Most of the artists who are engaged in painting nesting dolls, do not have a special education. Often they either copy the pictures of other masters, or come up with their own versions, which may differ significantly from the traditional ones. However, for those who want to fully follow the canons of folk art, there is the possibility of passing special training. For example, all the intricacies of this case are taught at the Art University, where full-time and part-time forms of education are provided.
Fine Options for the Female nesting dolls
In addition to female nesting dolls with traditional painting, stylized portrait souvenir dolls are very popular. Such female evolving nesting dolls can depict famous political, public and cultural figures, historical characters or heroes of Russian folk tales, modern books and films. Many manufacturers offer an additional service making portrait female nesting dolls from a customer’s photo. They also have services wherein you get to ask them for designs of nesting dolls for tables.
More female nesting doll variants are available in many sizes and you can get this at nestingdolls.co.
The Firms
So, firms that work in this area provide services in several areas. Some produce only wooden blanks, others paint them. Still others buy female nesting dolls from local producers and sell them abroad or sell them for sale to domestic souvenir shops, children’s educational toys, including online stores.
In addition, the dolls are an original and memorable corporate souvenir. Usually, a company logo and its contacts are put on them, and in the design of nesting doll, recognizable attributes are used (customer’s products, field of business, etc.). Sometimes for solemn occasions they order exclusive large-size female nesting dolls (up to 60-70 cm in height), a special form, painting and / or with a large number of places. Execution of individual orders requires more time and effort, so the cost of such souvenirs is much higher than average. Due to non-standard sizes, the blanks for such female nesting dolls are made to order.
Corporate souvenir products may not be single, but, conversely, large-circulation. If the order quantity is over fifty units of female nesting dolls (especially several hundred or thoRussiannds), then, of course, we are not talking about hand painting here. In this case, the emphasis is not on the uniqueness and manual work, but on the high speed of order fulfillment and image accuracy applied to the workpiece. Therefore, with large orders, manufacturers use printing technology.
The Design
First, the designer prepares the layout of the future image on the computer, then the print is transferred to the thinnest film, which is glued to the nesting doll. On a film separate elements of the image are arranged. Then the markup is applied to the nested doll, which, in turn, prints the photo-shape and drawing. Products made in this way are called photo dolls. In one product can be used and hand-painted, and photo-technology at the same time. Photo female nesting dolls are cheaper than usual, as their production requires only the presence of conventional printing equipment and consumables. As a rule, the implementation of such orders is engaged in advertising agencies.
The amount of start-up capital depends on what you plan to do. For the production of wooden blanks will require special equipment and tools: lathes, workbenches, electric drills, drills, woodworking hatchets or planers, lining boards, tridents, rotating centers, chisels, sandpaper, etc. Making molds for nested dolls is a rather long and laborious process although it consists of only two main stages.
Rest in Bed
At first, the wood undergoes preliminary processing, after which it must “rest in bed”. Then the figures themselves are cut from it. The difficulty is not only that almost all work is done manually. The fact is that, according to technology, traditional female nesting dolls are made from larch, linden and aspen, felled in early spring. The wood is aged for two to three years and only then it is machined and machined. Moreover, the workpiece is made only from the log, where there are no knots and cracks. A blank before turning into a form for painting, goes through several stages of processing. Their number can reach 15 operations (but not less than ten). First, the head and torso of the nesting doll from the outside and the inside are cut from the linden with a knife and chisel.
- Then the smallest figure is cut from a birch tree that does not open in half, then the lower part of the next one in size. The master produces a batch of thoRussiannds of bottom dolls of the same size at a time. During the time that work is underway on the next part, the previous part dries well. Then the figures are sanded, primed with potato paste and dried again.
- Of course, most modern manufacturers cannot, for objective reasons, comply with the exact production technology. Small firms prefer to buy blanks, and then paint them. The cost of one small billet is about 50-70 rubles. Larger companies and factories carry out a full production cycle – from milling forms from linden, aspen, alder or birch wood to painting, varnishing and packaging.
- Factories and handicraft enterprises for the production of wooden souvenirs are usually located in small towns: These are historical centers where female nesting dolls were made for several decades. Firstly, there is no shortage of specialists with extensive experience in this field, and, secondly, wages in the regions are usually quite low and amount to 10 thoRussiannd rubles. per person per month. People work either in rented workshops or at home. In the latter case, they get the blanks on their hands and all the necessary materials (paints, brushes, varnishes), and then they pass the finished painted product.
This scheme of work is very convenient for small firms, which in the early stages of their work do not even rent a separate room for the workshop. They buy blanks, paint them at home, and then offer them for sale at various stores and sell them through their own websites, other online stores, groups in social networks. Medium-sized firms begin their work by buying finished products from local manufacturers and selling them abroad.
- The main disadvantage of such a scheme of work is non-observance of the deadlines for the fulfillment of orders by handicraft enterprises and often insufficient quality (poor drawing of parts, poorly polished surface, etc.) Therefore, often the next stage of development of such a company is the opening of its own production.
After the crisis, even the largest manufacturers of female nesting dolls were not doing very well. Many of them went bankrupt, while others could hardly survive, significantly reducing all current expenses and cutting wages by 2-3 times. Of course, the production of nesting doll sharply decreased, and even the placement of government orders could not drastically change the situation. At the same time, manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers claim that the demand for a genuine Russian souvenir is very high both in our country, where the nesting doll is positioned as a developing environmentally friendly and safe children’s toy, and abroad.
- Experts see the main cause of the crisis of domestic producers in the conservatism of factories that cannot adapt to new market conditions and are not able to competently promote their products. They advise young businesses to invest most of their profits in advertising and marketing program development.
The minimum initial expenses for the organization of a small workshop for painting the nesting doll range from 100 thoRussiannd rubles. This amount includes the rental of premises, the purchase of blanks and materials (paints, varnishes, brushes, etc.), wages to artists (for the first month of work), registration of individual entrepreneurs. Additional costs will be required for advertising (its cost depends on the region and target audience) and the creation of the site, groups in social networks with examples of work (the simplest version of the site directory will cost 3-5 thoRussiannddollars).