Designer Yaroslav Rassadin is re-imagining a 120 year old traditional handicraft from Russia, the matryoshka.

The Matryoshka, or Russian nesting dolls, date back to 1890. Traditionally hand painted with ornate detailing and a dynamic range of colors, Rassadin's take on the classic Russian nesting dolls was inspired by a combination of the "Pantone matching system and UFO minimalistic styling." His work has been described as "emotional, minimalistic and technological."

History Of the Matryoshka

Matryoshkas are a relatively new Russian handicraft; the first one dates from 1890, and is said to have been inspired by souvenir dolls from Japan. However, the concept of nested objects was familiar in Russia, having been applied to carved wooden apples and Easter eggs; the first Fabergé egg, in 1885, had a nesting of egg, yolk, hen, and crown.

The story goes that Sergei Maliutin, a painter from a folk crafts workshop in the Abramtsevo estate of a famous Russian industrialist and patron of arts Savva Mamontov, saw a set of Japanese wooden dolls representing Shichi-fuku-jin, the Seven Gods of Fortune. The largest doll was that of Fukurokuju - a happy, bald god with an unusually tall chin - and within it nested the six remaining deities. Inspired, Maliutin drew a sketch of a Russian version of the toy. It was carved by Vasiliy Zvezdochkin in a toy workshop in Sergiyev Posad and painted by Sergei Maliutin. It consisted of eight dolls; the outermost was a girl in an apron, then the dolls alternated between boy and girl, with the innermost – a baby.
-Wikipedia

More Photos of Traditional Matryoshka

Photos from: yasmapaz, whitogreen, xana-antunes, squeakywheel and Wikipedia