DECORATIVE ARTS AND CRAFTS
DECORATIVE ARTS AND CRAFTS is the process of creating practical, household, ritual things (utensils, furniture, fabrics, clothes, tools). Pieces of D.a. and c. cannot be separated from artistic, spiritual, material culture of peo ple, they are closely connected with people’s everyday life, ethnic customs and folklore tradi tions, with the nature of the land. Traditionally, specialists distinguish ethnic art (home artistic crafts) and professional art. Until the 20th c. Bashkirs and other peoples of Bashkortostan had traditional art and home crafts as the main and only form of art.
Ethnic D.a. and c. had been forming through long history, as a result, usual sets of things for everyday life appeared: utensils, clothes, shoes, horse and rider equipment, religious and cult tools, etc. The peculiarities of subsistence farm ing, nomadic cattle breeding and agriculture determined the traditional activities and kinds of D.a. and c. (appliqué, embroidery, knitting, carpet-making, wool felting, weaving, cloth making, loom weaving) as well as the techniques to process natural materials, e.g. wood, metal, wool, leather, horse hair, etc.
The main requirements for making these things were their convenient and needed use, traditional shapes, beautiful texture of the materials (wood, textile, metal etc.) The household items were often carved (buckets, spinning wheels, collars, arcs, saddles, etc.); in the 2nd part of the 19th. c. architectural carving spread under the influence of Tatar and Russian D.a.
and c. traditions. It appeared on window jambs, porches, gables, friezes of wooden houses, gates, etc. Carvings included ornamental compositional elements borrowed from other people’s folklore combined with original Bashkir ethnic motifs. In the mid. 20th – early 21st c. architectural carving is one of the most popular kinds of mass ethnic art. Its ornamentation in cludes new elements (symbols of labor, laurel branches, ears, etc.), the images are interpreted more realistically, the tendency to simplify or namental motifs appear; general decorations are made in a unified style, oil painting becomes very common and, in some cases, even substi tutes for carving. There are two tendencies in modern wood carving art – reviving and devel oping ethnic traditions and their art interpreta tion including individual author experimentation.
Shoes were made of leather, with tops made of felt or cloth; craftsmen made different con tainers. The items of military and hunting equip ment were artistically significant: leather items with embossing were decorated with metallic platelets covered with silver, less often with gold; the ornament often included hammered nielloed elements, shamrock motifs dominated. The items made of metal (mostly household tools made of copper) were also used as house decoration. Women’s clothes were richly decorated with silver items. Clothes and other fabric household items were woven on a hand loom. Decorative weaving was very common, and two groups of items were distinguished: items woven in clasped weft weaving and selective weaving styles with thin woolen threads (shar shau, tablecloths, ritual towels, women aprons) and flatweave rags (carpets, mats, stool rags, benches and chest rags). Woven shawls are a unique kind of weaving. The items made of felt, homemade and factory cloth (less often of cot ton) were decorated with appliqués.
Textiles were a great part of family property, useful in everyday life: items of home decoration, clothes, horse equipment, ritual items (namazlyk, etc.), a part of a bride’s dowry. Until the 20th c. people mostly used natural material (wool, down, fur, horsehair, nettle, hemp, flax; homemade or factory cloth, less often imported cotton fabrics, silk, velvet, etc.) to decorate the items. The ornaments formed ethnic identity and uniqueness, making the textiles especially ex pressive. Sometimes the items were decorated with beads, pearls, corals, coins, mica sequins, glass beads, carnelian, etc.; metallic buckets, pendants, onlays etc.
Wool felting was popular among Bashkirs. Sheep and camel wool was used in felt produc tion; people made white, gray, mottled and dark felt. People gathered in groups and helped each other to produce felt, it was timed to the sum mer season. Felts were used to cover the frame of yurts and other temporary houses, to produce saddles, harness, shabracksergetysh (horse equipment). Hats, shoes were also made of wool. Felts took a special place in traditional interior design: they were used to cover bunks, floor, walls and as a part of wedding costumes, part of a dowry. One of the main ways to decorate felts was to insert the pattern: the wool for the pattern rolled in wisps or clusters was put on the main layer; natural dark colors were com bined with light ones. People also used appli qués, embroidery. The items were decorated with geometric (zigzags, rhombuses, triangles, circles, doodles, etc.) and floral patterns. Bash kirs had a special ritual called “Put on a felt”: the bride was invited to dismount from her horse onto a white felt, etc. The rituals symbol ized that the bride was accepted into the family, clan and life would be safe and sound. The white color of felt had a protective function.
Mass interest revived and the technique of felting continued to develop, as well as the oth er ethnic crafts, with help of Center of ethnic art, which has expanded the “Tamga” exhibi tion project (it was included in the government program of ethnic artistic crafts development in RB) which includes annual republic seminars with the participation of ethnic masters, has arranged exhibitions (one of them took place in Moscow in 2005), together with Pedagogical university n.a. M. Akhmulla, the center has or ganized activities for the students of the art-graphic faculty to learn the an cient technique of producing felt, etc. Currently the main centers of felt technique devel opment in RB are Beloretsk, Kumertau, Neftekamsk, Okty abrskiy, Sibay, Sterlitamak, Ufa, Iglino village, Iglinskiy district, and these activities are also popular in Abzelilovskiy, Baymakskiy, Belokatayskiy, Gafuriyskiy, Nurimanovskiy and Sterlibashevskiy districts of Bashkortostan.
In the late 20th – early 21th c. the interest in patchwork and embroidery revived (see “Hope”, “Tambur”). “Baymak” (Baymakskiy district) ethnic club of artists, “Ufimskiy batik” art collective, “COS*MY” women art group (all – Ufa) and other groups help to acquire new tech niques, preserve ethnic traditions and reinter pret them artistically.
Different activities are reviving in the repub lic: creating ethnic dolls, amulets, making and wearing elements of traditional clothes, use of ethnic musical instruments, common everyday objects, etc.
The samples of D.a. and c. are in the National museum of RB and its branches, M.V. Nesterov Bashkir State Art Museum, Museum of archeology and ethnography of RB, “Ural” gallery, State historical museum (Mos cow), Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography RAS, The Russian Museum of Ethnography (both – S. Petersburg), The Ethnographic Museum (Budapest, Hungary), etc.
S.V. Ignatenko, N.Kh. Khismatullina, S.N. Shitova, A.G. Yanbukhtina
