Balls Balls Balls - мячики

Hi all! Привет!

 Знаете книгу Лоскутные мячики из Хотьково Галины Дайн ? Если нет, то обязательно ее найдите и просмотрите, даже если Вас не интересуют мячи! Она написана с большой любовью и глубоким знанием. И наверняка Вам захочется-таки попробовать сделать мячик-другой, просто из любопытства. Вот и я сделала несколько, еще до того как закрыть книгу :) Тут и хотьковских два, с погремушкой и с бубенчиком, и древнерусский (с горохом в моем исполнении) и пара просто лоскутных 8-дольных мячей. Они постоянно лежат на диване и мы нет-нет да и перекинемся - стресс снять :)

    I am a lucky owner of a Rug Balls from Khotkovo book (in Russian) by a great author and Russian art keeper Galina Dain. This book tells the story of balls and is full of pictures and making descriptions. Reading it through makes you look for tissues and threads. I could not wait to make few balls before closing the book:

There are three type of balls here:

• the red embroderied and the one with flowers are the rattle balls from Khotkovo (Хотьково), a small town near Moscow, known for the artistic traditions and the monastery. These balls are made of 16 attached "pillows", each made of some filling (traditionally moss, but it can be wool or scraps) wrapped in a piece of cloth. Inside the ball, there is a birch box with grains or a rown bell. Great toy for kids!
  These balls used to be made by the nuns in the local monastery for few pence

• the blue and brown ones are the usual 8 side balls

• the bordo ball at the back is a remake of the very ancient Russian ball, spread in Russian villages thousand years ago. Initally, such balls were made of leather and in 16th cetury there even existed a dedicated trade, a ball-maker!

Your
Kukliki

Pyjama about Russian tradition - Пижама о традициях

Hi all! Привет!

 Эта пижама, вообще-то, ничего из себя не представляет, но я о ней пишу потому, что я ее сшила для сына из старой мягкой пижамы мужа, как и полагается по старой русской традиции. Пусть сын питается папиной энергией, и пусть сон его будет защищен и спокоен, и пусть он вырастет и станет "как папа :) 
Кстати, уж если совсем по-традиции, то сразу после рождения его надо было завернуть в папину одежду, халат, наример, что мы и сделали... так как скорая опоздала ... 

    Lets be frank, this pyjama is a fairly mediocre sewing work and it would not be worth writing about it BUT

FIRST: except the Russian costumes, these are my first sewn pieces - even if it is not too neat (so no close-ups :), I am proud for daring. And more, I made the patter myself.

SECOND:  I made this pyjama for my boy out of the old husband's one. This is a good reason to acquaint you with an ancient Russian tradition of making the children clothes out of parent's worn clothing.

Just after the birth, a baby was wrapped in the father's or mother's clothes (not washed!) to give the energy and the protection to the newborn. Sometimes, they would wrap him in the parent's working clothes, to give the first initiation to the parent's job, which most probably would become the kid's one too.

The children would wear the "kids" gender-less clothes till twelve, the age of adolescence and readiness to the marriage. As of this time, the child would be dressed, especially for feasts, in most attractive clothes... of cours.

It is often with traditions that its esoteric meaning neighbours closely with simple practical gain: home made textile was expensive, so it was used and re-used and up-cycled and re-cycled. Also, the new materials, such as linen, are just not soft enough for just born babies.

After babies, the clothes would serve to....  make dolls, like those that I tell you about in this blog :)

It is almost not realistic to follow this tradition today: people became lazy of doing plenty of things our ancestors did for the necessity, our kids not dress the same, and what we dress is well accessible in a decent quality.  So, guys, do not make a wrong opinion that all Russians reuse parent's clothes for kids. This pyjama is rather an exception.

PS  I like traditions, I take the cream out of them to enrich today's life. I mean, I would not take big, old, not washed husband's bathrobe to the hospital to wrap the baby. But it seems that traditions are after me - the ambulance arrived just after the baby was already born and wrapped, together with me, in the big, old, not-washed father's bathrobe ;)

Your
Kukliki

Мой русский костюм - My Russian costume

Hey all!   Привет!

  Summary. I already wrote about the first Russian costume made for my daughter. So the next one just had to be made for myself. I've chosen heavy woollen tissue for the dress (sarafan - сарафан) and old grand-mother's cotton for long shirt (rubaha - рубаха). The principles and design are the same as for my daughter's one, except that I made my sarafan narrower, with more elegant look. I will focus on the belt in one of the coming posts.

