Crafts
Crafts
Motanky Dolls
Poor families in Ukraine did not have money to buy dolls for their children so they, or the children, made their own dolls.
They used bits of cloth or bits of yarn (wool) to make the dolls and then dressed the dolls in clothes made from other bits of cloth.
Here you see the steps to make dolls from yarn.
First we make the boy doll, and make a braid which will connect to the girl doll.
Next the girls doll is made and she is given a hair braid. Then she is joined to the boy with his long braid.
The body can also be made with heavy cloth. Two squares of heavy cloth are cut (one 24 cm square, the other 12 cm square).
The body can be dressed either as a girl or a boy. For the boy, the legs should be pulled slightly sideways and secured by stitching through the cloth.
The body can also be made with a tube. Traditionally, this type of doll was built on a tube made of birch-bark; we will use a rolled-up tube of paper: approximately 2.5 cm wide and 9.5 cm long, held with tape. It is covered with a square of cloth approximately 24 cm square.
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Rushnyk or Rushnyky (more than one)
Rushnyk has two meanings.
It means a “towel” that you dry your hands on.
It also means a “ritual towel”, which has special pictures embroidered on it.
The ritual rushnyk has a lot of power.
It is used to protect a wedding and the home.
Here are some rushnyky and the pictures used on them.
If you CLICK here you can download a Word Document which lets you make a rushnyk.
It looks like this:
Drag the pictures from the page on the right to the one on the left.
You can make the pictures bigger and turn them around.
Or, try this new page:
Making a Rushnyk
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Pysanka or Pysanky (more than one)
Making coloured Easter Eggs is very popular. These are called Pysanky and you can colour one of your own – by clicking here
