These laces are called frozen paints of northern winter. Snow-white lace patterns became popular throughout Europe at the end of the XVIII century. Women in many countries dreamt about dresses decorated with the Vologda laces. Even nowadays, many foreigners think that Russian laces are made exclusively in Vologda.
During the manufacturing of the fabric only two threads are used — main and weft. Craftsmen use one thread in the knitting and many threads in the braiding. There can be as many as 60 threads per one work and sometimes even more.
Each thread is wound up to a separate stick called bobbin. The master then fixes the thread to the bobbin, places it on the knee and spins for several times in order to get for the thread to get into a special deepening.
Then master fixes Kuftyr, a straw filled drum made of cloth, to a special stand after being wrapped in pricked paper. This paper contains the key to a successful result og a high quality pattern. While inserting the threads into the holes of the template, the craftsman rotates the bobbins and interlaces the threads.
As a punch card sets a task to a computer, the pricked paper sets the pattern to the lace. In the XIX century the art of lace braiding was as prestigious as a work of a jeweller.
A well turned template could make its owner an enough rich man. The whole villages gathered together to obtain means for new lace braiding. Then they went to the trade fair and gave all gathered money to the merchant just to have his copy of pricked paper. Those drawings were not always accurate. That is why most of the village lace patterns often have imprecise design.
Khokhloma is a traditional Russian craft originated from Nizhny Novgorod Oblast in the XVII century. Perhaps, this is the most well-known image of Russian art. It presents decorative patterns on wooden cutlery, utensils and furniture in red and black colors (sometimes green and yellow) against the golden background.
Surprisingly, but to create the background a craftsman applies silver tin powder and not golden. After that a special compound is applied to the ware and it is placed into the kiln to be treated three or four times. This creates the magnificent honey-golden color which adds volume to a weightless wooden ware.
The traditional Khokhloma pattern shows red juicy berries of mountain ash and wild strawberries, and blossoming branches. Sometimes the pattern includes birds, fish or animals. By the end of XIX century Khokhloma was available at every Russian and foreign market. Furthermore after the International exhibition in Paris, global demand for Khokhloma had greatly increased. The biggest increase was seen in Germany, England, France and India.
A German entrepreneur started to manufacture wooden spoons that he tried to sell as Khokhloma. At the beginning of the XX century almost all traditional crafts passed through crisis caused by the World and Civil wars. Because of that most of the craftsmen were having their orders cancelled and were going out of business. In Soviet Union khokhloma got the second wind and the new generation of craftsmen renewed the work.
Pavlovsky Posad's printed shawl was named after a small town Pavlovsky Posad in the Moscow Oblast.
Local women were making shawls and special dress fabrics that distinguished by a matchless beauty of the patterns sewed with golden threads since the XVIII century.
However the shawl's history officially starts in the second half of the XIX century when the local merchants organized its mass manufacture.
The Shawl’s patterns abundantly show colored bunches of flowers and garlands. The pattern was applied onto the fabric by means of carved wooden plates. Because the patterns have many colors, each shawl needed more than ten plates as each plate had own color.
In the mid XX century the technology for the manufacturing the Pavlovsky Posad's Shawl was updated. The printed design was now applied with special templates that made the manufacturing process much simpler.
The colored floral and vegetable patterns, lush roses and oriental motives «Persian pickles» of the Pavlovsky Posad's Shawl became very popular very quickly and this popularity continues until today.
The traditions of southern Russian culture have been clearly demonstrated in the women's parade costumes, since most of the men wore Cossack military uniform.
Traditional Cossack uniform for women was created in the second half of the XIX century. The base for the concept served a long shirt sewed from homemade linen canvas or factory-made cotton fabrics.
Sleeves, collar, cuffs and lower parts of the dress hem were traditionally decorated with hemstitch style embroidery, satin stitch and cross techniques. The most popular designs include flowers, flora or fauna. The woven patterns not only decorated the clothing, but also protected the owner from the evil spirits.
The shores of Northern Dvina were home to those unhappy with traditional societies and were a place of solitude for those seeking quiet life by their own rules.
Old believers, Polish migrants and Russian peasant travelers settled the northern Russia and contributed own style to the ordinary Dvina life. One of the most important contributions was an active promulgation of the art of book rewriting art. The books were not merely copied, but were decorated in diferent skillful artistic ways.
As time went by, professional rewriters applied this concept into daily life and started to decorate wooden ware, adding festive ambience to the everyday sever life of northern citizens.
The technique of book artwork combined with creativity of northern craftsmen and promoted the creation of new painting design that had have been recognized and fashionable for centuries.