  О дочкином русском костюме я уже писала. Теперь - о моем. 
Он делан по тому же принципу, но более строгий и простой. Сарафан я шила себе более узкий (на одно полотно меньше), что придало ему больше элегантности, если это слово можно применить к традиционному наряду. 
 

Ткань сарафана - грубая колючая шерсть, рубаха - старый хлопок из бабушкиного сундука. 

Рубаха, как и в первом наряде, несколько стилизована. Для меня важно сделать не репродукцию конкретного костюма, а сохранить и передать ощущение и стиль русской старинной одежды: со стороны и изнутри, в нОске.

Костюм свой я одеваю на ярмарки и мастер-классы, а в рубахе частенько хожу дома или сплю. Кстати, это особое чувство - спать в узкой длинной рубахе. Во-первых, она дает какое-то чувство защиты и уважения к себе со стороны. Даже в своей постели :) 
А во-вторых, девочки, ваша труднодоступность вдруг становится приятным препятствием для вашей половины и вашим  дополнительным очарованием :)

 
Но сменим регистр  на более высокий. Головной убор. Его пока нет. Как и в первом случае, его еще надо подобрать и сделать. Если для дочки у меня уже есть идеи девичьего убранства, то для себя будет посложнее. Скажу честно, я не очень хочу одевать тяжелые сороки и высоченные кокошники. Надо будет поискать что-то компромиссное (хорошо, что можно позволить выбор :) .
Кстати интересно, так и хочется одеть очелье или что-то девичье. Это и понятно - не наносилась :)

Пояс - моя гордость :)  Но я о нем еще расскажу.

Ну и бусы - подарок дочери. Она так хотела одеть на меня что-то яркое. И посмотрите как они подошли и дополнили мой русский вид !

Ваши
Куклики


Учавствует в

  

Rzhev Happiness Doll - Ржевское счастье

Hey all!   Привет!

Резюме  Ржевское счастье  - очень милая и женственная куколка. Крохотная, головастая, с длиннющей косой, крепко стоящая без поддержки, она очень символична для женщин. Куколка в общем не обережная, но такой сильный символ, подкрепленный пожеланиями при дарении может вполне стать оберегом.

    It's a long time since I told you about Russian traditional dolls. So this is another special one (well they are all special :)

The Rzhev Happiness, or simply a Doll for Happiness.
Rzhev (Ржев) is an old town located in the European part of Russia. The town history begins as of 10th century, and in the archaeological layers of the around the same time, this doll was found.

It is hard to be more feminine than she is! Isn't it? And she is, indeed, a symbolic representation of a woman or even of femininity. Fragile and robust at the same time. 

The plate (коса) is a heart of the feminine symbol, as it a very important element of Russian women appearance. At wedding, the husband-to-be was literally buying the bride's plate. Cutting the plate of a woman was a punishment and expression of total humiliation.
The long plate is attached to the doll in a simple and ingenious way, just with threads. This plate serves also a support for the doll, so she can stand solidly without any external help.

This doll is not really protective one, but rather a doll to offer or even to play.
Still though, it is made without sewing.

The doll is usually four to six centimetres high. I tried to experiment and made her a friend, which is as high as a couple of centimetres. So I needed to make a real macro shot:

Your Kukliki

Sunflower seeds as a tradition - Семечки как традиция

Hey all!   Привет!

Резюме  Нужно ли рассказывать как важна и полезна наша традиция грызть семечки? Нужно ли рассказывать где их искать и как жарить? И надо ли объяснять, что означает "заразный как семечки"? Вам, наверное, нет, а вот заморским друзьям наверняка стоит.  

    see these sunflower seeds?

No, no, I am not going to talk about birds feeding. This is another Russian tradition - nibbling the sunflower seeds (грызть семечки).

A perfect pastime! It keeps your hands and teeth busy better than any sugary snack bar. Like other nuts, sunflower grains help establishing the acidity balance and contain a great dose of vitamin E (for men to note: it is a natural alternative to viagra!).

Here in Brussels one can buy sunflower seeds in Russian and Turkish shops. This shows that the seeds tradition is not limited to Russia's area. The seeds can be be of different quality, look for dry and preferably black-shell seeds without stripes, although they are smaller, they have bigger grain inside. I advise you to grill them a bit in the oven or in a pan to reveal the delicious aroma of the grain and make them easier to crack.

