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The history of these boards begins 150 years ago, when my great-grandparents planted them at their home. When I saw them for the first time they were already huge, buzzing with every gust of wind and huge bees flying around them, they smelled sweet in the evenings and green in the rays of the sun.

The trees had to be cut down, but fortunately they did not disappear after felling, they are now these beautiful boards. I am glad that the trees got a "second" life.

The trees from the moment of felling are supervised by one person, dried and processed into boards and primed.

I. Manufacture of boards for icons

The boards for writing icons are made of seasoned linden wood. Timber cut into logs is seasoned for three years. Then the seasoned wood is cut into boards. Boards are subject to further processing (possible drying to 7% - 9% humidity, planing, selection of boards with knots and discoloration), and then are glued alternately after the arrangement of the rings in a "glued" thickness of 2.8 to 3.2 cm. The canvas created in this way is formatted to size and after further processing (thicknesser, grinding, polishing) we get a ready board for priming with a thickness of 2.4 cm to 3.0 cm.

The canvas ready for priming is reinforced with so-called pins (counter-wedges) usually made of oak or other "hard" wood to prevent board bending under the influence of changes in ambient humidity. In principle, all boards over 20 cm wide are reinforced with pins.

board with ark are usually 2 mm deep, although it is possible to make deeper arks. The width of the  ark area depends on the size of the board, and it ranges from 1.5 cm to 3.5 cm.

II. Priming the boards:

Grounding canvas covers the following activities:

1. Impregnating the board

2. Sticking the canvas to the board

3. Application of chalky and glue soil layers

4. Grinding surfaces for writing icons

Rabbit glue and chalk are used to perform these activities. When priming, it is important to maintain the right proportions of glue, chalk and water, as well as the correct levels of solution dissolution temperature. In addition, the creation of impregnation, glue for gluing canvas and chalky primer itself requires a smooth mixing process so as to obtain the least "aerated" mass used for priming.

The priming process usually takes four to five days so that the adhesive applied first and then the soil layers dry naturally. The last two layers are applied with a spatula and then sanded with 180 to 400 grams of paper. The primed canvas paintings available in the store have 10 to 12 layers and are ready to paint the icon.