Doll making

Creative work of this master from Sumy region is many-sided. She models from clay, embroiders, cuts vytynankas from paper, makes folk dolls and Ukrainian costumes. She also teaches children in the local art school all this. The master has a large collection of ceremonial rushnyks.

Svitana is a master of embroidery and folk dolls from Kyiv region. She creates real Ukrainian souvenirs: embroidered bags for mobiles, different tiny dolls, bags in ethnic style, and in addition to all this she makes wooden amulets with ancient Slavic symbols.

Lyudmyla is a master from Kyiv. She works creatively in several areas of folk arts: vytynanka, pysanka ornamenting, folk doll. This master’s handiworks, vytynankas in particular, were many times used for decoration of the capital’s stages during different art events.

Zoya is a doll-maker from Ivano-Frankivsk region. Her source of information about the folk doll was also the worldwide computer network. By means of cut and try method she has created her original technique and at present she is enthusiastically making traditional dolls for children...

Iryna is a master – doll maker from Cherkasy region. She got first information about the dolls from the Internet and later started to create them herself. She uses different natural materials: straw, cattail, fabrics, natural threads and wood...

Lesya is a doll-maker from Ternopil region. First she saw a motanka-doll in 2008 and she liked it very much. Having mastered the craft of creating dolls Lesya started to make remarkable dolls dedicated to the Princess Olga, Lesya Ukrainka, Taras Shevchenko’s images of women...

Kateryna is a master from Zaporizhzhya. She creates wonderful motanka-dolls and magnificent creatures of Mariah Prymachenko using ceraplastic. All the works are bright, warm and vivid...

Natalka is a doll-maker from Cherkasy. For over twenty years she has been creating dolls from wood, herbs, rags, corn ears, fabrics. She also teaches others to do this – conducts master-classes...

Yulia is a master of the folk doll from Dnipropetrivsk region. She discovered the folk doll through the monitor screen: she first saw motankas in the Internet. The master decided to learn this craft because both grown-ups and children enjoy the dolls...

Oksana is a doll-maker and a pysankar from Lviv. For nearly twenty years she has traditionally been ornamenting pysankas for the Easter. As for dolls, the master became interested in them not long ago but devotedly and with great inspiration...

Mariah is a master from Lviv region. She is occupied in creative work in lots of areas: making pysankas, folk dolls, straw spiders, vytynankas, painting, graphic arts, painting on fabrics, poetry and artistic photography. She copes with all this and she is a success in everything...

Tetyana is a master of traditional folk dolls from Volhynia. Within a very short period she learned to create characteristic Ukrainian dolls. She gives each one a name and sews corresponding luxurious clothes for them.

Valentyna is a doll-maker from Kyiv. Once, she received a motanka as a present and later started creating such dolls herself. She says that the woman’s internal strength is transferred to the doll that is why dolls of each master are unique.

In spite of her young age, this master from Ternopil has extensive experience in needlework: she makes embroideries, creates knot-dolls in national costumes from fabrics and reconstructs ancient Ukrainian folk decorations from beads.

This Cherkassy master revives ancient knot-dolls. She makes them of high quality from natural materials and with perfect art taste. Larysa is convinced that the doll is a very energetic work. Each master when making it puts positive energy and thoughts into the creation.

Lyubov is a master of folk doll from Kyiv region. She learned this craft not long ago and has created an extensive collection of dolls in several months: more than thirty smartly dressed textile beauties. And this is only the beginning!

A master-scientist from Poltava region among all investigates Ukrainian pottery and writes scientific articles about it, but in practice she creates works not from clay but from fabrics. When she gets tired from pottery theory, Olena starts making folk dolls and in the process of this work she finds peace of her mind and soul.

This Lviv master has started to study folk doll after she received one as present several years ago. Shortly after this she made a doll herself. By now Olena has a collection of motanka-dolls that she has created herself and she continues to experiment with them.

Valentyna is a Kyiv master of sacral motanka-dolls. She manufactures them following all the corresponding ancient rituals and ceremonies that is why her handiworks are not just decorative creations but sacral protecting talismans as well.

Sisters by birth, Natalka and Tetyana together create small wonders: ancient traditional oberegs of Ukrainian families – motanka-dolls. Tetyana combines colors and makes faces. Natalya invents magnificent ornaments and implements them in embroidery by counted satin-stitch.