How are Russian nesting dolls made?
It takes a lot of skill to make a Russian nesting doll set. Traditionally, matryoshka dolls were made from linden or birch and their production would involve the participation of the whole family. The dolls of the cylindrical form were painted in different ways: it could be a peasant girl dressed in a sarafan and a headscarf, a man or a child. Matryoshka dolls are often painted holding a basket of berries, bread, or a bunch of flowers in their hands. The production process would begin with the smallest, innermost doll that was lathed from a single piece of wood and wouldn’t separate as opposed to the larger figures. The number of nested dolls in a set could vary from two to sixty however a classic set normally included five nested figures. The carved dolls were covered with special glue to fill the cracks and reduce the roughness, after which the dolls were painted to follow a particular theme.
