Packing Up - Собираем вещи

Today we packed everything up. Our Russian visitors made a grand total of 639 roses and tags, so it took a long time. Fortunately we had help from Alyona who we met for the first time. Then Vera, the artist who we spent time with yesterday, came along to say goodbye and ended up helping out, too. We are very grateful for their help because it was such a big job.



The leaves on this rose are incredibly delicate. The text translates, “Look at the washing in a new way.”



Many of the tags caught our eye as we were packing up. We’re not sure how many people made this one, but the rose is one of the most elaborate.



Anna taught us how to make birch bark roses today. Her mother makes them professionally and prepared all the materials we would need for Anna to bring to us. She told us that her mother collects the birch bark in June. She must go to great lengths to protect herself from the harmful insects that are a problem at that time of year.



The roses were a pleasure to make once we got the hang of it. In fact it was a wonderful way to round up this stage of our project as it extended the exchange and gift-giving.