David and Lynn Susag of Lanesboro, Minn., share their love of Nordic handcrafts with the local community and upper midwest through Trailside Folk Art, where they specialize in Nordic handicrafts and ancient techniques. Over the years they have demonstrated paper cutting and hand sewing as well as knife making, but their main focus is demonstrating and selling wooden dishes turned on a spring pole lathe and skinnfell items.
Skinnfell is a Norwegian art using sheepskins that are sewn together to create a blanket. The skin is ornately decorated with ink block printing. Other items made with this technique can include pillows, wrist warmers and ornaments.
Spring pole lathes are the precursor to what we know today as the power lathe.
“It’s a reciprocating lathe,” explains David. “There’s either a pole or a bungee with a rope going down from that and it gets wrapped around a mandril. The mandril is attached to the bowl blank between two centers. The rope goes around the mandrill down to a foot treadle. I step down on the treadle and the bowl spins one way, I let up on the treadle and it spins backwards. It makes about 2.5 revolutions and it spins backwards. I use a hook tool (to carve). I don’t use traditional electric power lathe tools. I use all hand forged hook tools. The bowl blank is shaped with an ax first before it goes on the lathe. Because I’m going back and forth, I can turn a handled cup. You can’t on a power lathe because you can’t do that motion. That’s what I like about spring pole, it has instant start and stop. And variable speed. I like the rhythm and how it sounds.”
One of only two people in Minnesota to be actively demonstrating a spring pole lathe, David Susag has spent over 10 years honing his skills. He makes a variety of bowls, plates, cups, goblets and the rare “jealousy” bowl.
His interest began in the early ‘90s but he was too busy working to be able to dedicate time to learning what he wanted. After moving to Lanesboro in 2000, David started taking as many classes as he could at the Vesterheim Norwegian American Museum in Decorah, Ia.
“I took a couple rosemaling classes in Brained through the Scandinavian Gift Shop but never really kept it up,” says David. After I moved to Lanesboro, that’s when I started taking classes down at the Vesterheim. Whatever they’re having I’m doing. The cooking, the rosemaling, the carving, the blacksmithing… About the only thing I haven’t done is weaving. Eventually I need to do weaving. I use to tell people at class that I was planning for my retirement by doing this.”
Lynn Susag is originally from Spring Grove and grew up around Norwegian handicrafts. She took a few related classes in high school and college but started taking classes again after meeting David. She does figure carving, skinnfell and a lot of the decorations on the wood items turned on the spring pole lathe, including milk paint finishes and a type of Norwegian wood burning called svidekor that she also does on spoons and lefse sticks. She won Juror’s Choice in 2023 at the Vesterheim Norwegian American Museums folk art exhibition with a svidekor piece.
“I like to do everyday items that people can actually use, so that’s partly why we got into bowls and cups and plates and sticks and things like that,” explains Lynn. “Some people will just put them on the shelf but they are things that are meant to be used.”
The couple met in 2003 in Lanesboro and got married a few years later. They took a kicksled building class as newlyweds, which led to their vacations being centered around folk art classes. Their love of folk art classes, learning and the possibility of doing folk art in their retirement became a driving force for them.
“I started selling in 2010 (svidekor lefse sticks),” says Lynn. “Kind of really under the radar though because we were both working so much. We just wanted to get our toes wet just to see.”
They decided to go for it and took early retirement when they were able so that they could focus on learning, practicing and perfecting their trades. It was important to them to be able to take classes and learn while they were still young. After David retired in 2021 they started traveling more throughout the upper Midwest for demonstrations and to sell their own items. Up until that point their items were only being sold at gift shops, and mainly through the Vesterheim. They started selling at their demonstration booths a few years ago at Gammel Dag Festival in Peterson, Minn.
“So much of it is practice,” says Lynn. “You don’t necessarily get a skill by taking one class but the skills all transfer. I started learning figure carving and then I took a spoon carving class and that really improved my figure carving. With that you start doing some ax work too, but even with the axing there’s similarities with how you figure carve and how you think about. They do just kind of layer and build on each other.”
The Nordic craft duo recently returned from a two-and-a-half week trip to Scotland and England where they took classes in German style ring turning, brush making and decorating classes. They were also able to look at Viking artifacts like bowls and cups and learn how the Vikings lived in their everyday lives.
“I had done some research before the trip, looking at Viking sites and places that I could look at Viking artifacts because we started doing Viking reenacting a couple of years ago,” explains David.
Trailside Folk Art’s goal is to think of different ways to stretch their craft and they hope to add at least one new thing every year. This year’s adventure is to have some hand-turned bowls that rosemaling painters have painted. They also hope to do interactive figure carving at the Gammel Dag Festival this year by teaching the basics using bars of soap so that everyone has a safe and fun experience. They are working up to teaching spring pole lathe classes, but in order to launch those they need to build the lathes and forge the tools.
“It’s such a great teaching opportunity when you’re demonstrating,” says Lynn. “We just love the questions the people ask, the questions that the kids ask. They only way this is going to keep going is if we can get them interested. And we do see young people interested. Sometimes you can just see that spark go off in their facial expression.”
Aside from demonstrations and taking classes they also participate in maker events via Zoom and local in-person groups as well as the Zumbrota Valley Wood Turners, and the Association of Pole Turners and Green Wood Workers out of England.
“That gets us interacting with other people, too, because a lot of times with production work you’re alone a lot so it’s kind of a way to connect,” explains Lynn.
Those interested can connect with Trailside Folk Art via instagram @trailsidefolkart or by email trailsidefolkart@gmail.com.
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