The home girls - Loukeria

Hello everybody,

Резюме
Это - мои любимые Лукерьи. Вначале была та, что в сером. Непропорциональная до жалости, под сарафаном не видно. Дочка моя в нее влюбилась, и пошло поехало!
Кукла не только вдохновлена русской традиционной куклой, но и сделана по традиционной технологии: ткани рваны и скручены; сшито только снаружи, внутри - перемотано красными нитками. Лукерья - кукла тяжеленькая, плотная, с характером. Но спать с ней дюже хорошо :)
Могу Лукерью сделать Вам на заказ. 

  Look at this row of dolls.

Let you imagine them sitting at the bench in front of izba and nibbling the sunflower seeds (another tradition to tell you about :). Just could not find a real izba in Belgium to make a shot  :)
They all called Loukeria - Лукерья.

There is one Loukeria, the very first one, that became "the first mother" of all others. She is sitting second from left. Her first body turned to be out of proportions but my daughter loved her so much, that she still is The One to play and sleep with. And I was motivated to improve Loukeria and make her few sisters.
I rectified other Loukerias for proportions and dressed them in traditional Russian costumes that I make out of our used clothing to give the old look and to charge them with the family energy. These Loukerias, themselves made of old tissues, are part of our family.

Here are few old pictures from family album, where girls are posing for camera :)

Apart from her costume, Loukeria embeds plenty of techniques borrowed from Russian traditional doll making. Looking closer, each such turn has a sacral meaning.

• I minimise the usage of needles and scissors. Only the 'skin' is sewed, so inside the doll does not carry any "pain" energy 

• The doll is not stuffed with material but made of plenty rolled layers. This what gives the rigidity but also it symbolises the inner complexity of our body "made" of many intermixed pieces.
  After several dolls, I found a good balance of softness and rigidity for the body. She is not at all soft and light like dolls stuffed with wool or other materials. She has fairly hard head. But she is soft and warm enough to sleep with. This makes her character - friendly, independent, and... being able to sit without support :)

• Even inside I use red threads - clearly this is symbol of blood vessels + red is protective colour and the crosses made of inter-crossing threads have protective effect

• No eyes and no face - is a typical attribute of Russian protective dolls. Eyes are known to be the home of soul and spirit. To prevent evil spirits to dwell a doll, no eyes are shown. In addition, a beautiful woman or a girl should have a clear, clean and pure face, don't they.
  
  My personal observation about not having a visage shown is that Loukeria has always the facial expression that you expect, depending on your mood and this contributes to her friendliness and sort of emotional availability. You know, human imagination always complete the picture in the best possible way :)

Yours
Kukliki