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Khokhloma - folk art (Anchorage)
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Khokhloma is a highly recognizable Russian handicraft. It is unique in history, technological methods, and art style with a barrage of berries, swirls of golden leaves and an assortment of birds. The popularity of khokhloma can only be rivaled by the Nesting Doll (or Matryoshka Doll).
The history of khokhloma wood painting refers to a village in Nizhny Novgorod region to be its birthplace in the 17th century. The word Khokhloma came from the name of a settlement that was a trade center for the local craftsmen.
The colors, art styles and the production peculiarities make Khokhloma look so vividly and distinctly Russian. Red color is believed to be the color of beauty in Russian culture (Red Square in Moscow literally means "beautiful").
There are two main painting techniques: superficial and background. The first one uses red and black over the golden and the latter puts golden ornaments over the colored background. The craft motifs are primarily floral with golden exquisitely curled leaves, flowers and grass, scarlet berries.
The process of creating a Khokhloma piece is time consuming and starts with the wood preparation. The linden or lime tree is being used for the craft. It takes about three years for the wood to dry in the specially equipped warehouses. After the wood is prepared, cut, and carved into the desired shape, a thin layer of brown clay is applied by hand and the item is heated in a furnace. Next it is covered with three or four coats of synthetic oil (the linseed oil was used in the past) which is left to air dry.
The distinctive gold color which is the trademark of Khokhloma pieces originally starts out as powdered aluminum (powdered tin in the past) and after being decorated with heat resistant paint and covered with lacquer is heated again in the electric kiln. The extreme temperature turns everything that was silver colored into golden as well as makes a piece durable and resistant to water, acids, and heat.