Crafts and Industrial Arts

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Photo by: Marina Makovetskaya
Photo by: Marina Makovetskaya

Industrial arts are a man-made bridge between the past and the present, showing the originality of the people.

When the peoples in our country are over 190, the number of the crafts, in its turn, is much bigger. Behind each of them is the history and culture of the whole people. Art crafts grow out of crafts, and the craft is associated with people's way of life, their economy and the environment.

Folk artists perfectly know the material with which they work, they know how to reveal all of its strengths so that it turns out a work of art - beautiful and practical at the same time. Clay, wooden, metal dishes can be not only a beautiful decoration at the exhibitions, but also  be usable at the kitchen. Carved platbands and chimneys decorate and protect the building from moisture. The beauty and convenience of fur clothes of the North peoples is estimated and proved not at a fashion show, but in the tundra and taiga.

Handicrafts are not necessarily specific to peoples or historical and ethnographic zones. Patterned knitting is popular not only among the Russian and Finno-Ugric peoples in the Volga region and in the North, but it is famous for the residents of Dagestan as well. Wood carving is generally one of the favorite activities of many peoples, although each has its own unique style. Leather processing is spread in all regions, but Evenki's mukluks are not so similar to the Kazan Ichigi, although both are boots.

Guests of the Festival of the Russian Geographical Society learned the mysteries of folk art. During master classes they had a chance to practice pottery, to learn how to weave carpets and belts, to reveal the secrets of carving along the bone and birch bark.