The traditional technology of Khokhloma painting on wood. Khokhloma painting: history of appearance, stages of development, colors and application technique
Khokhloma is a colloquial term for painted items, a traditional Russian folk craft. Decorated most often wooden utensils. A golden background or a golden ornament, combined with rich saturated colors and ornate painting technology, made it possible to create a truly spectacular product.
The history of the fishery
The craft arose in the second half of the 17th century in the villages of the Volga region. Khokhloma is a major sales center, “gave” the corresponding name to the painting. A characteristic feature is the gilding of wooden surfaces and generous decoration with various patterns. The free brush style made it possible to work in two key directions at once: background painting and riding composition.
There were many villages on the left bank of the Volga, where fishing flourished. Residents of the villages of Glibino, Khryashchi, Shabashi, Bezdely, Mokushino brought goods to Khokhloma for sale. The true homeland of Khokhloma is the Koverninsky district of the Nizhny Novgorod region.
Coloring "under gold" is often associated with the Old Believers of the Volga region. They persecuted the "old faith" and settled in more dense forests. There were many talented artists among them, who painted icons and decorated ancient books using fine brush drawings. The inhabitants of the Trans-Volga region excelled in turning and woodcarving. The fusion of the two traditions gave rise to the birth of the Khokhloma craft. He absorbed the rich presentation and pretentiousness of icon painters, as well as the traditional forms and impeccable lines of the Trans-Volga masters.
There are also some beautiful legends. One of them is about the icon painter Andrei Loskut, who at one time fled the capital because of the reforms of the patriarch. He found shelter in the dense forest and continued to paint icons “in the old fashioned way. However, the patriarch was informed about the whereabouts of the fugitive and that he teaches the “old” icon painting of the inhabitants of nearby villages. The rebel icon painter voluntarily burned himself at the stake, before that bequeathing to his students to preserve his skill.
According to another legend, an unknown master lived in the thicket of the forest, with whom he himself came up with such a luxurious letter on wood. From time to time, he presented the inhabitants of nearby villages with his creations. After some time, the fame of the marvelous master reached the king. He immediately sent his subordinates to the forest to bring the Khokhloma founder to the chambers. However, the master did not want to submit to the king. The talented stranger was never found. So simple craft was not taken away from ordinary people.
Khokhloma painting colors
(painting on a white background)
Traditional Khokhloma creations are somewhat paradoxical: the masters managed to create really complex compositions with the help of a rather meager palette of colors. Wealth and interesting texture were formed due to the obligatory golden base. "Under gold" was either a background or key elements of the ornament.
(painting on a black background)
Other central colors of the palette are black and red. It was possible to give completeness and versatility to the drawing through the use of white and ocher.
(painting on an allom red background)
Murals on a turquoise, emerald, orange, scarlet background were much less common. The true goal of any Khokhloma master is to convey a lofty idea through perfectly matched colors, creating a complex and high-tech play of strokes.
Primary colors
To create paintings "under Khokhloma" use the following colors:
- Black(#000000);
- Red(#FF0000);
- White(#FFFFFF);
- Orange(#FF4F00);
- Choice yellow(#FFBA00);
- Green(#00FF00);
- Brown(#964B00);
- Emerald(#50C878);
- Blue(#00BFFF).
Elements and motifs of Khokhloma painting
Distinguish between "top" and "background" writing. In the first case, the master forms a pattern on a golden background using black, red and white tones. It is on the example of Khokhloma drawings that one can very clearly consider the whole “soul” of the Russian people, a special presentation, a warm and slightly naive life philosophy of an entire people. These are his notorious “grass” and “spikelets”, love for still lifes, where the masters especially generously used bright juicy colors, the ability to create complex compositions through delicate strokes.
(branches and bushes)
grass painting represented by motifs "under the sedge". The oldest type of pattern is written in curls, strokes, small berries, spikelets on a silver-plated background. From individual blades of grass, skilled craftsmen could form the motif of a chicken or a cockerel, which, for example, sits on a branch among dense foliage;
(berries and leaves)
"berry" and "leaf" differs from the previous technique in larger "fat" strokes. Masters form oval leaves, round berries, stylizing compositions with massive plant forms. Particularly popular are patterns with grape bunches or leaves, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, large cherries. On placers of tulips, asters, buttercups, daisies, bluebells, the craftsmen managed to arrange currants, gooseberries and mountain ash;
(stitches and patterns)
"gingerbread" or "gingerbread" usually performed inside cups, dishes, bowls. These are geometric shapes that fit into a square or rhombus. In the center draw the "sun". The periphery of the ornament is enriched with miniature details.
