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The beautiful Russian lacquer boxes come from four villages not
far from Moscow. Each village produces lacquer boxes with unique styles
and features. Palekh is known for vivid colors with fairy
tale themes. In Kholui, beautiful landscapes are found in
the paintings. The boxes from Mystera have similar themes,
but the colors may be softer and beautiful skies are often seen. The
Fedoskino boxes are more apt to
have a realistic theme with folk dancers and village scenes often with
segments of mother of pearl inlaid onto the box before it is painted.
The boxes are made of papier-mâché and go through a seven-step process
to produce the finely crafted boxes for the artists to paint upon. They
are traditionally finished with a coat of black lacquer on the outside
and red on the inside. The artist draws the design on the box and coats
it with lead paint. He uses very fine brushes made of squirrel hair to
paint the fine details with a paint made of egg-based tempera. This
paint is made in small quantities and very vivid colors. The final step
is highlighting and painting a filigree design around the box with paint
made of gold leaf. The final coat of lacquer is applied and the box is
signed with the artist’s name, theme and the name of the village.
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