In his cabin nestled in the forests of Asikkala in southern Finland, the 87-year-old Erkki Pekkarinen deftly carves intricate strips of birch bark with his knife. While wood is often seen as a robust and inflexible material to work with, with the right technique, Pekkarinen says that birch bark can be used to make "whatever your imagination will allow." His art gallery in Asikkala is filled with a myriad of different objects constructed with nothing but strips of birch bark woven together without glue or nails. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES