Throughout our life we are surrounded by different objects and things. These are clothes, utensils, furniture… They represent our second, man-made nature, reflecting the level of social development that has an impact on spirituality. Therefore, it is of great importance what toys our children play with and what things serve us in everyday life. In the old days, people surrounded themselves with objects that today appear to us as Russian folk art - a towel embroidered with flowers, colorful matryoshka dolls, woven bright scarves, ornamented wooden and earthenware, dolls sewn from cloth.
Today we are surrounded by household items made on the assembly line. We don’t cut out a kitchen cutting board as a present for mom and decorate it with scorched ornaments, we don’t embroider towels, we don’t knit socks, because all this can be bought ready-made, beautiful and new. But for some reason our spiritual beginning is dull and joyless. We don’t sing songs to our children before going to bed and more and more often suffer from depression, having forgotten how to create and craft for the joy of our loved ones. But at the same time, we vaguely remember that once Russian oral folk art was the basis for educating the younger generation.
Today we make money. Coming back from work, we buy food along the way. We come home and hurry to turn on the TV as soon as possible. Everything seems to be fine, but some kind of emptiness oppresses us. We lack spirituality and aesthetics in life, so handicrafts are again becoming very fashionable in all developed countries. The higher the level of human development, the dearer our Russian folk art is to him.
Foreigners go to Russia to get acquainted with the decorative and applied we alth of our people. Ceramics, lace, Khokhloma, Palekh, painted caskets and painted eggs - this is just a small list of the we alth that Russian folk art is - man-made, cheerful, with a colorful character. Nature itself chose the best of these nuggets and preserved them for centuries, passing on unique traditions to us.
Even crafts made by a not very skillful hand, drawings on a popular print or birch bark have amazing power and convey a miraculous feeling of beauty, because unknown masters made these items with love in order to please their relatives, decorate their difficult life in a harsh northern country.
Russian folk art conveys to us the images formed by the worldview of people. Even having peeped somewhere the plot for his product, the master adds his vision and soul to it. For example, nobles began to decorate their palaces with lions in the 18th century, and woodcarvers from Nizhny Novgorodpeeped at the appearance of these wonderful animals and decorated the huts with them, carving very good-natured lions on wooden shutters and window sills, reminiscent of domestic cats in their faces.
Is this not a confirmation of the rule that Russian folk art does not copy anything? This is always a separate and unique art, which has roots in ancient times. While creating, our Russian people believed in good forces and cajoled them. So, embroidering a towel or an undershirt, a woman depicted birds of paradise among bright flowers. According to popular belief, when this bird sings, people live in happiness for many years and do not know grief. Sitting at embroidery or at a loom, a woman sang soulful songs, attracting goodness and happiness to the house.
