 Wooden carved toys as well as clay ones created by national craftsmen in Bogorodskoye village of Moscovskaya oblast belong to national plastics and can be used in work with children on lessons of decorative modelling.Woodcarvers have been living there for more than 300 years. Whole families work here. Now there are about hundred carvers in this village.
Toys are cut from linden. Before it turns into a toy, it should get dry for two years. Splinter, linden wastes are also used for cutting of smaller toys and supports to them. Bogorodskoye toys are more often not painted and seldom decorated.
Statuettes are cut from the whole tree for which different forms of timber are prepared. If one is about to cut a bear sitting on a support, procurement is of a triangular form. A surface of finished products was smoothed out with emery paper. The whole surface of a toy was usually cleaned out, in the result of which a statuette was smooth. As women and children carried out this work, original plan very often became obscure.
Now toys are decorated with fretwork that covers their surface and decorates them. Acc ording to a tradition some parts of a toy are made movable. It is achieved by various means. Some toys are fastened on supporting pedestals, and spring setting toys in motion is inserted inside them. Other toys are made on swinging laths("Herd", "Cavalry", "Soldiers"). It is possible to come across such toys, movable parts of which are attached to threads with a heavy object, the latter is swinging and presses down a thread which sets in motion parts of statuettes.
All toys have different features: elements of fairy tales, fable, sports and space, and all of them are funny. The image of bear is traditional, it is portrayed to be a quiet, kind and ridiculous animal holding either a basket of mushrooms and raspberries, or an accordion, sometimes it is depicted being deceived by a cunning man. All toys are made with a good sense of humour.Bogorodskoye toys makers perfectly feel plasticity of form. There is nothing superfluous in funny toys, besides they look like caught in a movement.
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Culture and Art 