(floral ornaments)
Horse writing is always created with thin, delicate strokes. The composition is light and airy, as if illuminated by a golden glow from within. As a rule, this is a fairly simple way of applying paints, which allows you to improvise to some extent, modify the composition at your own discretion in the midst of work.
With background writing, a canvas with contour lines is initially formed. Then the surrounding background is painted over with red and black paint. Background painting is a more complex and time-consuming process. There is no place for improvisation, and the original idea must be realized exactly as the master came up with at the very beginning.
Khokhloma painting technique
(In the workshop of artistic painting, Semenov, USSR)
Prepared wood products are dried and primed with vapa or liquid clay. Blanks dry for at least 7 hours. Then the wooden surface is carefully treated with drying oil. In total, the procedure must be repeated 3-4 times during the day.
The next step is tinning. Aluminum powder is rubbed into the wood. The procedure is carried out manually using a leather swab. After that, the products become shiny and ready for painting.
For drawing a picture, only thin brushes of different "calibers" are suitable. The finished drawing is left to dry for a while, and then opened with varnish. The final stage is hardening in an oven at a temperature of +160 degrees. It is then that a luxurious “golden” film is formed.
What is the difference between Khokhloma and Gorodets murals
The unique Khokhloma painting is difficult to confuse with other folk crafts. Masters use exclusively floral ornaments. The key feature of the painting is the golden background. Rich overflows are effectively set off by openwork riding patterns and massive large elements of a red and black palette in the background painting.
(Gorodets painting)
Unlike Khokhloma, Gorodets ornaments have no gold motifs at all. However, against the backdrop of the minimalist color palette of Khokhloma, the masters of Gorodets painting used a lot of colors, playing with shades, overflows, whitening. If situational drawings cannot be found in the painting under Khokhloma, then in the Gorodets craft it was the images of various celebrations, entertainment events and simply images of everyday life that were popular.
These paintings may seem similar only at first glance. Having carefully studied the features of the crafts, it becomes clear that they are fundamentally different from each other.
Khokhloma painting is done in black (cinnabar and soot) and red paints on a golden background, or vice versa - there is a golden pattern on a black background.
To revive the pattern, the use of yellow, brown and green colors is allowed. Interestingly, when painting on wood, it is not gold powder that is applied at all, but silver tin powder, after which the wood is covered with a special composition and processed several times in the oven, thus obtaining a honey-golden color, which gives light wooden products the effect of massiveness.
The traditional elements of Khokhloma painting are twigs and flowers, strawberries and mountain ash. Often there are animals, birds and fish.
How Khokhloma painting appeared
The history of the emergence of Khokhloma painting is still a mystery. There are many theories and versions of the origin of Khokhloma, but the following two theories are most widely used. According to one of them, it is believed that the Old Believers who lived in the forest Trans-Volga region were the first to paint wooden dishes “under gold”, and Khokhloma painting, how the craft originated from them.
In ancient times, in small villages hidden in the wilderness of forests, there lived a lot of ukalets - people who fled from persecution for the "old faith". Many of these Old Believers were icon painters or masters of book miniatures, who brought with them handwritten books with bright pictures, ancient icons, brush calligraphy, fine painting skills and the richest examples of floral ornamentation.
Local craftsmen, in their turn, had an unsurpassed mastery of turning skills, passing from generation to generation the art of three-dimensional carving and the skills of producing dishware forms. So, at the beginning of the 18th century, the forest Trans-Volga region turned into a real artistic treasury. Khokhloma art inherited from local Trans-Volga craftsmen the unique forms of turning utensils and the flexible plasticity of the carved forms of spoons and ladles, and from the icon painters - the mastery of pictorial culture, as well as the secret of creating “golden” utensils without the use of gold.
However, there are other documents that indicate that the imitation of "gilded" wood, very close in spirit to Khokhloma art, originated even before the appearance of the Old Believers in the 1640s. Back in those days, artisans living in the large Nizhny Novgorod villages of Murashkino and Lyskovo, as well as in the small village of Semenovskoye (now the city of Semenov, which is one of the centers of Khokhloma), made wooden utensils - dishes, ladles, brothers, painted with tin powder. It is believed that this method of coloring wooden utensils developed from the local traditions of the Volga region of utensil craft and was the progenitor of Khokhloma painting.