Some, after biting two or three grains, abandon the process. Such people are just very impatient and they miss the whole pleasure :) Nibbling seeds is known as being a hard-to-stop activity. When a Russian calls some process as being "catching like sunflower seeds", he means that it is very hard, say impossible to stop doing.

And btw, this is what left by the time I was writing this post ;)

Yours
Kukliki

Фото-отчет о Купавке - Koupavka rite report

Summary. 
This is a report on Koupavka rite as we do it with my daughter for the last four years. We make a doll Koupavka, attach ribbons while making wishes and let her drift on waters of our small river. This time our Koupavka has met a wild duck. My girl had to go to the water and to ask the duck to accompany the doll further down. The price was - the boots full of water and fish :) .... or was it only water?

Вот уже четыре года, как мы с дочкой делаем Купавку с пожеланиями на Купальские праздества. Вот и в эти выходные мы сделали куколки.

Вот одна из них:

Куколку мы нарядили и, как полагается, пустили по речке, которая течет и журчит недалеко  от дома. Речка мелкая и быстрая со многоми извилинами и препятствиями, поэтому Купавок мы обычно провожаем в сапогах и палками как можно дальше, чтобы не осели в какой-нибудь траве.

Наверное, где-то там уже есть целое поселение наших Купавок :)

В этот раз, зайдя в заросли, мы увидели, что наша желанница пытается познакомиться с уткой. Если приглядеться, то можно увидеть куколу возле дерева. А вот утка оказалась необычной: похожа размером на домашнюю, а расцветкой и поведением  - на дикую.

Ну а потом мы передали Купавку в лапы утке и попросили ее проводить куколку дальше. Тем более, что у дочки в сапог попала форель и надо было ее вытаскивать и жарить.

Хотя... может это была вовсе и не форель?

Ваша 

Куклики 

Summer Solstice, Kupavka doll and diplomacy

Privet! Hello!

Summer Solstice is a major date in the traditional calendars of many cultures. It has been one of the reference dates in the agricultural year.

Like in other Christian countries, Russian pagan celebrations of this period were so strongly implanted in national spirit that the Christian calendar had to accommodate for the feast called Kupala. Kupala was name one of the Slavic pagan gods. Spme time after christianisation of Russia in 988, the Solstice day became a celebration of the St John the Baptist nativity or St Johns day. But people for centuries have been calling this feast the day of Ivan Kupala (Иван Купала).

Just think of the name - Ivan Kupala - and everybody is pleased!
The pagan god Kupala is not forgotten and St John the Baptist is worshipped. Btw, do not be surprised to learn that Russian verb kupat' (купать) means to swim  or to wash. ;)

Fantastic example of diplomacy!

One can writes kilo(byte)s of posts about the Solstice festivities, especially because there were always several distinct celebrations around this date (Rusalki week, Summer Koliadas, Agrippina the Swim, Peter and Paul day).  But what about the dolls?

One of the Kupala rites is Kupavka (Купавка), for which the same-name doll is made.

This doll is made on a wooden cross, according to the usual practises for rite ans protection dolls making. Once the doll is made, you attach colourful ribbons to the spread hands, making a wish for each tighten node. You decorate Kupavka with flowers and herbs.
Once she is charged with your wishes and is made nice, you let her float on the water and let her go and pass your wishes to the forces that will accomplish them.

Yours
Kukliki

The Peace of the House Doll

Hello!  Privet! Привет!

Do you have sometimes conflicts or at least tensions at home?
Well, I do (OK I am of an emotional type :).
I doubt if you do not, but if this is luckily a case, please share with us your secret!

For those who do have, there is a small remedy amongst Russian Traditional Dolls. It is called The Purification Doll - Очистительная Кукла. I call it also The Peace of the House Doll.

As the name suggests, it is used to clean the house from the negative energies after any conflicts or at any household tensions. When nobody is around, the housewife would open the windows or the doors, would take out her Purification Doll and would brush away negative energies using the doll as a broom.

From my own experience I can tell that once you start using this doll, the tensions and disputes reduce and become more controllable. I bet that psychologists will find professional explanation to this fact. My common sense tells that if you simply want to have peace in your house, this small ritual reinforces your wish, works like an anchor for it. Also, by removing your mistake (the conflict) you put yourself into a positive mindset.

One of few traditional dolls, the Purification Doll has human-like body with a head, hands, legs and breasts. This makes it a kids favourite during my fairs. Kids can play with this doll, and if explained on its purpose, they can learn to manage their small disagreements themselves.

