Karelian birch is famous for its unusual marble texture, mother-of-pearl shine and amber shade of wood. It has long been known outside its homeland and is on a par with rare tropical species, which are measured in trade in kilograms, not cubic meters. The tree is valued not only for its beautiful pattern, but also for solid wood, which is almost not rotten, and products from it can serve for centuries.
At the same time, the Karelian birch is quite unpretentious in appearance: it has a small height, bush-like shape, characteristic growths and thickenings on the trunk. The tree most often grows singly or in small groups, but never forms thickets.
Most scientists agreed that the phenomenon of Karelian birch is explained not by belonging to a particular species, but by natural anomalies, such as a mutation. Mostly ordinary birches grow from its seeds, and only 5-7 out of a hundred have the signs of a valuable tree. Karelian birch grows slower than usual, and its life span is less than 40 years. Special signs begin to appear in the tree after a couple of decades, until then it is impossible or very difficult to determine that this is the Karelian birch.
The tree is distinguished by the amazing color of wood from light golden to dark amber and a pattern drawn by nature itself in the form of fancy dashes, dots and marble overflows. Beautiful and very durable wood was noticed even under Catherine II. Since then, the tree received the name “Tsarskoye” and began to be used to make furniture for nobles, souvenirs, jewelry, caskets, panels and other crafts.
There was a time, at the beginning of the 20th century, when the number of birch trees began to decrease rapidly due to uncontrolled felling, therefore, starting from the 30s of the last century, they began to breed it in reserves, which continues to this day.
Furniture made of Karelian birch has been valued for a long time, and not only for aesthetics, but for warmth and positive energy. It is believed that this is the best material for the manufacture of furniture. Products that can decorate any interior, in addition, are characterized by high strength and durability. Such furniture was an indispensable element of estates of the times of
Russian classicism. Items of palace furniture of the Alexander era are works of art and are on display in various museums in Russia.
Karelian birch is a very difficult material to process, requiring highly artistic skills from masters. Today, wood is used to make luxury furniture, souvenirs and various art objects that are of high price. All products from this wood are piece and have a unique decor.
Souvenirs of Karelia are, first of all, crafts from the national symbol of the republic - the Karelian birch. These are pens and cases for them, organizers and writing instruments, salt shakers and spoons, watches and caskets, chess and piggy banks, key rings and flash drives. All these items surprisingly organically fit into modern life.