Today we were gifted this traditional Greek donkey/mule saddle. (Samari).
its approximately 45 years old and hand crafted from olive wood. Padded blankets or hessian sacks are used to give the donkey some comfort from the wooden frame.
You can still see them being used today. Our neighbour still uses one for his horse. I recently edged a colourful loom woven blanket with crochet which is traditionally used to cover the saddle.
We now have the samari in the apotheke to renovate and upcycle it into a usable object as we don't have a donkey....YET!!!.
One week later
Mav took the whole samari to pieces; sanded a little, but not to discolour the chard wood. (When crafted the wood is heated to bend it to shape). All the metal was buffed to remove the rust. The samari was then glued and bolted back together to make it more stable.
The wood was treated for wood worm and then given a coat of satin polyurethane to give it more protection in its new life as a foot stool. Often a samari has its own unique hand carving; you can faintly see a simple diamond pattern. Others are more elaborate than this.
I bound the top with natural rope and placed a cushion on top. I made a traditional samari blanket from a gifted piece, woven on a loom and crocheted the edges.
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