Make your own Matryoshka dolls

We love 'Matryoshka Dolls' in this house!

Isabella recently mastered the larger set of our

little collection, and was mighty proud!

(As was I!)

'Matryoshkas' also known as 'Russian dolls' or 'Babushka dolls',

originally stem from Russia and date back to the late 1800s.

The very first set was carved by a man called Vasiliy Zvezdochkin

from a design by a folk crafts painter named Sergei Maliutin.

According to one of the articles I read, the inspiration

came from a set of Japanese 'Shichi-fuku-jin' dolls -

also known as the 'Seven Gods of Fortune' (*).

Zevezdochkin and Maliutin's first Matryoshka consisted of

a set of eight dolls - the largest was a girl holding a rooster,

all the inner ones but the fifth were girls and the inner most a baby.

This apparently, is how you are able to tell an original

from a modern replica or reproduction.

To me though the whole idea of 'layering' and nesting

one object inside another is very typical of the

Russian period, and I am thinking foremost

of the famous 'Faberge Egg'.

The very first one was commissioned by
Czar Alexander III of Russia as an Easter surprise

for his wife Maria Fyodorovna - the lucky woman!!

Aaanyway..
...what I really wanted to share with you was this...
A slightly more affordable Russian pleasure
that is available via Swedish online store
Cosas

Isn't it a great idea!!?

xCharlotta