INTERNET ENCYCLOPEDIA OF UKRAINE
FEATURES:
TRADITIONAL HANDICRAFTS OF THE UKRAINIAN PEOPLE
(March 2011)
Crafts and small-scale manufacture of common articles of daily use, farm
implements, clothing, home furnishings, and, in past centuries, arms as
well were widely practiced in Ukraine from the earliest times. Crafts were
highly developed in the ancient states on the northern Black Sea coast. At
the beginning of the 1st millennium AD crafts began to be separated from
farming and specialized, and there were two basic branches of craft
manufacture–iron making and pottery. In the Princely era the urban crafts
differed from the rural crafts in their more complex production process and
the higher quality of their product. In the large cities there were close
to 60 distinct crafts: specialized branches of metallurgy, blacksmithing,
arms manufacturing, pottery, carpentry, weaving, linen and wool cloth
making, and others. Crafts specializing in ornamental products such as
clothes, church and palace decorations, icons, and jewelry were highly
developed. The Mongol invasions caused the crafts to decline. The earliest
revival of the crafts occurred in the Principality of Galicia-Volhynia,
where in the second half of the 14th century and the first half of the 15th
century guilds appeared in the cities and towns governed by Magdeburg law.
The largest crafts center was Lviv, where by the second half of the 15th
century there were already over 50 crafts and by the first half of the 17th
century, 133 crafts. At the same time traditional folk handicrafts
developed in village communities…
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CRAFTS. With the decline of the barter economy crafts became separated from
home manufacture, which served the needs of the producer and his/her
neighbors, and became increasingly specialized. Crafts production was
concentrated mostly in the cities and towns in the form of small
enterprises. Usually products were made to order; sometimes they were made
for the market. There was hardly any division of labor in the craft shops,
except for partial help from family members, journeymen, or apprentices.
The craftsman was the owner of the shop and the means of production. Alone
or with a journeyman he was an independent producer capable of
manufacturing the product from beginning to end. His craft was his basic
occupation and means of livelihood. At the peak of their development the
craftsmen formed a relatively closed social group of the burgher estate
with a distinct way of life and civil status and special rights and duties.
In these respects crafts differ from cottage industries, which are usually
only supplementary occupations undertaken, for example, during a season
free of farm work…
CERAMICS and Pottery. Objects made of natural clays or clays mixed with
mineral additives and fired to a hardened state. The ceramics made on the
territory of Ukraine from the earliest times to the present reveal a highly
developed artistic and technical culture, originality, and creativity. The
development of ceramics has been facilitated by the existence of large
deposits of various clays, particularly kaolin (china clay). The history of
Ukrainian ceramics begins in the Neolithic Period, with the ceramics of the
Trypilian culture. Their high technical and artistic level equals that seen
in artifacts of the Aegean culture. The development of Ukrainian ceramics
was also influenced by the ceramics of the Hellenic colonies on the Black
Sea coast, beginning in the 8th and 7th century BC. Ceramics of the
so-called Slavic era, which began in the 2nd century AD, were more modest,
and only in the Princely era (9th-13th century) did the production of
ceramics achieve a high technical level and a variety of artistic forms,
while growing into a large industry…
WEAVING. Weaving has been practiced in Ukraine for many centuries. Using
flax, hemp, or woolen thread, weavers have produced various articles of
folk dress, towels, kilims, blankets, tablecloths, sheets, and covers. The
colors, ornamentation, and even the techniques of weaving varied from
region to region. By the 14th century weaving had developed into a cottage
industry. Weavers’ guilds modeled on Western European examples were founded
in Sambir (1376), Lviv, and elsewhere in Galicia. Later, artistic textiles
and kilims were manufactured by small enterprises established by magnates
in Brody (1641), Lviv, Nemyriv, Korsun, and other towns. In 17th-century
Left-Bank Ukraine the Cossack starshyna established similar enterprises to
make decorative furnishings on order for the nobility and churches, using
imported silk and gold thread. Eventually such thread was manufactured in
Ukraine. Weaving manufactories flourished from the mid-17th to the mid-19th
century. The town of Krolevets became one of the largest centers of
artistic folk weaving…
EMBROIDERY. Archeological discoveries in Ukraine indicate that embroidery
has existed there since prehistoric times. Embroideries are found on
drawings and on the oldest pieces of extant cloth (eg, the veil from the
Church of the Tithes, destroyed in 1240). Cloth embroidery was first
inspired by faith in the power of protective symbols and later by esthetic
motives. Symbolic designs were incorporated into the woven cloth by means
of a weaving shuttle or a needle. These symbols formed the basis of
ornamentation for both cloth and Easter eggs. Under the influence of
Byzantine art a new branch of embroidery–church embroidery–was developed
in the Middle Ages. In the course of time and under the influence of new
artistic styles, folk embroidery and church embroidery became more
differentiated. Centers of church embroidery developed in the monasteries,
while certain cities became centers for the embroidery trade, which
produced cloth for the Cossack starshyna and the nobility. The later
artistic styles did not influence folk embroidery as much…
KILIM WEAVING. The term ‘kilim’ is of Turkic origin and denotes an
ornamented woven fabric used to cover floors or to adorn walls. The
earliest references to kilims date back to the chronicles of Kyivan Rus
and link them to burial rites. The princes used kilims also as chair
covers. Nothing definite can be said about kilim weaving in Ukraine before
the 16th century. The earlier kilims belonging to the ruling class most
likely had been imported. Kilim production in Volhynia in the 16th century
is well documented. There are many 17th-century references to both locally
produced and imported kilims. By the 18th century, kilim weaving was
widespread: in Right-Bank Ukraine the mills owned by the Czartoryski and
Potocki families, and in Left-Bank Ukraine Col Pavlo Polubotok’s mill, were
well known. Although kilim weaving may have been taken up by peasants much
earlier, in the 18th century it became widespread among them. Monks and
town craftsmen also engaged in weaving. The industry grew rapidly at the
end of the 18th century and in the first half of the 19th century…
WOOD CARVING. One of the chief branches of the decorative and applied arts
in Ukraine. For many centuries the common people carved wooden plates,
spoons, bowls, canes, furniture, cards, sleds, gates, beams, and gables and
decorated them with designs organically linked with the practical function
of those objects. Richly carved crosses and three-armed candlesticks played
an important role in family and religious rituals. The carving of
iconostases and church objects, which flourished particularly in the 16th
and 17th centuries, was distinct from the popular form of the art. It was
mostly thematic and large-scale, and its ornamentation, unlike folk
ornamentation, was mostly floral and done in relief. Very few examples of
pre-19th-century carving have survived. In the 19th century the influence
of larger market forces was profound: carvers began producing purely
decorative objects, and middlemen, who organized the distribution of such
objects, began demanding new and alien designs…
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The preparation, editing, and display of the IEU entries featuring the
traditional Ukrainian handicrafts were made possible by the financial
support of the CANADIAN FOUNDATION FOR UKRAINIAN STUDIES.
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