Russian Zhostovo Platters & Trays
Today Russian trays are much more than merely tableware objects used to serve tea and snacks. They are now used to decorate houses and as elaborate decorative panels and souvenirs that tell the story of life and happiness and passion of creating something exquisite.
At The Russian Store the Zostovo trays are available in variety of shapes like the traditional oblong to the modernistic rectangle. The style is also brought on to modern day chopping boards for the avant-garde. Let the Zhostovo trays in your decorative panels back home remind you of the passion, liveliness and happiness in the hearts of people in a small town near Moscow.
The people of the Zhostovo village have been involved in harnessing their skill of making decorative trays for over 150 years. The trays carry brilliant images of bouquets, gardens and flowers against black background highlighting the diversity of nature. This tradition of tray making began sometime in the 18th century. This art of tray making was pioneered by Filipp Nikitich Vishnyakov.
In the early 19th century the tray making art was hit by a crisis. With slowing demand and shrinking production the artisans left their workshop for farming and other seasonal work. It was only after a decade of slump that there was an overall revival of this art and resurrection of Zhostovo.
With increased production, the idea of paper mashed with metal was introduced, and this led to more durable trays. Then came the Fedosiko technique of layered paintings. While imbibing these new techniques Zhostovo artisans continued to develop their own style of decorative and floral paintings. Today the Zhostovo trays are painted using the Filbert brush. Herein the modern material like gel and clear glaze retarders bring out the properties of oil paints used in the original paintings.
The art of tray making was not lost with the growth of cities, expansion of hotels and bars in fact the Zhostovo masters found themselves a new market and cynosures. This increase in demand helped them rework their traditional styles and make them inimitable.
