Zhostovo. Waiting for a miracle

Secrets of the Zhostovo production.

Praying fervently to God
The master sat down at the oak table.

What was needed for the production? To create the Zhostovo tray, a blacksmith (forge), a puttyer (primer) and a painter (draftsman) were required.

And in the hands of a piece of sky
Cleverly knocked out of iron.
Blacksmith. From sheet iron, with scissors cut out sheets of the desired shape and size. The cut iron was knocked out with a wooden hammer on a cast-iron plate corresponding to the shape and size of the future tray. The shapes of the trays were quite varied: rectangular, round, oval, "guitar" or octagonal. The size also varied: small - "saucer", medium - "basin" and giant - "tablecloth". The side also demanded attention from the blacksmith, was knocked out with a chisel and could be “simple” or wavy - “winged”.


The first strokes are hazy -
The artist outlines the path.

Putty putty. First, I covered the tray with varnish and sent it to the drying oven with t-60-80˚.
Zhostov's most important secret is varnish! Until the end, its composition has not yet been solved! But, nevertheless, it is known that the main mystery was in one of the main ingredients. This copal is a natural resin of African or Asian origin. Presumably, he was bought at trade fairs from visiting merchants. The composition of "black" or "crystal" varnish was worth its weight in gold! It was a very special oil varnish, "which does not crack on iron, copper and wood, and with which no varnishes made in Russia can compare in kindness and strength, even the most English varnish surpasses and equals Chinese." And on top of that, this varnish, "when it dries well in a hot oven, then how the mirror becomes." In other words, it depended on the varnish whether the painting would darken or retain its blooming appearance and mirror surface.
Trays covered with natural plant lacquer, time was not worth it. When the tray was dry, it was handed over to the painter.

And the second ones are long-awaited -
They bloom with wild paint.

Painter. Makes the background and paints the tray. The main background of the Zhostov trays is black, but it can also be colored (red, blue, golden, ivory). The artist's tool is soft squirrel brushes. The master writes exclusively from imagination - there are no samples. It is worth going outside the outskirts, and there is a fragrant meadow forbs, ripe berries are poured with juice, birds are chirping in the branches of trees and so on. The tray is constantly rotated during work, which helps to examine the painting from all sides and evaluate the composition from different points. The master works on one tray for 14 days. The "highlight" of the Zhostovo painting is the smear - it is put in several steps and is called "long", while it should be generously thick, round and elastic. It is the stroke that gives volume to the famous Zhostovo bouquet, allowing literally each flower to convey its fragrance to us ...

Who dared to spread on a tray
such bright flowers?

The ancient painting technique is performed in several stages:
"Blurring" or "Waltz of the Flowers". This is the first layer of paint. First, with the handle of a brush, the artist marks for himself the location of the stems of the bouquet, then with a wide brush on the black surface of the tray he sketches a floral dance, sketches silhouettes of flowers and leaves and "beautifully" assembles them into bouquets. These "painted" trays are oven dried for several hours.
"Tenezhka". This is followed by the application of shadows over a dry coating with glazing * paints.
* Glazing (from the German lasierung) - thin transparent or translucent layers of paints that are applied in a very thin layer over the dried paint layer.
"Gasket". This word means prescription - "sculpting" of light places with the same colors, but with the addition of white. This technique is also called dense corpus writing. The lighter body is superimposed on top of the shadows and is called the "spacer". (What did you think? :)) -
"Blikovka". On top of the "gasket" glares are superimposed, which reveal the volume.
"Drawing". Petals and leaves, veins, stamens and pistils, and even tiny seeds in flower cups are easily outlined with the very small tip of a soft squirrel brush.
"Snap". Closing letter. Swirl patterns of "tendrils" and grasses, painted in green or brown paint on the free areas of the background between the flowers and leaves of the bouquet.
The side of the tray is also painted with gold ornaments. The ornamentalist draftsmen affectionately call him diminutive words: write "tambourines", "Christmas trees", "Christmas trees with a broom", "grass", "horns", "little rain", "twigs", "flowers", "ribbons".

When the finishing is finished, the Zhostovo craftsmen say - the tray is "open"!