Treasures of Ukrainian Applied Arts

From time immemorial Ukrainians create objects of applied arts to beautify their life and decorate their homes. Works of craftsmen in many fields - artists, potters, engravers, weavers, embroiderers, blacksmiths etc. - are used both on holidays and in everyday life. Traditions of decorative arts are carefully passed from generation to generation.

Ceramics is one of the oldest and typical crafts in Ukraine. Majolica, the most popular branch of pottery in Ukraine, has developed in many regions of the country. The village of Opishnya in Poltava region has been recognized as the capital of pottery in Ukraine. Today Ukrainians still like to adorn their homes with majolica ceramics made of coloured clay, glazed and decorated in genuinely Ukrainian style. Household pottery - different kinds of pots, jars, bowls, plates - are made on a potter's wheel and decorated mostly with floral designs. Their warmth is due to brown, red and ochre colours. Of great interest are earthenware items of sculptural style featuring animals and those made of plastic clay, among them world known clay toys from Opishnya: rams, lions, horses, birds, deer, children's whistles.

Old tradition, expressiveness, folk decoration and simplicity impart this distinctive art - Ukrainian ceramics - couleur local. Nowadays there are quite a number of ceramic craft centers in Ukraine: Kosiv, Kolomyia, Mukachevo, Uzhgorod (Carpathian region), Poltava, Cherkasy, Odesa, Ichnya and some others.

Clothes, weaving, embroidery.

Clothes as well as works of crafts is connected with its making: weaving, embroidery, orphrey can be justly regarded as objects of art which play an important part in national culture. Weaving, embroidery, orphrey are ages-old and traditionally women's crafts. Items of national clothes feature national traditions, taste, imagination and wisdom of people. A shirt was most popular and frequently mentioned in folk songs attire. It was made of hemp and flaxen cloth; seams were stitched with red thread to protect the wearer from evil spirits. Design embroidered on the sleeves, neck and breast is also considered as protective charm. The breast embroidery, in particular, is believed to guard the soul from degrading, ruining, rotting and, eventually, from death. This tradition realizes the principle of withstanding evil with the beauty.

Bright, white colours of garments enriched with striking colour of plakhta (a sort of skirt made of thick fabrics), zapaska (a sort of skirt made of fine fabrics), accessory elements (belts, wreaths, ribbons) and jewelry prevail in many parts of Ukraine.

Red, black and blue colours of ornamentation are predominant in Central Podniproviye (land in the valleys along the Dnipro river). Shirts decorated with bright embroidery from Kyiv and Cherkasy will impress anyone without fail. Shirts from Poltava region are mostly decorated with hem-stitch, of white or gray colours. In Podillya and Bukovyna red and black, yellow and blue colours prevailed in embroidery designs.

Usually women put over a shirt zapaska, or plakhta on holidays which was fixed with krayka (a sort of belt), a piece of cloth of bright colour and with tassels at the ends. Since both plakhta and zapaska were a kind of wrap-over skirt which would open in walk, there was a poperednytsya (a kind of apron), embroidery pattern of which matches that of the skirt. Later on, various types of skirts and dresses appeared in Ukraine, with design and embroidery pattern specified by local tradition. Among shoes women prefer to put on holidays were leather boots, most often of red colour.

Men's traditional clothes consist of a shirt, trousers, or sharovary (baggy trousers), waistcoat, belt, and boots.

Ukrainian traditional clothes witness a high level of development of various crafts, reflecting ages-old traditions in needlework, decorations and accessories of all kinds.

Decorative fabrics with traditional weaving and ornaments have always been part of a house interior as well as making clothes.

There are several centers in Ukraine producing decorative fabrics: Krolivka, Bohuslav, Dyhtyri, and Pereyaslav-Khmelnytsky. The factory in Krolivka ranks as one of the leading enterprises of its kind. Its weavers skillfully continue ages-old traditions of hand weaving of rushnyky (embroidered towels), table-cloths, blankets. The masters of the craft from the lands of Hutsulshchyna, Boykovshchyna, Lvivshchyna, Podillya, Chernihivshchyna, Volyn have also preserved and developed their local traditions of weaving.

The village of Veselynovka from Kyiv region is known to have raised many a great master of applied arts. Embroidery, tapestry and lavish decorative panels from Veselynivka are famous far beyond the borders of the country. It is the homeland of Hanna Sobachko, a prominent craftswoman. It took her more than fifty years to create her masterpieces Ukrainian Wreath and Flowers of Ukraine. There are many talented embroiderers in different parts of Ukraine, among them Hanna Veres from Ivankovo.