There is also a legendary explanation for the appearance of Khokhloma painting. There was a wonderful icon painter Andrei Loskut. He fled from the capital, dissatisfied with the church innovations of Patriarch Nikon, and began to paint wooden crafts in the wilderness of the Volga forests, and paint icons according to the old model. Patriarch Nikon found out about this and sent soldiers for the recalcitrant icon painter. Andrei refused to obey, burned himself in a hut, and before his death bequeathed to people to preserve his skill. Sparks went out, Andrey crumbled. Since then, the bright colors of Khokhloma have been burning with a scarlet flame, sparkling with golden nuggets.
Khokhloma painting technique
Where does Khokhloma begin? From beating bucks, but not in the sense of doing nothing, but in the sense of harvesting bars of wood, because in ancient times bucks were called stumps of wood, which were most often made of linden, birch or aspen. After the wooden blank is ready, the master removes excess wood from it (previously it was done by hand, now they use a lathe) and gives the product the desired shape. Thus, an unpainted base or “linen” is obtained - cups, spoons, ladles, supplies, etc.
Then the products are dried and primed with purified liquid clay, which the craftsmen call vapa. After priming, the products dry for 8 hours and then they are necessarily covered with several layers of linseed oil (linseed oil). To do this, a special swab made of calf or sheep skin turned inside out is dipped into a bowl of drying oil, and then quickly rubbed into the surface of the product so that the linseed oil is evenly distributed. In the entire production process, this procedure is the most responsible, it is on it that the quality of future wooden utensils and the strength of the Khokhloma painting depend. During the day, a wooden product is covered with drying oil up to 3-4 times. The last layer is dried to the so-called “small tack”: it means that you need to catch the moment when the drying oil still slightly sticks to your fingers, but no longer stains them.
At the next stage, tinning is performed - aluminum powder is rubbed into the surface of the product. This procedure is also performed manually using a leather swab. After tinning, wooden products acquire an amazing white-mirror shine and are completely ready for painting. Khokhloma painting uses oil paints and thin brushes made from squirrel tails. Painted products are coated with a special varnish 4-5 times, and between each coating the previous layer is dried. Then they are placed in an oven for 3-4 hours and hardened at a temperature of +160°C until a golden oil-lacquer film is formed.
Khokhloma ornaments
In Khokhloma, horse and “under the background” painting is distinguished. Horse painting is characterized by black and red flowers on a golden background. As a rule, in painting “under the background”, golden drawings on a colored background predominate. The main difference between these two types of painting lies in the technique of their application. When painting on horseback, the drawing is applied directly to the metallized surface, while in painting “under the background”, a background is applied, and the drawing remains unpainted, while such a drawing can be supplemented with a so-called postscript - a small pattern over the background.
It should be noted that the painting “under the background” is more complex; in the old days, exclusive gift items, such as caskets for noblewomen, and expensive furniture were decorated with such painting.
From Khokhloma patterns and ornaments, the following types can be distinguished.
Grass - looks like a pattern of small and large blades of grass or twigs.
Gingerbread - most often found inside bowls or dishes, and is a geometric figure in the form of a rhombus or square, decorated with berries, flowers, grass.
Kudrina - a pattern of flowers and leaves that look like golden curls on a black or red background.
Leaf - images of oval berries and leaves, located, as a rule, around the stem.
The types of ornaments listed above are complex, but in some cases, masters use simplified ornaments. One of these ornaments is a speck, applied with a stamp, which is made from pieces of fabric folded in a special way or plates of a puffball mushroom. All Khokhloma products are painted by hand, while the painting is not repeated anywhere.
Khokhloma interior
For some reason, lately, very often, when talking about interiors in folk (ethnic) styles, people begin to imagine some unimaginable exotic things: masks of African natives, overseas mats underfoot, colorful Japanese screens and even bonsai growing in a bowl. Of course, all this is good, and the cultural traditions of other peoples can be no less attractive than Russian ones. But at times it becomes a shame that, unfortunately, we very rarely remember interior design made in the original Russian style, which, admittedly, is no less, and sometimes even more original and ethnic than foreign trends in interior fashion.
