My big highlight for the day was meeting my friend Julia, who I haven’t seen in person in 5 years. But now Julia has moved back to Luleå from Finland, so hopefully, we will see one another regularly again, we have already booked in a visit for next month, sine Julia will be in Åland during Gränstavernan.
I was also pleased that I looked out over the crowd and saw and recognised Kjartan’s nephew, even though I haven’t seen them in two years, and he’s grown at least 20 cm snce then. Then I saw his mom, and knew that I had correctly recognised him. It was good to catch up with her a little. Vincent is interested in knife making, so quizzed Keldor quite a bit. I let them know we will be at Vallens Barnensdag next month, if he wants to try smithing there.
Despite speaking to many curious visitors about Viking age soapstone, and how the pots are made, I managed to make some progress on the pot. In part by letting kids try it by having them hammer while I held the chisel.
Most kids tried for perhaps 30 seconds, and gave the hammer back. One five year old happily kept working for at least five minutes while I chatted with their mom. I suggested that mom consider getting a small chunk of soapstone so they could make their own. (I doubt it will happen, but that kid seems luke they would like it if it did)
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