Heka Naturals Owl Nesting Dolls - Wooden Matryoshka Doll Set of 5 (7 Inch), Traditional Babushka Home Decor

Welcome to Heka Naturals, where we bring Karelian treasures to your doorstep. Our story began as a small craft shop in a Karelian village, where we teamed up with two other shops to open our first Amazon store, offering traditional and natural handmade products loved by everyone.

What sets our products apart is our mission to deliver the heritage of Karelia to every customer's doorstep in the most ethical and sustainable way. We are a small shop, dedicated to sourcing rare natural and traditional products from a remote region and making them accessible to the world.

One of our unique offerings is the Matryoshka nesting dolls, which stray from their traditional roots. The set is painted to represent a family of owls, with a colour scheme of white, grey, black, and yellow accents, making it a gorgeous gift for anyone who appreciates a spin on tradition while still keeping it respectable. These new animal variants also make great toys and gifts for kids, as well as wonderful decor for all animal lovers.

The Matryoshka nesting dolls have become a staple of Slavic culture since their introduction to Europe in the late 1800s, but their journey and origin span much further back. The quaint beginnings of these now-famous dolls actually began as nesting boxes in China around 1000 AD. Craftsmen started to make decorative and practical nesting boxes, which were at the time the height of packaging ingenuity. It wasn't until the 1700s that Chinese carpenters began experimenting with the idea of nesting dolls, crafting them with the innermost doll holding a single grain of rice.

These dolls soon made their way to Japan, where they took on a new form, often representing the Seven Lucky Gods from Japanese mythology. The biggest outermost doll would usually represent Fukurokuju, the Japanese god of happiness and longevity, with his distinct feature of an abnormally long forehead.

The Japanese nesting dolls soon found their way to Europe, ending up in the hands of a wealthy art patron named Savva Mamontov around 1890. Mamontov and his artist, Sergei Maliutin, with the help of master craftsman Vassily Zviozdochkin, created the first European set of nesting dolls, turning them into a symbol for the Slavic people and representing their beliefs, principles, and values.

Today, Matryoshka dolls are still completely handmade, with over 80% of the dolls worldwide coming from a single factory in the city of Semyonov. The dolls are made of the highest-quality Lime wood, and the process of creating them involves hand lathing by a master craftsman, stacking and priming with potato paste, and hand-painting by skilled artists.

The Matryoshka dolls have become a cherished European tradition, representing values such as respect for the elderly, unity of the family, fertility, abundance, and the search for truth and the substance of life. These beautiful handmade dolls have become the stuff of legends among people who value their meaning and symbolism, making them a truly meaningful gift of love, care, and warmth.

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