The Northern Dvina pattern is primarily the dominance of sophisticated floral design and red paint which allowed the item to look magnificent for a long time.
The interlaced of leafs and flowers created a very splendid but magnificently compositional decorative carpet. Sometimes the floral pattern included fairy-tale birds and animals. Vivid and lifelike imagery reminded people of the summer which in the northern regions was very short and thus much desired.
Zhostovo factory gained global recognition for a simple metal tray something that seemed enough usual in everyday life. For almost two centuries best craftsmen of Zhostovo village created true masterpieces, painted metal trays. This craft originated in the beginning of the XIX century mainly under the influence of the flower painting on metal that came from Ural. Zhostovo factory primarily was a workshop of Vishnyakov brothers that acquired it in 1825 from the ex-bondslaves peasants.
Zhostovo painting can be applied against black, red, yellow and blue background however the most popular is the classical black color. Zhostovo trays often have large flowers painted in bright colors in the centre. Small flowers are painted at the edge of the tray in slightly darker colors making them look as if they are blending into the dark background. This painting makes an illusion that the flowers are coming up from the depth. Zhostovo painting is made on trays only by hand.
Gzhel is one of the traditional ceramics manufacturing centers in Russia. This is a huge region consisting of 27 villages united under the name of «The Bush of Gzhel». It is located sixty kilometers away from Moscow along the Moscow — Murom — Kazan railroad.
Gzhel had been well known for its wide range of pottery for a very long time. Pottery had been extracted here since the mid XVII century. In 1663 the tsar Alexis of Russia ordered that Gzhel village was to deliver pottery suitable for pharmaceutical and alchemic utensils. Till the mid XVII century Gzhel manufactured pottery utensils, bricks, pottery pipes, tiles and simple children's toys that were then sent to Moscow.
However after light grey pottery was discovered in the village of Minino, Gzhel started manufacturing faience and porcelain.
Gzhel utensils are distinguished by unique handmade decorations by means of cobalt oxide that after the kiln roasting develops an intense blue color. Traditional pattern is made only by hand. The craftsman paints floral or geometric patterns by means of quick but rich brush strokes. Some products can be encrusted with gold.
Despite the dominance of a blue color against the white background, the variety of used images provides us with a wide range patterns that created a great number of ware made from Gzhel porcelain. These are tea sets, different shape clocks, different types of chests, sugar bowls, butter dishes and of course decorative vases, plates and jugs.
The artistic metal processing was created in Caucasus in the ancient times. Archeologists discovered evidences that even in 3000 B.C. residents of Caucasus mountain villages had been already processing metal as a craft work.
The establishment of the Caucasian Albania government and the creation of trade relationship resulted in the development of the weapon craft. That is when the Caucasian metal processing centers appeared in Caucasus: Untsukul, Kumukh, Kizlar and the oldest Kubachi aul in Dagestan.
The people of Kubachi did not focus only on the cold weapon manufacturing, but also produced silver ware and jewelry. As Kubachi craftsmen used to say: «Do not impersonate, but innovate».
Such an attitude to work resulted in creation of many famous Kubachi patterns that survived many changes, and in the XVIII century had finally been standardized.
Engraved floral motivies are the basis for the ornamental pattern is engraved floral motifs: branches, leafs and flowers. The applied decorative methods vary, however the most widely used involves engraving and further niello applying niello on the pattern.
Fine mastery of burin allows craftsmen to create more sophisticated floral pattern with curved and interlacing design. The deepening of engraved pattern is filled with niello, special sulphury compounds of silver, lead and copper. The free space is additionally decorated with deep engraving and then is gold-plated.
Like most of the Russian national crafts, Mezen painting got its name from the area where it originated from. The Mezen River is located between the Northern Dvina and Pechora, the two largest rivers in Northern Europe running along the borders of taiga and tundra.
Mezen distaff and boxes were widely spread along the Pinega River, were exported to Pechora, Dvina and Onega. The style, laconism, expressivity and motives of the Mezen image are very close to the ancient rock painting in the North of Russia, and black contour expressed through the intense brown and red colors refers to the Paleolithic cave painting in France.
The peculiarity of the Mezen painting is the lack of traditional Russian use of large color range. The pattern has reserved and simple graphic shapes.
Mezen pattern was drawn with a mixture of soot and pottery dissolved in the larch pitch potion. The procedure was done using a wooden chip and feather of heath cock the fact that pointed to this art's ancient origin of this art. The box was strictly cut. The width was to be a third of the length.
