Series of online workshops "Krzyżowa invites to creativity". Part 2: Rag dolls - how something can be very modern and at the same time very connected to tradition
Liubov Shynder and Agnieszka Duduś, YIMC Krzyżowa
We invite you to watch the second part of our online workshop series "Krzyżowa invites to creativity", which presents the International Youth Meeting Place's approach to art education.
Step by step, in the form of films, we present four different artistic methods which combine elements of upcycling and thus show how to create art in harmony with care for the environment.
We write more about the purpose of our project here: https://bit.ly/2RKSZYG
In this video we will tell you how to make rag dolls, otherwise known as Slavic dolls or wish-fulfillment dolls.
Rag dolls
Zhadanica, karmichelka, otulachka are dolls that have survived to this day in Belarus, Ukraine and, to some extent, in Poland (the Marzanna doll). Their name comes from the way they are made. These dolls are woven, knotted and tied. We don't need a needle.
To prepare them we need scraps of different coloured materials, lace, wool, string. As a filling can be used various groats, grains, herbs or pieces of fabric, wool remains. We can also add beads tied on ribbons for decoration.
Dolls are a great way of using fabrics which are beautiful, we hate to throw them away, but we have no idea how to use them again. In this way, we create something from nothing, our own handicraft, which is not complicated, but gives satisfaction from the creation.
A butterfly doll can be made by children and adults alike. And if, while making it, we think intensely about a dream, maybe the doll will make it come true... In some cultures, it is believed that if we focus on a wish or a good intention (for ourselves or for the person we are giving the doll to), then this wish may come true.
The videos are aimed at several groups of recipients. On the one hand, these are young people and their parents, who are looking for ideas for creative activities at home that are easy to do and inspire them to use handy and accessible materials for creation, and on the other hand, teachers and educators who are looking for new ideas and approaches to environmental and artistic education.
English Subtitel - https://youtu.be/-WmZEk8FbeM
"Krzyżowa invites to creativity". Part 1: Weaving and back to basics
Liubov Shynder i Agnieszka Duduś, YIMC Krzyżowa
The first video in the series "Krzyżowa invites to creativity" will introduce the viewer to weaving - that is, the creation of a fabric or canvas.
Apart from the concrete skill of combining threads and materials to make a canvas, we also learn how fabric "works". Using a small example, we have the opportunity to see how the separate threads in a fabric come together. When preparing old clothes to use for weaving, we can experience how different fabrics behave: whether cotton is stretchy, whether a woollen or synthetic cord breaks more easily, how tightly the threads can be squeezed on the loom.
Talking about weaving also opens the door to a craft that was much more popular among our ancestors, not only as a way of producing fabric, but also as a way of prolonging the life of utilitarian things - mending and repairing clothes and other domestic objects made of fabric - carpets, kilims, sheets, blankets.
Read more: "Krzyżowa invites to creativity". Part 1: Weaving and back to basics
A series of online workshops "Krzyżowa invites to creativity". On why we focus on creativity
Liubov Shynder, Agnieszka Duduś, IYMC Krzyżowa
The project of art and environmental education online "Krzyżowa invites to creativity" arose from the need to maintain contact with young people and teachers in times of pandemonium, when we have been cut off from various forms of meeting in Krzyżowa and creating together.
The aim of the project is to present the International Youth Meeting Centre's approach to art education through videos, which can be watched at any time and which present, step by step, four different artistic methods that combine elements of upcycling and thus show how to create art in harmony with care for the environment.
Read more: A series of online workshops "Krzyżowa invites to creativity". On why we focus on creativity
