“Clay Toys” Colouring Book

Inna Veselova, Liliya Matvievskaya. “Clay Toys”. Coloring Book. St. Petersburg, 2015. — 20 pages, illustrations.

The pictures in  our coloring book are based on the figures and ornamentation of Russian clay toys. In the book we have used just six of the numerous clay toy traditions existing in the European part of Russia. These are the Romanovskaya, Tula, Filimonovo, Otradnoye, Kargopol and Kozhlya toys. Some of these crafts are already centuries old, while others emerged quite recently, but all of them are still around today and continue to catch our imagination with their wealth of forms and colors. The figures are painted brightly and boldly. Put them together and you will see that the ornamentation is never repeated: it is possible to design an almost endless number of combinations with these criss-crosses, herring-bones, circles, waves and stripes.

Let’s try and decorate the figures. By applying a selection of the dozen or so unsophisticated graphic devices (criss-crosses, circles, herring-bones and stripes) we can create a unique design for each one. Think outside the box!  Change the outlines. The main point is to create beauty according to your own rules. Give your imagination free rein.

The “Clay Toys” coloring book will be of interest to children and adults of all ages and all levels of skill.

• Does exactly reproducing the ornamentation of the model figure seem like a fascinating task to you? Try to reproduce the pattern as precisely as you can.
• Is the unembellished outline of the toy drawn on paper a real creative challenge for you? Design your own unique combination of colors and patterns.
• Or maybe you would like to demonstrate how inventive you are while sticking to the rules of a particular tradition. The patterns and color schemes of other toys in the same tradition will help you with this: choose one of the patterns and try to decorate the toy, using the color scheme for that pattern.

More about the "Russian Clay Toys" project

Where you can buy them:

In St Petersburg, Russia:

• Poryadok slov, Nab. Fontanki, 15 (http://wordorder.ru/).

Or by contacting us at: pragmema-1@yandex.ru