Kolrosing

 

Kolrosing is a traditional Scandinavian technique used to decorate the surface of wooden objects. Using the tip of a knife the surface of the wood is cut to part the grain, no wood is removed. Once your design is finished a stain is rubbed into the surface, this can be coffee, cinnamon, ash or ground up bark to name a few. the stain settles in the scored marks and form the think dark lines. This technique dates bake to the Vikings and is thought to have been used to decorate utilitarian items such as bowls and spoons which is why very few items have survived. This is one of the reasons I am attracted to this technique, the idea that useful, day to day objects can be so decorative is really interesting.

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Originally Kolrosing designs were geometric like basket weave and knotted patterns but anything can become a Kolrosing design, basically if you can draw it you can Kolrose it.