Russia · Pottery / Sculptural Ceramics
Филимоновская игрушка (Filimonovskaya igrushka)
A hand-molded clay whistle tradition of the village of Filimonovo, in Tula Oblast, whose distinctively elongated human and animal figures are a direct physical consequence of the local bluish-gray clay's own difficult behavior — it cracks repeatedly as it is worked, and the craftswoman's continuous smoothing of these cracks with damp fingers is what stretches each figure into its signature long, thin neck and body — before firing turns the same clay a pure, brilliant white, ready to be hand-painted in only three symbolic colors using an ordinary chicken feather instead of a brush.
Risk level: Endangered · Not Listed
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