the source“. It is the source of life for around 15 adults with intellectual disabilities. A short time ago, it had Joachim Heinz got to know someone who ran a management consultancy in Irkutsk that focused on people.
Joachim approached Istok and Tim with an idea, wanting to know if Istok was capable of producing birch boxes. Everyone was set to win: Joachim, who needed the boxes, the Istok disabled project, which urgently needed money, and the customers in Europe who could buy these beautiful vessels. Tim was immediately enthusiastic and, together with his friend Jakob Steigerwald, set up a workshop specifically for the boxes Joachim wanted, adapted to the requirements of the disabled workshop.
Since then, Istok has been the main production site for sagaan, although the village project does not have the capacity to produce all the cans for sagaan. At least the workshop is currently developing nicely. to a larger production and wants to produce all sizes of the Baikal series from now on.
The circle of producers is expanding
We set off to find more producers. Besides the Irkutsk region around Lake Baikal, the surrounding communities of Tomsk, north of the metropolis of Novosibirsk, are the most important region for birch bark processing.
Here we came across Alexei Mikhailovich, a recognised expert in birch bark. For many years, he was our leading man for shipping/export, building producer contacts, and generally opening doors and facilitating arrangements. He reliably and conscientiously fulfilled our every wish, and not only knew birch bark, its qualities and properties, like few others, but also almost the entire town of Asino, which became something of a second home to us. Following the turmoil of the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the birch bark craft has developed into the main economic sector in Asino. In the entire region, in the villages as well as in the town itself, there is hardly a family that is not intertwined with the old birch bark tradition.
We finally also learned about Aleksej, who unfortunately had to give up his activities due to health reasons. Sergei Ivanovich Kennen, one of the many producers in Asino, who gather some employees around them and craft vessels and other artworks from birch bark in a small manufactory.
It's not always easy to find producers. Many are put off by the quality demands we make, don't want to be bothered with customs paperwork, or don't like the plain tins we order: they see themselves as artists and want to press elaborate decorations and rich imagery into the bark.
Sergej, however, quickly became enthusiastic about our cans, and without further ado built us a whole pack full of patterns and captivates with a quality in his work that is second to none. In addition, all his tins, which he has been producing for us as standard since 2013, are glue-free.
Sagaan has set itself high goals: existing projects and small craft businesses are to receive long-term off-take guarantees, which will provide them with security and stability. Many people in Russia, especially in the provinces, long for this continuity, particularly after the upheavals of the 1990s, which deprived most people of their livelihood more than once.
Milestones and challenges
However, working with small businesses also brings the difficulty that a very high effort must be made to meet all requirements. We must weigh the demands placed upon us against the given capabilities of the producers. We cannot always consider all concerns equally; sometimes collaborations end or pause sooner than we would have liked. Other producers experience such high regional demand – which we fundamentally welcome – that no production capacities are available for us anymore. For example, we are currently not sourcing products from our The partner described in this blog post, but continue to maintain friendly contact with him, who still supports the Istok sheltered workshop.
We are open to this change. For organisational and cost reasons so we are currently looking for possible producers in Europe Um. This would fulfil another goal: not only to preserve an old craft with a valuable material, but to revive it in regions where it has long since died out, with the old knowledge of our Russian friends.