Mariia Adukanova talks about summer boots

"Then I have to sew inner shoes. I remove the flesh side, then I smear it with reindeer excrement. I make it so that the skin will be soft. Then I have two ways to process the skin: with a scraper with a stone or with a metal blade. One must remove all the flesh layer, then the skin will be soft. This skin was smoked so that it would not leak. One has to smear it several times and to mill it. Then I smear it with reindeer excrement, and when it becomes soft, with tree bark, water, ashes from a fungus that grows on trees, this birch polypore, which I burn. Then I mix everything and smear the skin. I will wrap the hide so that it will be entirely soaked. The straps will be strong, those which I have here are a bit stiff. When they are tied and once you walk with them they will become soft. Now I will set in the sole, which I first will soak. And when it is wet, I insert it here, the skin from a bearded seal “rom which the hair has been removed. My cousin brought the skin of a bearded seal from Palana. Probably like yours, the skin of a bearded seal is better for soles. I have cuttings for inner boots. I always use cuttings for not ruining the skin. I added here this reindeer leg skin. So it is sewn, separately, everything in parts, and everything is matched. A beautiful pattern comes out from it. We wear the boots for a long time, surely, they don’t get torn, not as rubber boots, but fur boots last a long time."

Recorded by Erich Kasten. Esso, 2003.