Students enjoy Russian Clay Workshop

As part of Wellbeing Week, some of our pupils took part in a traditional Russian Clay workshop. Pupils saw a small exhibition of handmade clay toys, sculptures and whistles from the best artists in the field from different regions of Russia such as Filimonovo (Tula Oblast), Abashevo (Penza Oblast), Hludnevo (Kaluga Oblast) and Kargopol (Arkhangelsk Oblast).

The pupils then enjoyed a lecture from the author of the project Oksana Sekatcheva PhD about the history of clay toys, their unusual shapes and silhouettes, cheerful colours, symbolic patterns, meanings and functions. Historically toys were meant to entertain, educate, to protect their owners against evil spirits and to make our life better and brighter. Pupils then had a go at clay modelling and they painted their own whistle in authentic Russian style of Filimonovo.