Toymaking

I will post these again when they’re finished, but I started today on my Russian nesting doll project (after about a month of nervously wondering whether my order from Russia would actually arrive). It’s a ten part set based on I know an Old Lady, put together in the order of the song so it can be sung as the set is disassembled. Here’s a shot of my sketches for it —

i-know-an-old-lady.jpg

I know an old lady who swallowed a cow,
I wonder how she swallowed a cow?!
She swallowed the cow to catch the goat,
She swallowed the goat to catch the dog,
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat,
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider,
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly,
I don’t know why she swallowed the fly,
I guess she’ll die.

I know an old lady who swallowed a horse,
She’s dead, of course!!

The last line in the song is why the innermost piece is a tiny little skull. The smallest ones (the cow and the horse) don’t look like much in my sketch, I know, but they will be quite cute when I’ve had a chance to paint them.

30 Comments

  1. Amy wrote:

    Wow, it is quite wonderful to see so much creativity! Will Nefarious paint them along side you? Or will you paint them for her?

    Wednesday, October 3, 2007 at 9:50 pm | Permalink
  2. Shannon wrote:

    Nefarious has a set that she’s working on as well.

    Wednesday, October 3, 2007 at 9:57 pm | Permalink
  3. Alex wrote:

    what method/ type of paint are you going to use on these??
    i think they are addorable and ahve allwasy wanted to make my own nesting dolls!!

    Wednesday, October 3, 2007 at 10:56 pm | Permalink
  4. Shannon wrote:

    I’ll probably paint them with acrylics and then do some sort of glossy top coat.

    Wednesday, October 3, 2007 at 11:16 pm | Permalink
  5. TheWomanMonster wrote:

    those are fantastic, I’d love to see finished photos of both yours and Nefarious’ :)

    Thursday, October 4, 2007 at 12:13 am | Permalink
  6. annonamiss wrote:

    that little one is super small. what are the dimensions of it? i saw that you had posted about these before and was going to get some for my baby, but i didnt realize they were so small. (not that id have to give them all to her of course..)

    Thursday, October 4, 2007 at 12:29 am | Permalink
  7. I have a real set. I suppose I could take a shot of them… as you may or may not know I am Russian Orthodox and that is part of our culture. I helped sew aprons with Matrushka dolls on them for our upcoming holiday bazaar. I take it Nefarious is your daughter?

    Thursday, October 4, 2007 at 2:34 am | Permalink
  8. estrojenn wrote:

    you seriously do the coolest stuff with your daughter.

    Thursday, October 4, 2007 at 8:04 am | Permalink
  9. Shannon wrote:

    The smallest one is tiny… Something like 3/8″ to 1/2″ I think.

    Thursday, October 4, 2007 at 9:34 am | Permalink
  10. Amanda wrote:

    Thought this online discussion at Walrus might be of interest to you in terms of recent explorations into vertical farming:

    https://walrusmagazine.com/alpha.php

    Thursday, October 4, 2007 at 9:35 am | Permalink
  11. mandy wrote:

    that’s definitely a hobby i can get behind. now i’m wondering about my own ideas for nesting dolls. maybe a large man disappearing down to a tiny skeleton a bit al’a Thinner.

    Thursday, October 4, 2007 at 11:31 am | Permalink
  12. Wldfire_1 wrote:

    What a great project! I cant wait to see the finished product!!! :) I didnt know you could get blanks, thats awesome!

    Thursday, October 4, 2007 at 11:48 am | Permalink
  13. cirrin wrote:

    What a fun idea!

    Thursday, October 4, 2007 at 12:13 pm | Permalink
  14. I second what estrojenn, what a pen name says, in fact it motivates me to be more artistic, and I am trying to produce art for the market, as well as do more with my daughter.

    Thursday, October 4, 2007 at 2:01 pm | Permalink
  15. iam_me wrote:

    haha. i was just singing that song to my girlfriend the other day when she complained of having a stomach ache. she thought i was crazy. i thought everyone knew that song.