Before paint was applied, the wood was processed with flax oil that turn made the wood look brighter and clearer.
The image fibers determined much the pattern made of icons’ set as letters determine a word. However the icons’ precise meaning is now almost impossible to decipher. Researchers try to understand this code with specific ideas of agrarian symbolism, supposing that the rectangles could be the ploughed up and sowed out fields, a duck could be a sunset and a horse — a sunrise.
The new design of the BOSCO Sport Olympic collection in the form of «Firebird feather» was for the first time introduced in Beijing 2008 Olympic collection. Before that design the company used the basic decorative element the image from the Russian kopeck coin of the pre-Revolution batch as the basic decorative element.
The Firebird feather was not accidentally chosen. This Bird in Russian fairy tales personifies the dream of luck and well-being. The pattern also resembles Phoenix bird and number «8» contour which is a key element of Chinese folklore.
According to the Olympic Charter, a decorative element of the National team’s outfit has to be different at each Olympic Games. That is why the «Firebird feather» was newly presented in the Vancouver 2010 winter collection. It was symmetrically mirrored. In the Beijing collection the host country was in such a way complimented in the design.
Canadians actively used the Native American icons in the Olympic decorations, and the shape of this new image resembled horns and referred to the totem animal imagery.
Palekh miniature is a Russian national craft originated in the Palekh village, Ivanovo Oblast. Lacquered miniature is performed by tempera on papier-mâché. Chests, caskets, money box, brooches, panels, ash trays, tie pins and needle cases are usually painted.
Before the times of Peter the Great, Palekh has been already known for its icon painting. The local style was formed under the influence of schools of Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Stroganov and Yaroslavl.
Palekh was also interested in the monument art besides the icon painting. The locals took part in the painting and restoration of churches and cathedrals, including the Faceted Chamber of the Moscow Kremlin, The Trinity Lavra St. Sergius monastery and Novodevichy Convent.
After the revolution in 1917 the artists from Palekh were forced to search for new means to express their creativity. In 1918 they created the Palekh Art Decoration Artel that specialized in paintings on wood.
Artists Ivan Golikov and Aleksander Glazunov are considered to be the creators of Palekh style. They painted the first work in so called Palekh style in their own workshop. In 1923 the Palekh miniature was for the first time presented at an artistic and industrial exhibition in Moscow, where it was awarded a 2nd degree diploma. At that exhibition Palekh craftsmen got acquainted with a new material for them. It was papier-mâché, which during the previous century had been providing a basis for the Fedoskin miniatures.
This is how the traditional technique for working on the Old Russian icons and simple image stylistics was transferred from wood on papier-mâché.
Rakulka centre of traditional painting was founded in 1959 on the Rakulka riverside (Northern Dvina flow) during the expedition of the Zagorsk natural reserve museum. From historical evidences it is known that the painting work in these regions was done only in the Vityazev family. The fact that no one else worked with this painting made the scientists suppose that this Old believers’ dynasty was responsible for the founding of this art's origin.
Art scholars define the Rakulka painting as a very specific artistic and graphic style. The front composition consisted of a blossoming branch at the top, a bird in the middle and a tulip at the bottom.
The use of color range was rich enough. They used red, green, orange, yellow and golden colors that created an illusion of sunshine play. A special attention was paid on yellow and golden colors as the symbol of the sun and as a key role in a peasant’s life. Sun stands for life, summer and rich harvest.
Calico is weightless cotton one-colored or pricked fabric of linen interlacing. Since ancient times, Slavic tribes had been manufacturing flax, weaving canvass, linen or printed cloth.
Researchers of textile art refer the origins of printing art to the X century in Russia. The archeological expedition discovered samples of that times woolen cloths with printed patterns in black ink on the territory of the present Bryansk region.
After Moscow princedom was fully unyoked from the Tatar and Mongol, the printing art was widely spread in the towns up the Volga River and on the roads leading from Moscow to Volga towns as Kostroma, Kineshma, Yurevets, Nizhny Novgorod, Tver and Ivanovo village. The reason for that was poor soil that did not allow growing cereals but produced good flax harvests. The availability of rivers and streams necessary to wash out the colored canvasses promoted this printing craft.
The patterns’ motives for the future fabric were taken from the surrounding objects: fir trees, polka dot, flowers, rhombs, checks, etc. Old primitivistic styles, images of distaff or frames were also usually printed. Later, some of the motives were inspired from the cloths imported from Persia, Turkey, Italy and France.
Thanks to the variety of colors and patterns as well as to the final processing (softening, roughing, glittering, stamping) the calico was traditionally used to make light overcoats, men's shirts and bed clothes.