Designers argue that decorating an interior in the Russian style is not an easy task, where it is sometimes so difficult to avoid extremes and “not go too far.” After all, by negligence, you can easily turn your house into a museum of local lore or a souvenir shop. The main thing here is to find the key to your interior, and then Russian motifs will sparkle in it with bright colors.
As for Khokhloma painting, it can be safely called a win-win option for creating a colorful and colorful interior design. However, it should be noted here that Khokhloma in the interior is quite demanding on the environment, it is not always, not everywhere and not suitable for everything. Of course, there are also such lovers of the Russian folk style who order completely “Khokhloma” rooms for themselves, however, we repeat, this should be done with caution.
In some rooms, Khokhloma painting will be appropriate in any form and with virtually no restrictions, for example, a children's room and a kitchen. Here, in the Khokhloma style, you can decorate not only a table and chairs, but also a washing machine, a refrigerator and even a computer, which happens quite often today. It is clear that it is not possible to use the “natural” method of making Khokhloma painting to apply such drawings to household appliances, so here you can use more modern methods, for example, airbrushing.
Chests, sideboards and supply cabinets decorated with Khokhloma painting will always fit in the Russian interior. Cups, dishes and swan buckets will look delightful on the shelves. It is also remarkable that dishes decorated with Khokhloma painting can be not only an element of decor, but also fulfill their intended purpose. The children's room, according to Renovation Pozitivny, is the best place for traditional Khokhloma matryoshka dolls. A Khokhloma wall panel will decorate any dining room or living room, invigorating the entire interior, no matter what style it is made in.
Khokhloma is an ancient Russian folk craft that arose in the 17th century in the Nizhny Novgorod province (the village of Semino, Zavolzhye) and to this day is the most famous type of Russian folk painting. Art historians believe that the origins of the ornamentation of Khokhloma painting with its peculiar combination of colors (bright scarlet cinnabar, black and gold, curly branches with clusters of berries surrounded by "herbs") should be sought in the ancient Russian decorative culture of the 15-16 centuries. It was in these centuries that similar color combinations are found in frescoes and icons, in the design of books. It is surprising that when painting a tree, not gold, but silver tin powder is applied. The product itself is coated with a special composition and processed three or four times in an oven. After that, this delightful honey-gold color appears, thanks to which light wooden utensils seem massive.
Traditional Khokhloma ornament - juicy red strawberries and mountain ash, flowering branches. Birds, fish and all sorts of animals are less common.
Initially, the word Khokhloma meant the name of one of the trading villages, where craftsmen from nearby villages brought their products. It was the time of the revival of Russia, which came after the liberation from the devastating Tatar-Mongol yoke, the time of renovation of temples and churches. Local forests gave shelter to peasants and Old Believers who fled from their owners. This land was poor, and folk crafts became a new source of livelihood. The new craft united the centuries-old traditions of local residents and refugees, especially the Old Believers.
The folk craft has been constantly developing. Already at the end of the 19th century, Khokhloma was presented at every domestic and foreign fair. And after the unprecedented success at the International Exhibition in Paris, the export of Khokhloma has grown dramatically to various countries. Trading firms in Germany, England, France and India bought especially much. Even one of the German entrepreneurs took up the production of wooden spoons, which he passed off as Khokhloma.
Since the beginning of the 20th century, folk crafts have experienced a crisis caused by the World War and the Civil War. Because of this, many craftsmen lost orders and closed their workshops. In Soviet times, Khokhloma received a second wind, a new generation of craftsmen appeared. And now Khokhloma is "returning" to us in Russia and the world.
Pavlovsky Posad shawls and other crafts reflect the spirit and traditions of our people. Today, interest in this art form is constantly growing. Khokhloma toys, painted dishes and furniture are becoming not only museum exhibits, but also an organic part of our lives. They will be discussed today.
Followers of icon painters
It is not known for certain how Khokhloma painting appeared. According to modern ideas, the fishery has been around for more than 300 years. It appeared in the Trans-Volga region, where the territory of the Koverninsky district of the Gorky region is now located. Khokhloma toys and kitchen utensils are distinguished by a special honey-gold color of the background or pattern details. That is what makes the painting unique. It is believed that the technology for obtaining such a shade was taken by the masters from the Old Believers. They knew how to give the icons a golden sheen without using precious metal.