Finally, for a small pub, you can find my Kit for Purification Doll on DaWanda :)

Yours
Kukliki

My first Russian costume

Privet! Hello!

When I made few of my dolls and dressed them in Russian costumes, I naturally wanted to make a real set. Not a pseudo-folk one that can be seen at various festivals made for "export" but a real one, like "they used to wear" long ago.

What I did, already for dolls, was to spent hours and days to read about Russian costumes and investigate the approaches, types, tissues that were used in traditional dress making. Also, every stitch, every detail on a costume HAS A MEANING. So I tried to get immersed into these details, to be able to make not a copy or reproduction of an existing costume but a new one, consciously using the acquired knowledge.

It was for my daughter to have the Russian costume first:

 It consists of three must have pieces

• the long white shirt  (рубаха = rubaha)

Almost an ankle-length, the shirts were dressed as an underwear and as a home and sleeping dress. Actually till twelve years old, a girl would wear this shirt without any other additional dress or a a belt.
The embroidery on shoulders is realised for decoration but also it carries a protective meaning.

I created this pattern myself, inspired by traditional protection patterns for girls. It shows a stylised woman figure, representing the Mother-God of pagan Slavic pantheon. The embroidery is made  using red thread, as for all children protection embroidery.

Often, the shirts were constructed of two types of tissues: the visible top was sewed in thinner and better fabrics, while the lower, hidden, part was made in rough and simpler home-made linen sheet. This shirt is made of a single piece of textile, from shoulder to bottom. Such "whole-fabrics" shirts were made for specific occasions, rites and feasts.  I made the linen shoulder inserts for this shirt.

Another specific aspect of traditional children clothes is that it is made of old, ideally worn by the parents,  clothes. It was believed that the clothes charged with parents energy carry positive influence, support and protection to the kids and reinforce their link with the family. And by the way, I have heard recently of a research confirming that clothes do indeed carry the wearer's information. So this shirt is sewed of old family cotton piece, found in grandmother's chest.

• the dress (сарафан = sarafan)

Sarafan dress was spread in the north of Russia; the southern costumes have a special type of skirt called понева = poneva.
There is a multitude of particular ways to sew and to decorate a sarafan dress, depending on which area costume comes from. But the overall approach and the main dress elements stay the same. 
Traditionally, it would be made of wool fabrics. Fair enough, cotton is an imported product for the northern areas.
For my realisation, I used heavy but soft cotton fabrics, sort of a decoration type textile.
I did not made any embroidery but covered the bottom edge with a red ribbon, again as they did for the protection purpose (protection from bad spirits but also protection from quick usage of the dress edge ;).

• the belt

Belt was a very important decorative element, but also it carries a protective meaning.
The belts were made using different techniques; they could be knitted or weaved on various type of looms.
This one is a tablet-woven belt. I did not made any sophisticated pattern as this was my first tablet-weaving project.  It is also made of cotton threads, which is not the truly authentic choice.

This costume is still laking a headdress suitable for a young girl. Currently, my daughter is wearing a simple colourful kerchief. But she is asking me for a traditional Russian crown (кокошник= kokoshnik) or a decorated head band. Still to be made.

During the costume realisation I used the sewing machine for attaching the main details only; all the finishing, trimming and decoration are made by hand.

You would wonder whether my girl wears this costume? Yes she does.
Actually, she loves it and, apart of wearing it for all sort of Russian-related activities such as fairs and workshops, she dresses it sometimes just to visit people or simply at home.

It is a special feeling to wear clothes made according to the ancient "design". The patterns of traditional clothes was tailored by centuries and you feel like touching the time when wearing such clothes. The clothes cut, changes your movements and, as a result, the behaviour. 

Yours
Kukliki

PS If you want to know more about Russian costumes and its making, just leave me a comment here.

Ashes Doll - Зольная кукла

Hi all,

You have already seen a picture with Ashes dolls in my very first blog entry, I will tell you a bit more about this doll.

All in all the Traditional Russian Dolls can be split in three large groups:

• the Ward dolls (обереги) - the dolls made for protection of a person or a household, made eventually on specific occasion. 
• the Rite dolls - dolls made and/or used for special occasions, especially linked to the seasonal rites
• the Play dolls - playing dolls

 Of course, the line between all three can sometimes be fairly fine.

