It is heartwarming to realize that Ukraine is showing an increasing interest in ancient crafts, including the creation of rag dolls made of straw. The first public demonstration of how to make straw dolls took place recently during the Sheshory-2007 Festival. It was staged by Liudmyla Teslenko- Ponomarenko, a professional designer and member of the Artists’ Union of Ukraine. She often takes part in such projects and in the past few year has been conducting rag doll master classes at various festivals. This artist believes that dolls are more than mere toys; they are sources of positive energy.
DOLL-MAKING AS MEDITATION
Teslenko-Ponomarenko has conducted many doll-making master classes, which have brought her swift recognition. Occasionally she produces custom-made dolls. It takes nearly a month to produce such a doll because it requires tying of bunches of straw with threads and designing costumes for the dolls, in keeping with local traditions.
The artist explains the popularity of her master classes: “The method of repetitive movement is often used in folk culture, be it embroidery, folklore, or onstage performance. When a person did something by hand, s/he fell into sort of a meditative state. When you make a doll, you have to turn the thread around its axis. In doing this, you forget about your daily worries and concentrate on the task. In the modern age of industrial culture, people want to be distracted from the urban hustle and bustle. This trend is increasingly apparent in every large city.”
Teslenko-Ponomarenko is convinced that people rid themselves of daily worries when they make rag dolls. It is no coincidence that our ancestors used this method of restoring peace and quiet to their hearts. She believes that rag dolls are much closer and understandable to people than computers, mobile phones, and television. A person needs to be surrounded by warm and living things to feel intrinsically organic. The artist believes that such things form a kind of healing environment.
“What surrounds the majority of people today? Cold gray colors of office walls, things made out of plastic or paper; this is an artificial environment. No wonder so many people want to get back to the Trypillian culture. They want to live in houses made of clay, with thatched roofs; they want to walk barefoot on a clay floor. After this they understand how our ancestors dwelled in their living and natural environment. In the old days every village home lived its own life, keeping warm by burning wood during the winter, staying cool during the summer. Unfortunately, people today are deprived of all this.”
People used to glean positive energy from both rag dolls and homespun shirts. Teslenko- Ponomarenko is convinced that everything that is made by hand is charged with positive energy. This has helped people realize their place in nature. She also believes that we destroyed this culture in the 1930s.
FIRST STRAW DOLL MADE 7,000 YEARS
A simple straw doll can be made in 30 minutes, but this process takes students of Teslenko-Ponomarenko’s master classes more than two hours because they become so involved in plaiting the straw that they forget about everything. “These master classes evoke a great deal of emotions and impressions in participants. The atmosphere of an ancient culture is predominant. Sometimes people sort out the straw for dolls at an incredible speed because they are thrilled at the prospect of making a doll with their own hands. After the master class is over, every student goes home with a rag doll, and it is regarded as a precious souvenir,” says the artist.
The first straw doll was made almost 7,000 years ago, when people were first adapting to a settled lifestyle. Some researchers believe that the doll era in Ukraine coincided with the Trypillian culture. The artist believes that there was an entire doll era. We see its vestiges today in the form of scarecrows that are traditionally burned during the spring and fall equinoxes.
“Most often a rag doll was made for girls out of available material, such as straw, hay, and thread. Sometimes clay and wool were used - in other words, every material at hand. But the most interesting thing is that these dolls were also made by men. In ancient times men were leaders and heads of their clans, and were thus entrusted with this task.”
Rag dolls started being made in rural areas when people began mastering their natural surroundings, so such dolls were often regarded as sacred objects. According to Teslenko-Ponomarenko, dolls were perceived as living beings, gifts that protected human lives. Therefore, these dolls were not regarded as toys for quite some time, until society realized that children had to be educated with the aid of objects that surrounded them. That was how the rag doll became one of the first children’s toys, which include totemic objects, like horses, birds, oxen, cows, etc. All these toys combined elements of play and education.
“In addition to the so-called small doll,” the artist continues, “there was also a large doll that existed until the beginning of the 19th century. It was made collectively by the whole village and burned on festive days, so considerably less information was known about the small doll during a certain historical period. Even today few people realize that the doll is a true cultural and historical monument; it personifies the child, the mother, the past, and the future. In the past, people believed that it was dolls that brought up children, not the grandmother or mother.
This simple, beautiful, and modest doll therapy is beneficial to everyone: women, children, and men. You don’t have to take pills to quiet your nerves. Just take some straw and thread, and make something by hand. This “something” will become your doctor.
