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Khludnevo Toys

Toys from Khludnevo village in Kaluga oblast where the craft has been known since the beginning of the 19^th century. Compositions consist of multiple figures. Typical subjects are a tree full of people, a woman with twins, a fox with a cockerel, a fox with fox-cubs. Almost all  the toys are whistles with several holes but there are also ‘grematushki’ (toy rattles), some in the form of a hollow cylinder with clay beads inside, others shaped like a doll, in  whose bell-shaped skirt a small clay pebble clapper is hidden. The color palette is bright: red, crimson, blue, green, and occasionally yellow; the figures are not painted fully, just ornamented over the natural clay background.