So, Ashes doll is an archaic ward doll and linked to the ancient cult of ashes.
Back to early Iron Age, sort of 3000 years ago, the household aches were not dispersed anywhere but collected in a single Ashes pile of the village or a house.
The Ashes pile became with time a symbol of the household. Hard to disagree that the bigger and richer and older is the household, the bigger Ashes pile shall be.

Making a doll with ashes from the Ashes pile had indeed a ritual and mystical meaning.

These are the heads of the Doll and the Baby (funnily called гусеничка or "a small caterpillar") made of ashes, humidified and dried, so they become stone hard. This doll is a rare, if not the only one of Traditional Dolls, that does not have any head cover, neither hair nor clothes. This "boldness" gives the doll a strong specific energy, sort of saying that there are other more important things than dressing conventions.

Ashes doll was given to the just married with the wishes of prosperity (which is counted not that much by the material richness but rather by the number of children).

Calling for the blessing and protective force of the home fire, a mother would give this doll to her marrying daughter, when she was leaving to the new husband's house and family. Such doll with home ashes were a blessing and support in a far, not always friendly place. Similarly, a woman would make an Ashes doll as a protection charm to her husband, when he was leaving the house for busiess or war.

Ashes doll could also be made with ashes from a rite fire, for example on St John's day on Midsummer Day on Summer solstice.

Finally, using ashes as a hard material was accessible to any family and plenty of Play dolls could be made on the same principle as Ashes doll. The Play ashes dolls could be made as the fantasy calls: simple or decorated, with accessories or without.

Yours,
Kukliki

Few lines about Russian Easter

Христос Воскресе! - Во Истину Воскресе!
Christ Resurrected! - Truly Resurrected!

These exclamations followed by three kisses are exchanged  by Russians on the Easter Day.

Easter feast and traditions are really important and survived staying quite spread even during the Soviet time. Even today, you do not have to go to church or to be practising believer, to have coloured eggs and have something special baked for Easter Sunday.

So what about egg colouring traditions?
The most common way of colouring eggs is with onionskin. Just boil your eggs in a casserole with a handful or two of onionskin. The more onionskin you take and the longer you cook (plan half an hour and keep an eye on water level), the deeper the egg colour will be. After cooking, rinse eggs in cold running water for few minutes to fix the colour.
For a spotted effect, brush the eggs with paper or sponge before placing them in cold water.
Once cold, polish eggs with vegetable oil to make them shine.

The result will be the most common Russian Easter eggs:

The dark eggs on picture, coloured with red onion skin,  come from my mom who came for Easter breakfast.  This is part of tradition to exchange eggs on Easter Sunday.

And last, you do not simply peel an egg to eat it. You suppose to break it against someone else's. And luckily if you loose the fight, you can eat yours :)

Христос Воскресе!

Yours,
Kukliki

Russian Dolls - Kouvadka

Hello everybody,

It looks that these are the shiny days that make me want to blog :) With this I risk to give you a wrong image of Belgian weather.

Today I tell you about Kouvadka, or Кувадка in Russian.
This is one of the basic Russian Traditional dolls. By "basic" I mean both its meaning and its making.

It is one of the first dolls of the childhood and it is tightly linked to the birth.

Before the birth, a future mother would make several Kouvadki out of her old clothes to be put in the cradle to warm it up for the future baby.

Kouvadki would be placed around the place where the birth has to happen. This served to attract the attention of bad spirits away from the birth giving mother and the just born baby.

And finally, when the baby is already here, Kouvadki would be suspended in the cradle not only to to attract the attention of bad spirits away from child but also to distract the child himself, a sort of ancient traditional version of modern mobiles.

It is known now that the just born babies have a very strong sense of smell, so imagine how much a set of Kouvadki made of mother's clothes should reassure her child. Isn't it how the science confirms the people's wisdom?

It is simple yet it demonstrates all the essential elements of the protective dolls making techniques: no scissors or needles are used , the tissues are not cut but torn by hand, no nodes are made on the doll's body.

This is a first doll I show kids during the workshops. It is simple to make and yet it requires a dose on patience, hand ability and taste.

And my curiosity makes me seek for new not-so-traditional applications of Kouvadki.
Still today put them in a cradle, a buggy or ... a car (depending on your age) in a bunch or as a garland, they make a fancy mobile. They are so nice to decorate the kid's room too.

I like to attach them to anything, would it be a baby play mat, a bag, a hat or a pullover, or even a hair ring. The last one is especially popular with my daughter and her girl friends.

Yours,
Kukliki