    Thursday, October 4, 2007 at 3:28 pm | Permalink
  16. crystal wrote:

    these are treasure

    Thursday, October 4, 2007 at 6:51 pm | Permalink
  17. annonamiss wrote:

    can you please post the link again to where you ordered those?
    thanks!

    Thursday, October 4, 2007 at 11:55 pm | Permalink
  18. p7tms wrote:

    There you go again… being all creative :)
    You never cease to amaze me with all your creations :)

    Friday, October 5, 2007 at 2:42 am | Permalink
  19. NakedSilence wrote:

    Wow, that’s absoloutely gorgeous! Adorable! haha

    Friday, October 5, 2007 at 4:48 am | Permalink
  20. hitonihi' wrote:

    Noníí! I can’t wait to see the finished sets :)

    Friday, October 5, 2007 at 8:16 pm | Permalink
  21. sabi wrote:

    this has made my day.
    not many people seem to remember/know that rhyme..it was one of my favourites growing up, and still continues to be.

    i sometimes catch myself humming the tune to it or singing it under my breath to myself…

    i was taught it the other way around though..starting with the fly, working its way up from there, not down from the cow to the fly, and instead of -I know an old lady- ive always sang it as -There was an old lady..-

    thats one thing ive always loved about old rhymes and nursery tales, so many variations.

    thank you for sharing, shannon, youve made my day.

    Saturday, October 6, 2007 at 6:13 am | Permalink
  22. Toni wrote:

    surely these are in the wrong order? Or the cat would be catching the dog which is catching the goat etc

    Sunday, October 7, 2007 at 2:15 pm | Permalink
  23. ImInNarnia wrote:

    Oh wow, those are so frigging cute! I have some nesting dolls from Ukraine and Russia my dad gave me when I was little (he traveled a lot so I got a lot of guilt-fueled presents), but those are much more personal.

    Sunday, October 7, 2007 at 3:41 pm | Permalink
  24. Elizabeth wrote:

    *HUG*

    Sunday, October 7, 2007 at 4:02 pm | Permalink
  25. Mr. Gone wrote:

    hey p7tms….. havent heared from you in a while

    Monday, October 8, 2007 at 12:26 am | Permalink
  26. manini wrote:

    Here is where you can get a set of 5 nesting dolls… different from the ones posted above…

    https://www.thewurstgallery.com/shop.html

    My daughter is saving her money to buy herself a set, she is so excited. I look forward to seeing yours finished :)

    Tuesday, October 9, 2007 at 2:19 pm | Permalink
  27. TbIKBA wrote:

    shannon
    you might be amused to look at this

    https://www.artlebedev.com/everything/matryoshkus/

    cheers

    Thursday, October 11, 2007 at 5:47 pm | Permalink
  28. hitonihi' wrote:

    *geek-squee* Тыква, that’s awesome!

    Sunday, October 14, 2007 at 12:22 pm | Permalink
  29. Bryan wrote:

    https://www.purcifuls-toys.com/setof10blanr.html

    https://thewurstgallery.com/shop.html

    https://www.goldencockerel.com/shoprussian.asp?c=Nesting%20Dolls

    Wednesday, October 31, 2007 at 11:34 am | Permalink
  30. jessica wrote:

    i have a small nesting doll collection. i live in alaska, and being so close to russia, they are pretty common here.

    Friday, November 2, 2007 at 12:18 pm | Permalink

2 Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. [...] was asked how my Russian Doll project is coming. I must admit that it’s coming slowly because it takes me so much effort to paint [...]

  2. I Need More Life » Blog Archive » Two more to go… on Wednesday, November 28, 2007 at 9:38 pm

    [...] eyes are so going to fall out of their head! Continued work on my “I know an old lady who swallowed a fly“ nesting dolls — from left to right (click to zoom), the spider, the bird, the cat, the [...]

Wow Shannon, that's really annoying! What is it, 1997 on Geocities? Retroweb is NOT cool!

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