Reshetylivka village in Poltava region is a well-known center of carpet making and embroidery. Today its factory is one of the leading weaving and carpet-making industries in Ukraine. Reshetylivka's carpets are traditionally bordered and decorated with floral design of all kinds: 'blossoming trees', 'garlands', 'flowers' on the bright background. Local embroidery combines geometrical and floral patterns and prefers sky-blue, greenish, gray and white colours.

Fine arts (Ukrainian folk painting).

The works of Mariya Prymachenko and Kateryna Bilokur, Ukrainian artists from Kyiv region, brought their country the world fame. Their paintings are permeated with folk tradition and bright individuality of the author. Wonder Flowers by Kateryna Bilokur and 'animal series' by Mariya Prymachenko were purchased by the leading museums worldwide. Brilliant and outstanding artists 'melted' their own lives, customs, and traditions of Ukrainian people into creations of great human value.

Decorative painting

Petrykivka village from Dnipropetrovsk region is homeland of Ukrainian decorative painting. The today petrykivsky painting takes its origin in creations of many a generation of gifted craftsmen who are also well known abroad. This type of painting is distinctive for its diverse ornamentation, elegance, effective techniques of paintbrush touch onto wooden plates, vases, bowls, boxes etc. Traditional combination of design patterns (branch of tree, bunch of flowers, ribbon) in different plains and at different angles give rich colour and various tints, sometimes you can observe change of colour from red, through green to yellow and other colours too. Petrikivsky painting may have derived from the old folk tradition of pysankarstvo (painting of eggs), a unique Ukrainian art connected with religious belief, myths and rituals.

Ukrainian pysanky.

It is painted eggs prepared as Easter presents for relatives and friends together with good wishes. Not far long ago pysanky were made for sale, since there were few housewives who mastered this craft.

Gradually the authentic hand made pysanky were substituted by artificial ones: wooden and ceramic souvenirs. Yet, there are some regions in western Ukraine where you can find a genuine pysanka in a specialized pysanka-shop. Though their colours, design patterns vary from region to region, they still have a great measure of similarity. Wooden pysanky may be adorned with carving, incrustation or painted with oil paint. These souvenirs are widely made in Ukraine.

Decorative art on wood.

There are different techniques of woodcrafts: gouging out, engraving, turning, pyrography, incrustation and others. Carving is among the oldest ones. In Prykarpattya (the eastern Carpathians) region and Bukovyna carving is often combined with incrustation: embellishing the wooden objects with pieces of wood, metal, ivory, nacre, glass beads. Another old tradition is making coloured painting on wooden plates, which then are coated with lacquer. Wooden decorations of all kinds are made throughout Ukraine, yet it is Hutsulschyna (the eastern slopes of the Carpathian Mountains) craftsmen's creations that are far-famed and popular.

In addition to the mentioned crafts there are also other fields of applied arts in Ukraine: glass, porcelain and china manufacture, stone, ivory and horn cutting, glass beads jewellery, wicker-work, lace-making, knitting etc.

Amazing world of folk decorative arts is exhibited in museums of folk applied arts and crafts and in those of folk architecture and everyday life in Kyiv, Pereyaslav-Khmelnytsky, Uzhgorod, Lviv, Chernivtsi. Collection from the museum of decorative arts and household utensils in the town of Kolomyia comprises works of craftsmen of Hutsulshchyna and Pokuttya region.

The Kyiv National Museum of Folk and Decorative Art exhibits works of Ukrainian traditional weaving, carpet making, embroidery, pottery, carving, painting, pysankarstva, etc.

There are also a lot of craft fairs where you can buy objects of decorative arts.

Both foreign and Ukrainian tourists consider it as a must for them to visit the world-known Kosiv Fair (in the town of Kosiv, Hutsulshchyna). There you can find a great variety of embroidered towels, shirts, dresses, ceramics, decorations of all possible kinds.

Another popular and much loved fair is National Sorochinsky Fair (Sorochintsi, a village in Poltava region). It takes place in August and showcases a wide choice of crafts items: pottery of great diversity of forms and sizes, lavishly ornamented clothes and its elements as well as a lot of vegetables, fruits and foodstuff. Yet, this fair is not only a place where things are sold and bought. It is also rest time after hard season works, a holiday with merrymaking, charming Ukrainian music and joyful dances.

There is a place in Kyiv, Andriyivsky Uzviz, also referred to as 'Kyiv Monmartre', where you can see and buy works of decorative arts from all regions of Ukraine.

Lybid-Kyiv Tourist Agency invites you to learn more about traditions of Ukrainian applied arts and visit centers of craftsmanship.
 

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