Technology
Regardless of what Khokhloma painting covers: toys, dishes or furniture, the principle of coloring is the same. The wooden blank is covered with primer and drying oil, and then rubbed with aluminum powder. Previously, tin was used instead, however, modern technologies allow the production of aluminum in large quantities, and therefore it is now used in the process of creating Khokhloma utensils. The product covered with metal powder is painted. Then I cover it again with drying oil and two layers of varnish, after which the workpiece is sent to the oven. From there, the painted objects come out already golden. Under the influence of high temperature, a special coating changes the color of the product, and the metal layer gives a characteristic shine.
Beautiful and strong
The color characteristic of Khokhloma is obtained due to the special composition that covers the pattern. However, the value of such products is not only in their beauty. The varnish that protects the painting is particularly resistant. He is not afraid of either high temperature or mechanical stress. Khokhloma toys can be safely given to kids. Even if the children decide to bathe them in ice water, nothing will happen to the painting. The same applies to dishes: cups, plates, jugs and spoons covered with Khokhloma are not afraid of either boiling water or cold.
Khokhloma toy: history
Of course, first of all, Khokhloma covered dishes and interior items. In the 17th century, when this tin powder is believed to have appeared, it was expensive, and therefore not everyone could afford the products. However, the Khokhloma toy gradually appeared. Drawings using traditional elements began to decorate small figurines of animals and people.
Most often toys were made of wood. Living material lends itself well to processing and is relatively inexpensive. For the manufacture of their goods, toy masters used birch, aspen, pine and linden. From region to region, the preferences of artisans varied depending on the prevalence of a particular type of wood. Of the tools for making toys, an ax and a knife, sometimes a chisel, were used.
Semyonov Khokhloma
Of course, a conversation about a folk toy will be incomplete if you do not remember the matryoshka. For many, the history of its occurrence may be an unexpected discovery. Matryoshka came to Russia at the end of the 19th century from ... Japan. Its prototype was the Indian patriarch Jarma, who, according to legend, spent nine long years in fasting and meditation, as a result of which both his arms and legs fell off. The stamina of the sage was also respected in Japan, where he was revered as a god and called Daruma. Numerous figurines depicted him without arms and legs. Gradually, a tradition appeared to put one mini-sculpture into another - and so on up to seven “layers”.
The souvenir was called Fukurumu and in this form came to Russia. Seeing him, the artist Sergey Malyutin was inspired to create a new toy. Instead of an old man without arms and legs, he portrayed a red-cheeked beauty in a headscarf. And so the matryoshka appeared. Gradually, the tradition of making such a toy reached the city of Semyonov and remained there. Masters here make and paint nesting dolls today. Often, the so-called Semyonov Khokhloma is used to decorate toys. It is distinguished from the traditional one by large and bright flowers, a slightly different color scheme.
Khokhloma today
Folk crafts and traditions in our time are of interest not only to historians. A variety of masters turn to them: from simple needlewomen to eminent fashion designers and designers. Thanks to the rapid development of information technology, today it is quite easy to find material on the topic. And to the question of how to draw a Khokhloma toy, you can easily find the right answer. Craft tourism is also developing, when masters go to the homeland of a particular type of art and learn it directly from the keepers of traditions.
Khokhloma toys still delight children who love everything bright and unusual. Many teachers, in order to develop artistic abilities in their students and arouse interest in traditional culture, conduct classes that teach Khokhloma techniques. Know and respect this type of painting and abroad. Tourists from different countries, returning home, bring nesting dolls, kitchen utensils and even furniture covered with Khokhloma painting as a gift. Now we can say with confidence that this type of folk art has found its niche in the modern world and more than one generation will be inspired by its rich patterns.
Russian folk art craft for the manufacture of gilded wooden utensils arose in the second half of the 17th century in the Volga villages. The craft got its name from one of the centers for the sale of products - the village of Khokhloma.
Khokhloma painting is characterized by the original technique of painting wood in a golden color without the use of gold. Objects carved from wood were primed with a clay solution, covered with drying oil and tin powder, on the layer of which a floral pattern was made in a free brush style of writing, then covered with linseed oil varnish and hardened at high temperature in a furnace.
Two main types of painting are common - “horse” (red and black on a golden background) and “under the background” (golden silhouette pattern on a colored background).
Khokhloma painting on wood is believed to have originated in the 17th century in the villages of Bolshie and Malye Bezdeli, Mokushino, Shabashi, Glibino, Khryashchi, located on the left bank of the Volga, and reached its peak in the 18th century. The village of Khokhloma, known from the 17th century according to documents and giving its name to the painting, was a major sales center where finished products were brought. Currently, the Koverninsky district of the Nizhny Novgorod region is considered the birthplace of Khokhloma.