Patchwork quilt is also made from such fabrics.
Carving is a widespread national craft of many Russian folks. Since olden times a Russian peasant having tidied up the house and finished the field works turned to the art carving in endless autumn and winter evenings.
The original centre for the large decorative relief carving or V-shaped carving was the Tarnoga region of the Vologda Oblast.
This carving was widely used in the manufacturing of distaffs. Archaic form of Tarnoga distaff with a large rectangular fan greatly stirred up the local craftsmen’s imagination. That is may be the reason why the most memorable of the Vologda distaffs come from Tarnoga.
The core patterns in the Tarnoga distaff were geometric designs. The symbolism in the pattern is quite simple: rosettes are the symbol of sun that gives life to everything in the world, and crossed squares stand for fertile land.
The ability to create so many unique variations from such a limited range of shapes amazes people even today. The craftsmen of Tarnoga liked to show the natural beauty of the unprocessed wood by means of the contrast, pinpointing the wood’s color and whimsical fibers.
The region of Upper Uftjuga named after a small flow of Northern Dvina deserves to be called a museum of national crafts. Local peasants devoid of social contacts because of the absolute lack of roads manufactured so called tues, small cylindrical birch bark boxes with lids.
In springs, when Uftjuga River overflowed, the freight ships went down the Dvina River loaded with tues to be sold at the markets in Arkhangelsk, Vologda, Great Ustyug and Solvychegodsk.
The date of origin is unknown however this craft was widespread in many villages along the Uftjuga River even in the XIX century. Many villagers along the both sides of Uftjuga River painted the birch boxes however the most famous lived in Novo Andreev and Yakshakovo villages.
Peculiar Uftjuga painting was characterized by a great space on the surface left without image, thus preserving the authentic beauty of the material. The background was often painted with a thin layer of design to highlight the warmth and softness of the birch bark. The imagery was always the same. It was a flexible branch with a blossoming flower on it, spread out leaves, a few berries and little birds differently posed.
Over times Uftjuga painting motives from thues found use in distaff, and later even in the house interior.
In every nation's history patterns have mysterious meanings that serve as a protection against evil spirits or even act as a form of personal identification.
In ancient Yakutsk, one could identify a woman's age, material or marital status, or even number of children, as well as cows, horses and deer by just glancing at the patterns on her clothes. Even today, it is possible to find out master’s settlement if have a detailed look at the design.
The patterns were strictly arranged to match the chakras on the human body. For example the patterned line parallel to the backbone not only covers up the stitches, but protects the soul from negative influence.
The most popular theme in Yakutsk patterns is the lyre. Actually this is an altered horse face. If the lyre has one branch at the top, it stands for cattle. Many branches symbolize a deer, or rather deer’s owner and demonstrate his richness by the pattern.
Colors range was also very important for the Yakutsk patterns. Black-and-white composition stands for life, i.e. shift of day and night, winter and summer, sorrow and joy. Green color stood for growth, fertility and nature. As a result it was mostly found in women's clothing and ornaments. Blue is the color of snow and air and male color too. Brown is the color of Yakutsk's Mother of the Earth.
The Olympic patchwork quilt, developed by Bosco’s creative department and given to the Sochi 2014 Organising Committee, will be the official Look of Russia’s first Winter Games.
Our goal was to represent a diverse range of emotions and feelings, connecting concepts like Motherland, Family, Culture, Time, Olympism, Peace, Nobility, Friends, Memory, Honour, Dreams, Beauty, Freedom, Pride, Warmth, Happiness, Greatness, Reliability, Victory, Creativity, Hospitality, Creation, Future, Russia, Planet Earth.
Every region in the world is proud of its unique origins, and it is no different in Russia. That is why there are so many different local traditions, songs and crafts that highlight the individuality of their creators, each valuable in its own right. Bosco had a wealth of choices to represent Russia’s rich diversity, but in the end we settled on something familiar, warm and welcoming: the patchwork quilt.
In the concept design, every patch was infused with the history and personality of traditional crafts from each of Russia’s 89 regions: in a single tapestry we combined Uftyuzhskaya painting and Vologda lace, Gzhel and Zhostovo painting, Kubachi patterns and the flowers of Pavlo Posad shawls, Mezenskaya painting and Khokhloma, Yakutsk patterns, fabrics of Ivanovo and other distinctive Russian patterns. That is how we arrived at a modern, distinctive and unmistakeably Russian Look of the Games.
THE OLYMPIC PATCHWORK QUILT