Archive for April, 2009

29
Apr

How You Should Open up Your Russian Nesting Dolls

Posted under Learn How To..., Russian Nesting Dolls No Comments

 Hmm, how do I get these Nesting Dolls to open?

When we receive e-mails or calls on how to open up our Nesting Dolls, we usually direct them to our blog post entitled “How You Should Open up Your Russian Nesting Dolls”.

However, it’s always better to show, rather than tell (after all, monkey see, monkey do!) So here’s a video on opening up our large and standard sized Nesting Dolls!

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20
Apr

Nesting Dolls Just Want You to Open Up

Posted under Russian Cartoons, Russian Nesting Dolls 3 Comments

Nesting Dolls always want to share their feelings, and talk, and sometimes that causes relationship problems when they’re with other dolls.

Be sure to check out our enormous collection of nesting dolls that are sure to open up for you!

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19
Apr

You Need to Know the Legend of The First Doll in Space

Posted under Russian Cartoons, Russian Nesting Dolls 1 Comment

Nesting Dolls in Space: Ground Control to Matryoshka Tom

Everyone knows that Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space, and Neil Armstrong was the first man on the moon, people even know of Laika, the first dog in space, but few know the legend of the first Nesting Doll in space … probably because the mission was a horrible failure, and truly a space oddity.
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15
Apr

Nesting Dolls and the Wild West

Posted under Russian Cartoons, Russian Nesting Dolls 1 Comment

The Good, the Bad, & the Babushka

Nesting Dolls are widely associated with Russia, but few know of their history in the wild west.

Come take a gander at our collection of nesting dolls; they’re the best in the east, and the west!

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13
Apr

Tell me about your Matryoshka

Posted under Russian Cartoons, Russian Nesting Dolls 1 Comment

Nesting Dolls occasionally need some psychological assistance.

Why don’t you have a look at our nesting dolls they’re sure to take a load off your mind!

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13
Apr

Consider the impact of Nesting Dolls on Philosophy

Posted under Russian Cartoons, Russian Nesting Dolls No Comments

The Tao of Matryoshka

Take a peak at our nesting dolls!

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07
Apr

The History of Russian Pisanki Eggs

Posted under Interesting Facts, Russian Culture, Russian Eggs 2 Comments

 

 

Throughout cultures far separated by geography, climate, and time, the egg has been a symbol of life only rivaled in use by the sun. The emergence of life from a seemingly inanimate, white, featureless object soon became naturally associated with the bounties of spring emerging from the hardships, and cold, of the winter. Not only was the egg tied to the dawn of spring, it was also, for obvious reasons, a metaphor for the emergence of life itself. The egg was seen as something to be revered, and beliefs eventually formed that to decorate, and protect an object of such sacredness, an object containing life itself, would bring good fortune and protection into ones own life.

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03
Apr

Pisanki, Andy Warhol, and the Atomic Bomb.

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Famed American artist Andy Warhol, Pisanki (also spelled Pisanky), and the atomic bomb, don’t seem like they belong in the same sentence together. However It seems Andy Warhol’s mother, who had a big influence on his artistic talents, decorated eggs in the Pisanki style during Easter time in Ukraine.

According to Raymond M. Herbenick, these decorations apparently had an affect on some of Warhol’s work, who sees in Warhol’s 1965 Atomic Bomb “…a series of mushroom clouds, the pattern being similar to mushrooms or wheat sheaves drawn on pysanky.”

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01
Apr

Happy (possible) birthday to Nikolai Gogol!

Posted under Russian Culture No Comments

His exact date of birth varies from March 19th to April 1st, so on, or around, today’s date Nikolai Gogol, one of Russia’s greatest artists, was born. So, happy 200th birthday to you Mr. Gogol!

Like all great artists, what makes Gogol so popular is his timelessness, his style was original when it debuted, and his voice remains as unique and refreshing now.

Gogol wrote that famed storyteller Alexander Pushkin said of him “…no other writer before me possessed the gift to expose so brightly life’s poshlust, to depict so powerfully the poshlust of a poshlusty man in such a way that everybody’s eyes would be opened wide to all the petty trivia that often escape our attention.”

The Russian word poshlust is not directly translatable to English, but it can be loosely defined as a self-satisified inferiority, or self-satisfied vulgarness. You’ll have to read some of Gogol’s works for yourself to get a true meaning of the word, and lucky for you they are available here in English, and here in Russian.

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01
Apr

Russia has big plans to Americanize!?

Posted under Russian Culture 1 Comment

From our friends over at Windows to Russia

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