The unique way of painting wooden utensils “under gold” in the forest Trans-Volga region and the very emergence of the Khokhloma craft is often associated with the Old Believers, who, fleeing persecution for the “old faith”, settled in these remote and hard-to-reach places. The Old Believers brought with them ancient icons and handwritten books. Among them were icon painters and masters of book miniatures, who owned fine pictorial brushwork. And the local population owned turning skills, the skills of making wooden utensils, which were passed down from generation to generation. At the junction of these two traditions, the Khokhloma craft was born, combining the pictorial culture inherited from icon painters with the traditional forms of turning dishes of the Trans-Volga masters and keeping the secret of making “golden” dishes without the use of gold.
However, there are documents according to which the technology of imitation of gilding on wood was known to Nizhny Novgorod artisans even before the split. They used it in the 1640s and 1650s. In the large Nizhny Novgorod handicraft villages of Lyskovo and Murashkino, “selishka Semenovskoye” (now the city of Semenov), wooden bratinas, ladles, dishes, etc., were made, painted “for tin work”, that is, using tin powder.
There is also a folk legend explaining the appearance of Khokhloma painting. It tells about the outstanding icon painter Andrei Loskut, who was dissatisfied with the reform of Patriarch Nikon and fled the capital. Having settled in the dense Trans-Volga forests, he began to paint icons according to the old model and paint wooden utensils. However, someone informed the patriarch about the whereabouts of Andrei Loskut, and he sent soldiers after him. Fleeing from persecution, Andrei voluntarily set himself on fire, and before his death bequeathed to people to preserve his skill.
The high cost of imported tin slowed down the production of Khokhloma dishes for a long time, because only a very rich customer could supply the craftsmen with tin. And such a customer was the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. The documents of the monastery testify that peasants from the villages of Khokhloma, Skorobogatovo and about 80 other villages along the rivers Uzola and Kerzhents were brought from the 17th century to work in the workshops of the Lavra. This, apparently, explains the fact that it was these villages and villages that became the birthplace of the “golden” painting, and their inhabitants still keep the secrets of their craftsmanship to this day.
The name "Khokhloma painting" or simply "Khokhloma" arose due to the fact that the peasants who made painted wooden utensils brought them for sale to the large trading village of Khokhloma in the Nizhny Novgorod province. Through the Nizhny Novgorod fair, Khokhloma items were distributed throughout Russia, they were exported to the countries of Asia and Western Europe.
The development of the fishery was facilitated by the proximity of the Volga, at that time the main trade artery that connected the Volga cities, which were famous for their markets. It was along the Volga, and then through the Caspian steppes, that Khokhloma dishes were delivered to Central Asia, Persia, and India. European merchants bought it in Arkhangelsk.
Khokhloma painting is a unique Russian folk craft that has existed for over three hundred years. Thanks to the Old Believers-icon painters, who owned the ancient secret of “gilding” icons, a peculiar method of turning simple wooden dishes into “golden” without the use of precious metal spread in the Trans-Volga region. However, Khokhloma products are valued not only for their beauty, but also for their durable lacquer coating, thanks to which they can be used in everyday life. Khokhloma dishes will make any table elegant, and the dishes served in it will not harm it.
A set of traditional forms of Khokhloma products has been formed for a long time. These are carved wooden spoons and turning utensils: cups, bowls, setters, bochata, salt shakers. Currently, the range of products has expanded significantly. Craftsmen create wooden sets, kitchen shelves, decorative dishes and panels, and much more.
Khokhloma dishes are made from local hardwoods - linden, aspen, birch. First they beat the buckets, that is, they make rough billet bars from dried wood. From small-sized “chairs”, as well as “ridges” sawn into thick blocks, blanks and “churaks” are hewn out. Then, on a lathe, the workpiece is given the desired shape. Turned products are dried again at a temperature of 22–28 degrees for 3–20 days, depending on the size of the product. Drying ends when the moisture content of the wood does not exceed 6–8%. If the humidity is higher, the product may turn out with bubbles - breaks in the varnish surface.
Then the products are handed over to the finishers, who prepare them for painting. Unpainted carved ladles and spoons, setters and cups are called “linen”.
