Monday, January 29, 2007

Matryoshka Inspiration

I came home to a nice pile of eBay goodies this weekend including this 1957 Russian embroidery book - inspiration for the hand embroidered Matryoshki I'm working on. The Matryoshka doll pictured is the second in a set of 7 that I purchased on our last trip to Russia to bring Nikolai home. She features many of the traditional Russian fairy tales.

I am also currently addicted to inter library loan and recently requested a very comprehensive book on the history and art of Russian Matryoshka - The Art of the Russian Matryoshka by Rett Ertl and Rick Hibberd. It is a beautiful coffee table book detailing the history of the art and artists behind this beautiful craft and artistic symbol of Russia. One of the interesting details I learned was how they paint the spirals on the heads of the most popular style of Matryoshka. A small piece of ribbed fabric is rolled into a small circle, dipped in paint and hand stamped.

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