‘The worlds of man’. ‘Shamans people’ Workshop, Barnaul, Altai Krai, Russia. Ocarina ethnic art

Ocarina ethnic art
This ethnic wind instrument has juicy and magical sound. It entered the folk music of the world – from the ancient Indian tribes of South America to the Siberian tribes of ancient Russia. The earliest ocarina was made of clay in the form of small animals. People used to wear it around their neck, like jewelry decoration. They thought that playing the ocarina drives away evil spirits. Besides, people used it as a home decor, for protecting the house from the negative. Ocarina, an ancient wind musical instrument could also look like an egg-shaped vessel – flute. According to some sources, some Italian Giuseppe Donati invented ocarina in the 1860s. It was with two thumb- and eight finger-holes, and a duct mouthpiece extending to one side. Ocarina can be made in ceramic or porcelain. Ocarina can be a toy, as well as a serious musical instrument made in different sizes. And sometimes ocarina has a tuning-plunger. By the way, ocarina bands were popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Europe and the USA. And ocarina there has one more name “sweet potato”.
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Hermitage Peacock Clock

Hermitage Peacock Clock

Creating a mechanical bird is a very ancient art – in ancient times the figures of “singing” birds decorated clepsydra – water clocks. In the XVIII century creators of automata tried to construct a system to make the birds look and act as realistically as possible – the life-size birds could sing and move like living creatures. The Hermitage Peacock Clock automation features three life-sized mechanical birds made by English masters James Cox and Friedrich Urey in the 1770s. The Peacock Clock is constantly exhibited in the Pavilion Hall of the Small Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia. The Clock was made of bronze, silver, crystals, gilding. The uniqueness of this clock is that they it is still in working condition (hours work, and the Peacock Starts every Wednesday at 19:00), and is the only worldwide largest machine of the XVIII century, has come down to our time without changes.
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Reborn monkey Chita Bindi. Work by Moscow based artist Ekaterina Samgina

Talented and creative doll artist Ekaterina Samgina lives in Moscow. According to her, she is fond of children, and her passion gave birth to creating reborn dolls. The dolls made by Ekaterina look so realistic, that some of her clients compare her work to the exquisite work of a jeweler. Although the master mainly manufactures dolls of new born babies, my attention attracted this adorable Reborn monkey Chita Bindi. Firstly, because the doll is incredibly realistic, and secondly the New 2016 – year of the Monkey. Making her dolls, Ekaterina Samgina uses the highest quality materials, carefully working out every detail. Her works can be seen at international exhibitions of dolls.
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Doll ‘Russian Beauty’ author’s work, a single copy. Hand embroidery, Vintage. Hyper realistic dolls by Alyona Abramova

Hyper realistic dolls by Alyona Abramova
Alyona Abramova (nee Shachkova), an artist by profession and “for life.” She graduated from Kholuy art school named after NN Kharlamov in 2004. Before that, there was an attempt to get an education at the Russian Academy of tourism in Moscow. But the artist who has always lived in the soul of Alyona – led her in another direction. The fate threw her into Kholui – famous in Russia center of lacquer miniature. In the words of the artist herself, she fell in love with this little piece of Russia, who is still in awe of its silence and nature. This can be assessed only by city people! Nature and silence – the best teacher for the artist. No chromatics and composition do not go with it in comparison! And nothing teaches better than a close observation of the world. And the spark of God in the soul, intuition – a lot more than education and diplomas. Alyona always drew, and her artistic education is more likely to “tick” in the personal file. The artist – is not a job but a way of life. As her teacher of composition said, “God has given us our profession in a good mood and with his eyes closed.”
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Waves. Laser cut layered illustrations by Martin Tomsky

Laser cut layered illustrations by Martin Tomsky
London based artist Martin Tomsky has been recently included in the list of 10 Best Illustrators of 2015. He manually creates his multi-layered pieces with laser-cut plywood, the individual elements stained to create depth within his compositions. Martin grew up in a large family of seven children, where he was the youngest. The boy spent his childhood drawing and exploring books. Martin graduated from Camberwell College of Arts. Working between art and crafts, he builds a bridge between classic storytelling, traditional sculpture, and illustration. His art, in fact, is a link between books and illustrations.
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The Story and the stone. Mei Xiaohua & Zora Yin. Cloth, cotton, paper, yarn, wire, beads, paint, sewn, needle sculpted. Mei & Zora Tranquility Art

Mei & Zora Tranquility Art
Currently, in the Chinese city of Zhuhai, live Mom and daughter Mei Xiaohua and Zora Yin, who work in a creative duo. They make little unique sculptures integrating their own unique style and developing a variety of traditional Chinese-handicrafts. Mei Xiaohua and Zora Yin work in different techniques – sculpture, knitting, embroidery, and use various materials – from wire to yarn. Combining traditional Chinese crafts and fine art, they have discovered a new world of soft sculptures, forming their own unique style. Their art conveys the special atmosphere of Tranquility, giving people food for thought, based on Philosophy of life and death.
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The tragedy of Syria refugees. Nizar Ali Badr pebble stories

Nizar Ali Badr pebble stories

Talented and without doubts, creative sculptor Nizar Ali Badr expresses his thoughts through the ordinary media which can be found just under feet – pebbles. It is naturally for the artist living in a port city of Syria – Latakia, to work with rocks and stones. Taking into consideration the difficult situation that has developed in his country – war, refugee movements, great outcome and suffering of the people, and the loss of loved ones – all this could not but affects the work of the Syrian sculptor. He skillfully recreates the events taking place in the country through pebbles. Here, in the ancient city of Latakia he transmits the pain of the people who have to die, to suffer, to leave the country. Nevertheless, there is a hope for the revival of the country, and the return of human values, such as love, home, and family. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any biographical information about the artist.
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