Salon "Ukrainian souvenir" in Poltava

   Oberigs and candlesticks, black smoky ceramics, coffee services, Opishnyanska decorative ceramics, potter's painted utensils - ugs, makitras, bowls, flowerpots, kumanci, kegs.

Embroidery: woman and man embroidery, poltava rushnik, embroidered table-linen, cloths, napkins, Ukrainian national costume, paintings, modeled utensils, dolls, pictures, toys, Petrikivska paintings, pisankas, nested dolls, wum products, coffee sets, samovars, tobacco-pipes, clubs, spoons, wooden utensils, ceramic plastic, animalized toys in the image and likeness of traditional national samples, decorative plates, pictures and household scene of Poltava, woman adornments, necklace, bracelet, comb, caskets, girdani, wreaths, ochipok, head bandage- chilce, tapes. Some thousand name are presented in salon *quot; “Ukrainian souvenir” in Poltava. It almost completely national crafts of Ukraine, but unconditionally masters of the Poltava region are most full represented.

   The Petrikivska paintings are obliged to creativity of several generations of talented masters. Already in ХІХ peasants of Petrikivka and suburbs painted by magnificent colors a house, household subjects: saks, chests, wooden utensils, etc. Traditional compositions from floral motives (a branch, a bouquet, a wreath, a tape) in different turns and planes are marked by floridity of colour, sometimes with unexpected game of transitions from red through green to yellow, etc.

   Embroidery is one of the most popular and widespread kinds of Ukrainian folk art. Colour rangers and rythms of ornaments, motives and plots demonstrate national spirit, glorious history, the wonderful nature of our land. Fairy images of flowers and birds tell about eternal dreams of Ukrainian people for peace and kindness and mercy. Beautiful rushniks (ritual towels), shirts, blouses, dresses embroidered by the famous needlewomen Olexandra Velykbdnia, Maria Grigoriak, Lidia Garkusha, Galina Zyrina, Lidia Terianyk, Olga Zakorka are wellknown not only in Ukraine but in Canada and Great Britain, Poland and Japan, Belgium, France and Hungary. These masters are gold fund of art property on which traditions skilled workers of JSC "Lesya Ukrainka" work.

Needlewomen from Poltava have a remarkable flair for selecting the required colours for an embroidery, combining the design and the background of the fabric in a masterly way. They prefer colours seen in nature ans gentle transitions from cold to warm tones; they avoid sharp contrasts. They derive their motives from the countryside around them, treating them in a realistic way. Poltava's needlewomen represent a new type of modern national craftsmen brought up on the fruitful soil of reach traditions of Ukrainian folk art. In products only natural materials flax and a cotton are used.

   Poltava area is the old center of a potter's craft. The ceramic workshops based by the Poltava provincial zemstvo, operated already from end ХІХ. They marketed production in the local markets and in the next provinces. In 1929 under the initiative of handicraftmen - singles of Opishnya and surrounding villages in total about 200 people is created cooperative-industrial artel “Art ceramic”. In 1960 this artel have reorganized in a factory with the same name. Now it is the greatest enterprise of Ukraine on manufacturing art majolica. The assortment is made by three basic groups of products. The utensils: potter's painted utensils, jugs, makitras, bowls, pots for colors, kumanci, kegs have the greatest role. The utensils is produced on a potter's wheel and undersigns by engobes, mainly vegetative ornament, by technics of horning and flandring. Warm colour is created by brown, red and ochre paints. The second group of products - modelled utensils of sculptural character with animalized subjects. The basic form is produced on a potter's wheel, plastically is processed and added to separate details. Due to original art expressiveness Opishnya products are in demand in Ukraine and abroad. The third group of products - fine ceramic plastic - animalized toys in the image and likeness of traditional national samples.