Traditional Artisans Old Crafts – Cooper Making Wooden Wares With Staves It was one of those days when we were wandering round the villages, heading north to the village of Straja, looking to spend the day with traditional artisans and learn the art of barrel making. There are amazing views in Bucovina, mountains with very tall trees, but there is one more thing that we consider a real tourist attraction: the old crafts in a Romanian village setting. As the old Romanian saying goes, “The man blesses the place”. This place is blessed with some wonderful people, with beautiful souls, and, some of them, are living links to the past. People like Popescu Gheorghe, son of Ioan, born in 1924, the last cooper (barrel maker) in the village of Straja. He is still mourning the loss of North Bucovina in WW2, when the North became an Ukrainian territory.“I used to lead my cattle on those pastures”, he says with certain nostalgia, while pointing at the mountain which now belongs to Ukraine. Romanian Old Style Carpenter Masters the Craft of Wooden Tankards, Butter Churns and Barrel Making As a carpenter, he learned barrel making all by himself. And still has a lot of energy to put into his … Continue reading Barrel Making Traditional Artisans – Master Cooper ‘ s Wooden Barrels