English version Gerasimova Svetlana Anatolyevna “The Samara Lefthander – 2008”
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Герасимова Светлана Анатольевна - "Самарский Левша-2008"
The magic salty dough. “Samara Lefthander – 2008”
A master class of Svetlana Anatolyevna Gerasimova
Gerasimova S.V. works at our school already more than ten years. She is the methodologist of the school museum “Russian House”. Svetlana Anatolyevna is a very keen and busy person. Her day is distributed to hours but despite that Svetlana Anatolyevna has kindly agreed to give us an interview. Our meeting took place it her small workshop.
-Svetlana Anatolyevna, tell us, please, how long ago did you start to deal with the salty dough?
Svetlana Anatolyevna: - Hello! About 10 years ago. Everything began with the salty dough articles - fruit vases made of bread. “The further to the wood - the more fire woods” - then there were figures of animals, birds, people. And then there were candlesticks, baskets, wreaths, volume and plane, sitting and standing, on a basis and independent; and then pictures, compositions of a large size. There isn’t an end. The coming year of the Bull has brought many ideas into the plots of the pictures: “The Cow in Flowers”, “The New Year’s Moonlight Night”, “A Bull carrying Europe through the ocean”, and many other things.
-Why did you begin to work with the salty dough?
Svetlana Anatolyevna: - The work with the salty dough gives you a lot of possibilities of self-expression, gives a big charge of energy and corresponds very much to that is especially close to me. It is a basten style, playful, with an easy smile, cheering you up (a bus comment BASTEN STYLE (from bass, bark) – a Russian national craft. At first there were “printed with the bass paper”, i.e. a hand-made print on wood that was there the name from. Under another version the sellers of national pictures carried them in wooden boxes, therefore they got the name of basses. Those were widely circulated in the XVII century. The art style of basten pictures represented the main features of national, naive art. The pictures were very simple, plane, elementally decorative, allegorical witty, conventionalized and with general forms. The prints were often painted by hand; the pictures were supplemented with explaining inscriptions. The art of a national popular print developed in interaction with Russian national wood painting, fancy-work. The volume of goods, their various forms, sizes, subjects, colour decisions gives a chance to carry out a plenty of different ideas. If we compare the dough and the plasticine and clay, there are some advantages in it: it is ecological, hygienic and even aesthetic. The dough is pleasant in work, very plastic, flexible, it is possible to do without baking the articles.
-Who has taught you, or have you learnt this craft without any help?
Svetlana Anatolyevna:-I have learnt it myself, as well as many things in my life: dancing, yoga, sewing, knitting, drawing, playing the bayan, the piano, the domra, the balalaika – but it is already my conservatory which I had finished in 1980.
- What does this craft mean for you?
Svetlana Anatolyevna:-First, it is a hobby. Secondly, it is a dialogue with the world, with the following consequences: to create good, beauty, to invite to the dialogue and discussion at the level of beauty and art. Thirdly, it is a hobby which turned into a craft; it demands the transference of it and with it of the good to our children.
- Do you have a technology?
Svetlana Anatolyevna:-Of course, I have a technology. Much of it comes from the experience; there are various ways of cultivation, application of everything that is at hand: buttons, knives, plugs, spoons, the toothpicks, all possible varnishes, any other subjects, graters and the hair dryers. There are also many receptions, for example, with additional planes, with various kinds of supports and gluing. Just recently one more way of the volume figures cultivation appeared, where after getting dry the volume filled with other material (salt, newspaper) is taken off, thereby a volume figure is facilitated and the means (flour, salt) are saved.
- How do your children treat your hobbies?
Svetlana Anatolyevna: - My children admire me. They have accepted this hobby with delight and understanding. They appreciate the ready articles and enjoy them, as well as me.
-Do you children help you? Do they give you any ideas? Do they take part in the work?
Svetlana Anatolyevna:-Yes, they do. They are near me, they support me in work, give me art promptings, as though they join the process of creation.
-Do you consider yourself a creator, an artist, while making a hand-made article from the dough?
Svetlana Anatolyevna:-At leisure time I like to work with plants and with the ground, I enjoy very much knitting with spokes and a hook. I like to sew. I sew everything from underwear to winter clothes. 75% of my clothes are made by my hands.
-Do you long to glory?
Svetlana Anatolyevna:-Glory itself does not interest me, but I’m interested in that glory which inspires me to create my spiritual beauty.
- Would you like to found a school of the salty dough and why?
Svetlana Anatolyevna:-Yes, I would, very much, and not only a school, but also a real workshop with all the necessary instruments of production. I see huge possibilities of the salty dough, but the results of this craft are less evident than those of any other activity.
-While creating a new hand-made article, do you do your best?
Svetlana Anatolyevna:- Before starting any work, I see some images, ideas and pictures in my mind. I don’t know where they come from, but I know exactly I should carry them out as soon as possible. I cannot eat and sleep for a long time unless I gratify people with my articles.
- What do you do at school №79?
Svetlana Anatolyevna:- I am a methodologist and the head of the school museum “Russian House”. My 15 pupils have received the certificate of a guide. 10 years ago the museum was one of the best amongst the museums of this kind. It was considered as a base for heads of this direction that began a similar work at schools.
- How do you consider yourself in future and what are your ideas for the future?
Svetlana Anatolyevna:- I can not imagine myself without the future, without this creative power. Wherever I am, whatever my age is, at any circumstances I’ll always find forces for creation an eternally alive and always joyful branch of my life.
- What would you wish to your audience?
Svetlana Anatolyevna:- Never be afraid of beginning something new. Give yourself a chance to embody the desires and dreams in something new and unknown. Try to grow fondness of the salty dough just like me and you will understand that your imagination do not have borders.
We did not notice as time had flown by. It seemed to us, that the conversation had lasted for some minutes, but actually it was time to leave - Svetlana Anatolyevna’s pupils were waiting for her. And we left with a desire to begin something new and we were overflowed with a huge feeling of pride that such a creative and fine person works at our school.
--Lapshov Ivan 22:05, December, 13th 2008 (SAMT)
