Making palamarki harvesting guards

Palamarkadzhiystvo is the craft of making implements called palamarki. It emerged in villages in the Eastern Rhodopes during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and reached its peak in the 1920s and 1930s. With the mechanisation of agriculture, however, the craft declined. Palamarki are special 'gloves' used during harvesting. They help the wearer safely grasp as many ears of grain as possible at once. They were used mainly by children and women, whose skin was more delicate. Palamarki were made from maple wood using special tools that the makers fashioned themselves.