The True Russian Mardi Gras
Did you know that we have our own winter carnival in Russia? We call it Maslenitsa or The Cheese Week. It always comes just before the Great Lent, and its date depends on the date of The Easter. Nowadays the celebrations consist of eating myriads of butter ('maslo' in Russian) pancakes and burning the Winter Scarecrow, the doll which we also call Maslenitsa.
This series represents the three Maslenitsas, one for each of the three parts of a long Russian winter and also for the three ages of a woman. The figures are made of natural and burnable materials (of course you have to do it safely). Each of them has a unique mix of aromatic herbs and spices inside.
Devka (The Girl)
87 x 70 x 80 cm
2024
The Young Winter still has some colors of late autumn in her look. Her red mouth says that she has eaten the Sun hinting at the short days of December.
She has some dried herbs and canker berries
in her heart.
87 x 70 x 80 cm
2024
The Young Winter still has some colors of late autumn in her look. Her red mouth says that she has eaten the Sun hinting at the short days of December.
She has some dried herbs and canker berries
in her heart.
The White Lady
107 x 60 x 60 cm
2024
Her outfit looks like a big snowbank and reminds us of the longest part of the winter. She has a traditional Russian headdress "Kokoshnik" in the form of horns. It is made of cardboard and plant threads.
Her aroma is made of the Christmas tea with some orange peel and fragrant spices.
107 x 60 x 60 cm
2024
Her outfit looks like a big snowbank and reminds us of the longest part of the winter. She has a traditional Russian headdress "Kokoshnik" in the form of horns. It is made of cardboard and plant threads.
Her aroma is made of the Christmas tea with some orange peel and fragrant spices.
Babka (An Old lady or Grandma)
145 x 90 x 45 cm
2024
Her main color is black which tells us about the end of the winter, when the snowbanks begin to melt making the earth visible. The branches on her head look like young sprouts going to blossom soon.
"The darkest hour is that before the dawn" she says.
She has some mint and jasmine flowers inside from the coming Spring and some pine nuts to make her odor older.
145 x 90 x 45 cm
2024
Her main color is black which tells us about the end of the winter, when the snowbanks begin to melt making the earth visible. The branches on her head look like young sprouts going to blossom soon.
"The darkest hour is that before the dawn" she says.
She has some mint and jasmine flowers inside from the coming Spring and some pine nuts to make her odor older.
The main purpose of any Maslenitsa is to be burned and to take all the troubles away. So I made a series
of posters with my creations for a memory of having good time with them. Here they are.
of posters with my creations for a memory of having good time with them. Here they are.
The pictures are available in any size as posters or postcards.
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