Monday, October 3, 2011

mellow yellow/ruby red/rednesday:matryoshka dolls


My Made in China Russian Doll besides Ahmed's saudi Arabian Russian doll.

Open up, and you get a set of 5 in the family. I use them to teach the children, big, bigger biggest, ect.


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A matryoshka doll, or babushka doll is a Russian nesting doll (Russian: Матрёшка) which is a set of wooden dolls of decreasing size placed one inside the other. The first Russian nested doll set was carved in 1890 by Vasily Zvyozdochkin from a design by Sergey Malyutin, who was a folk crafts painter at Abramtsevo. Traditionally the outer layer is a woman, dressed in a sarafan, a long and shapeless traditional Russian peasant jumper dress. The figures inside may be of either gender; the smallest, innermost doll is typically a baby lathed from a single piece of wood

I first saw a set of matryoshka dolls in my friend Olwyn's house in New Zealand. When I saw this set in a souvenir shop in Singapore, I felt very emotional. Olwyn had been very good to me. I bought this and found it was made in China, not in Russia.

I brought this to school, and one day, my Somalian student Ahmed said he had a set and would I buy it for $5. I told him to make sure his mum was ok about it. I didn't want to rip him off. So he brought it to school, and he was very happy to have $5. His was a set of Saudi Arabian dolls, I didn't exactly want a set of Saudi Arabian Russian dolls, but he was disappointed if I didn't buy them. I also hope his mum didn't pay too much for them.

When I took the photo, I didn't have time to open up the nest of the Russian dolls. You will have to imagine what they are like. They are all the same.

9 comments:

Romina said...

They're beautiful dolls, according to height very cute and looks lovely. It was nice of your student as well selling those dolls, nice collections.

The JR said...

Very cute dolls.

carol l mckenna said...

Lovely photo of the dolls ~ have the Russian ones myself in red ~thanks, namaste, A Creative Harbor ~ linked with Mellow Yellow Monday.

Kim, USA said...

I like these Russian dolls they are very cute.

Yellow Rose

Apple Picking

Chubskulit Rose said...

Very pretty dolls, I only know those through Dora hehehe!

My MYM at Etcetera Etcetera blog, have a great week!

My Mind's Eye said...

Hi Ann,
thank you for you kind comment about Raider. I know he an dyour son are running free through loverly green fields in heaven with a gentle breeze in their faces.
Hugs Madi and Mom

Magical Mystical Teacher said...

Using these dolls as teaching tools is such a good idea!

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You are such a lovely sight:
Red and yellow, shamrock green—
Brilliant culinary scene!


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Dave said...

Those Russian dolls are interesting Ann. I have seen similar doll-sets before - Dave

Dave said...
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