After drying, the “linen” is puttied with vape. Vapa is a fine-grained elutriated clay, from which a very liquid solution is made, adding from 25 to 50 percent of chalk to it. Then a piece of woolen cloth soaked in a solution is coated with a product. After drying, the operation is repeated again. After priming, the product is placed in an oven for four to six hours, where the temperature is maintained at 40–50 degrees. To dry products using Khokhloma technology, you need a cabinet in which you can adjust the temperature in the range of 30–120 degrees. The dried blanks are cooled to room temperature and lightly polished.
The next important stage is the coating of the product with drying oil, cooked from linseed or hemp oil. The quality of wooden utensils and the strength of the painting depend on this operation. The product is covered with several layers of drying oil by hand. The craftsman dips a special tampon made of sheep or calf skin turned inside out into a bowl with drying oil, and then quickly rubs it into the surface of the product, turning it so that the drying oil is evenly distributed. After drying for two to three hours at a temperature of 22-25 degrees, when the drying oil no longer sticks to the hands, but the film is not completely dry, the product is dried a second time, applying a thicker layer. If the wood absorbs a lot of drying oil, as, for example, aspen, then the whole process is repeated again, if it is not enough, it is enough to oil the product twice. The last layer is dried to a “slight touch” - when the drying oil slightly sticks to the finger, no longer staining it. As soon as the surface of the product acquires an even sheen, it can be tinned, that is, coated with aluminum powder.
The next stage is “tinning”, that is, rubbing tin (and now aluminum) powder into the surface of the product. To apply the poluda, special devices are used - pupae, which are a sheepskin tampon, to the working part of which a piece of natural fur (preferably sheepskin) with a short-cut pile is sewn. After tinning, the objects acquire a beautiful white-mirror shine and are ready for painting.
Mostly women work in the dye shops. The artists sit at low tables, on low stools. With such a landing, the knee is a support for the object being painted. Khokhloma craftswomen are characterized by working on weight: a small turning thing, leaning on the knee, is held with the left hand, and with the right hand, an ornament is applied to its rounded surface. This way of holding the painted object makes it easy to turn it in any direction with any inclination. Brushes, paints, a palette and things in work are conveniently placed on the table.
The paints used for painting Khokhloma products are subject to increased requirements, since many of them can fade from high temperatures during the drying and hardening process. Masters take heat-resistant mineral paints - ocher, red lead, as well as cinnabar and carmine, soot, chrome greens, dilute them with purified turpentine. The main colors that determine the character and recognizability of Khokhloma painting are red and black (cinnabar and soot), but others are allowed to revive the pattern - brown, light green and yellow.
The drawing in Khokhloma products is based on the use of floral ornaments associated with the painting traditions of Ancient Rus'. Flexible, wavy stems with leaves, berries and flowers run around the walls of the vessel, decorate its inner surface, giving the object an exceptional elegance. On some objects, the stems of flowers stretch upwards, on others they curl or run in a circle.
The floral pattern was made in a free brush style of writing. Painting brushes are made from squirrel tails so that they can draw a very thin line. Khokhloma masters master a special method of holding a brush, in which not only fingers, but the whole hand participate in the process of writing, thanks to which it is possible to draw long plastic strokes and series of strokes on spherical or cylindrical surfaces in one continuous, inseparable movement. The brush, placed on the phalanges of the index and middle fingers, is pressed against them with the pad of the thumb, which allows you to slightly rotate it while writing. When painting, they sometimes lightly lean on the little finger, touching it to the product. A thin brush with a hairy tip is placed almost vertically to the surface of the object. It is usually led to itself, slightly rotating in the direction where the smear is bent.
Many types of ornaments have their own names: "gingerbread" - a geometric figure (square or rhombus) decorated with grass, berries, flowers, usually located inside a cup or dish; "grass" - a pattern of large and small blades of grass; "kudrina" - leaves and flowers in the form of golden curls on a red or black background, and so on. Masters also use simplified ornaments, for example, “speck”, which is applied with a stamp cut from the plates of the raincoat mushroom, hat felt and other materials that hold the paint well and allow you to print the pattern on the product. When performing the "berry" or "flower" motifs, round "pokes" from rolled nylon fabric are often used.
All products are painted by hand, and the painting is not repeated anywhere. Khokhloma painting is represented by two types of writing - “riding” and “background”, each of which has its own types of ornaments. "Horse" painting is applied with plastic strokes on a metallized surface, forming a free openwork pattern. At the same time, such elements as sedges, droplets, antennae, curls, etc. are “planted” on the main line of the composition - kriul.
A classic example of horse writing is "grass", or "grass painting", with red and black bushes, stems, creating a kind of graphic pattern on a gold background. "Grass painting" reminds us of the usual herbs familiar to everyone since childhood: sedge, white-bearded, meadow grass. This is perhaps the most ancient type of painting. It is written in curls, various strokes, small berries or spikelets on a silvery background. "Grass" drawing has always been popular among Khokhloma masters of painting.
The letter, in which, in addition to grass, the masters include leaves, berries and flowers, is called “under the leaf” or “under the berry”. These paintings differ from the "grass" in larger strokes, forming the shape of oval leaves, round berries, left by the poke of the brush. Folk craftsmen take their motifs by stylizing plant forms. Therefore, it is not surprising that on the products of Khokhloma masters we see chamomile, bells, grape leaves, strawberries, currants, gooseberries, cranberries. The basis of the painting "under the leaf" is made up of pointed or rounded leaves, connected by three or five, and berries, located in groups near the flexible stem. In the painting of large planes, larger motifs are used - cherries, strawberries, gooseberries, grapes. This painting has great decorative possibilities, since it is more multicolored than "grass". If in the "grass" painting mainly black and red are used, then in the painting "under the leaf" or "under the berry" the masters paint the leaves in green in combination with brown and yellow. These murals are enriched with a herbal pattern, which is written in green, red, brown colors.
Another, simpler and more conditional, kind of painting, “gingerbread”, belongs to the riding letter, where in the center of a geometric figure - a square or a rhombus - the sun with rays curled in a circle is placed.
The "background" painting ("under the background") is characterized by the use of a black or colored background, while the drawing itself remains golden. Before the background is filled, the contours of motifs are preliminarily applied to the surface to be painted. Painting “under the background” begins with drawing a stem line with leaves and flowers, and sometimes with images of birds or fish. Then the background is painted with paint, most often black. Details of large motifs are drawn on a golden background. The forms of large motifs are modeled by hatching. On top of the painted background, “grass additions” are made with the tip of the brush - rhythmic strokes along the main stem, berries and small flowers “stick” with a poke of the brush. “Gold” shines through in this type of writing only in the silhouettes of leaves, in large forms of flowers, in the silhouettes of fabulous birds. Painting “under the background” is a much more time-consuming process and not every master can cope with such work. Products with such painting were usually intended for gifts and were usually made to order and were valued higher.
A more complex type of background letter is the "curly". It is distinguished by a stylized image of leaves, flowers, curls. The space not occupied by them is painted over with paint, and the golden branches look spectacular against a bright red or black background. No other colors are used in this type of writing. Curly hair got its name from golden curly curls, the lines of which form bizarre patterned shapes of leaves, flowers and fruits. The painting "kudrin" resembles a carpet. Its peculiarity is that the main role is played not by the brush stroke, but by the contour line.
Painted items are covered with a special varnish four or five times (with intermediate drying after each layer) and, finally, they are hardened for three to four hours in an oven at a temperature of +150–160 °. After "hardening" - the final stage of finishing the product - under the influence of high temperature, the lacquer film covering it acquires a honey hue. Its combination with a translucent metallic layer gives a golden effect.
The craft, which was dying out at the beginning of the 20th century, was revived in the Soviet era, when in the 1920s and early 1930s, craftsmen began to unite in artels. In the 1960s, the Khokhloma Artist factory was established in the homeland of the craft and the Khokhloma Painting production association in Semyonov, which became centers for the production of dishes, spoons, furniture, souvenirs, etc.
Currently, Khokhloma painting has two centers - the city of Semyonov, where the Khokhloma Painting and Semyonov Painting factories are located, and the village of Semino, Koverninsky District, where the Khokhloma Artist enterprise operates, uniting craftsmen from the villages of Semino, Kuligino, Novopokrovskoye and others. In Semino there is also an enterprise (Promysel LLC) engaged in the production of wooden caskets with Khokhloma painting. The Semin masters, who continue the traditions of the indigenous Khokhloma, paint mainly traditional, ancient-shaped dishes, they subtly feel the beauty of meadow herbs and wild berries. Semenov artists, city dwellers, often use rich forms of garden flowers in painting, preferring the technique of painting “under the background”. They make extensive use of accurate contour drawing and a variety of shading to model motifs.
